Highly Satisfied Customers
Eight Steps to Improving Customer
Satisfaction
in Your Company
Summary
Please…sorry…thank you. Is this all there
is to effective customer service? Maybe for some the
answer is yes, but others believe this couldn’t be
further from the truth. From reading into the stance of a
customer to following specific steps when dealing with a
displeased client—many believe that the formula for
success in this ultra-important aspect of business
isn’t that easy to find.
And while no one way has been proven
more or less effective, Linda LeFebvre, director of
administration at the Ashburn Ice House, believes she has
found one effective method. Her technique, a process
consisting of eight steps, leads not only to satisfied
customers and increased business for your company, but
also to a more fulfilled staff. Read on to see how
LeFebvre has employed these simple steps at her small
company—maybe some might work for you too.
Bottom line benefits in this unsure economy
can weigh heavily on the minds of top managers and line
employees alike. But, with the struggle to keep up while
trying to find a way to excel past competition, it is
important to remember all facets of business can affect
the success or downfall of any company. While many may
place focus solely on profits, one aspect that must
receive attention from any company is customer service.
After all, without customers where would any organization
be? Maybe your main customer base is a company to which
you supply products, maybe it comes from face to face
interactions with a variety of the general public.
Regardless, keeping them happy may be the key to
surpassing competition and enduring through economic
hardship.
Customer service can pose any number of
problems when searching for quantitative results, and
many have voiced their opinions on what the true key is
to effective, successful customer service. Perhaps it is
best to pick and choose from different techniques to find
a system that works best for your company. Linda LeFebvre
has done just that. After spending several years working
for netASPx, a consulting company headquartered in
Herndon, Vt., LeFebvre made the move to Ashburn Ice House
where she is the director of administration. At this ice
skating rink, LeFebvre employs her knowledge base and
skills with a smaller company.
“I made the move because I felt
too many small businesses suffer from not having the
infrastructure and support that large companies
have,” LeFebvre states. “I am hoping to bring
corporate level training and methodologies to the small
business arena, helping them to achieve higher financial
goals and work to become an ‘employer of
choice.’” What is the key to success? For
LeFebvre, it comes down to eight easy steps—all of
which combine to create a comprehensive, practical
approach to customer service.
Where it All Begins
In the beginning, the important thing is to truly know
the employees who interact with your company’s
various customers. Not everyone will have the same
strengths and not everyone will have the same weaknesses.
Finding out where employees differ can help to create
employee-customer relationships that will complement each
other and lead to lasting, lucrative
associations.
“I like to take people who have
certain niche talents and focus them on specific problems
we may have with clients,” LeFebvre states.
“This way the client is getting someone who is very
focused in the area that they are having issues
in.”
To gain a general perspective of a
staff’s varying personalities, LeFebvre conducts
basic personality tests, but recognizes the importance of
not relying solely on these results. And the only way to
truly get a perspective of the qualities unique to each
individual, face-to-face interaction is a must.
“People must make time to know as much about their
employees as they can,” LeFebvre states. “It
is important to know what their objectives and goals are
in business, along with as much as they wish to share
about personal events in their lives so you can celebrate
them or make accommodations for them where there are
issues.”
The eight steps to improving customer
satisfaction:
- Get to know employees who interact with
customers.
- Get to know some of your customers—one on
one.
- Match employees and customers who will make a
good “fit” together.
- Everyone has to know how to read nonverbal
languages.
- Employees need to know how to handle conflict
with customers.
- Back up employees with training, empowerment,
and a “safety net.”
- Give employees a role in designing their
job—to increase their pride and fun in
work.
- Do the seven above and then enjoy the
ride.
After gaining adequate knowledge of
employees’ personalities, the next important step
is to do the same with your customers—whose
personality traits and idiosyncrasies can be just as
complex as a staff’s. It is important to know them
and what type of customer they are to cater your service
in a way that works specifically to each situation.
“The hard part about a customer is to be able to
recognize that people who will be in the same vertical of
business will always feel they do things
uniquely—and each is a little different,”
LeFebvre says. “I think that it is essential to
recognize that, and to make them feel
special.”
To get a true picture of who your
customer is, start by learning as much about his or her
industry that you can. Not only will this allow for
perspective and understanding of what the customer does,
it will also help to create a connection between what
you’re providing them with and how it will fit into
their world. With this base knowledge, move on to
learning how the customer conducts
business.
“Some people are straight
shooters,” states LeFebvre. “They want direct
answers; they don’t want any fluff. Others need to
be comforted and guided, and you need to spend a long
enough time with them to feel how they operate—both
as a person and as a business.”
After learning an adequate amount about
customers and staff, it’s time to combine the
two—this step may be harder than it looks. For
example, if there is an outstanding employee who excels
in the areas of motivation, speed, and accuracy, he or
she might be the perfect fit for a fast-paced customer.
But if the customer is more interested in receiving
personalized service, the wise move would be to pair him
or her with an employee whose strengths focus on
interpersonal, long-lasting
relationships.
The Unspoken Word
Knowing the employee, knowing the customer and pairing
them effectively is only half the battle. There are
countless aspects that can have a significant effect on
these relationships, perhaps without even realizing it.
Step four encourages companies to recognize the
effectiveness of subtle, nonverbal cues.
“That’s a big issue for
me,” LeFebvre says. “So much of communication
in my mind is nonverbal—everything from posture and
facial expression to eye contact.” And LeFebvre
practices what she preaches. By training her staff and
conducting a series of exercises, she helps to make them
aware and more capable of picking-up on these quiet cues.
While recognizing the importance of all cues, LeFebvre is
looking for specifics: “It’s not just the
standard, ‘if someone crosses their arms
they’re getting defensive.’ There’s
just more to it. You must be really aware of when someone
is getting agitated or notice when someone is starting to
shift their weight back and forth.” Among others
LeFebvre pays special attention to tone of voice,
believing that this can be the easiest to pick up on, as
long as employees are willing to really
listen.
“We get so caught up in defending
our position or stating the policy,” LeFebvre
states, “that sometimes we just don’t even
listen well enough to hear if someone is coming across
assertively or aggressively, or if they are just purely
frustrated.”
In the fifth step, employees must learn
how to handle conflict—an aspect of business that,
while sometimes uncomfortable, will almost always arise.
LeFebvre finds it interesting that many employers will
assume that people come naturally equipped to deal with
irate customers. But the natural human response to become
defensive appears ineffective. Only when employees are
trained can they be expected to react in a more
productive manner. “I do think it’s
counterproductive to think that someone inherently knows
how to deal with conflict,” LeFebvre states.
“It is something that needs to be taught no
differently than how you would have a procedure to handle
a piece of software that’s not functioning
correctly. There should be training for people to
understand how to handle those
circumstances.”
One of LeFebvre’s most effective
tactics to diffuse a conflict-filled situation is to use
one simple phrase: “Thank you.” Thanking the
customer for summoning the courage to come forward with
bad news and for telling the truth will generally ease
the immediate tension. After thanking the customer, it is
important to follow this up with sincere listening.
“Be empathic to their situation,” LeFebvre
states. “Try to put yourself in their shoes. Often,
the simple task of listening, truly listening, instead of
putting up the defensive mode and going forth with your
perspective alone is enough.”
Making it Work
The sixth step in creating an environment conducive to
effective customer service is to make sure employees are
happy. Providing all employees with necessary training
and nurturing along with backing, empowerment, and a
safety net, will help in creating the confidence in
employees that is necessary to really get the job done.
One way LeFebvre accomplishes this goal is through truly
engaging her employees. To do this, she makes sure all
employees who will be involved in carrying out any given
policy or procedure are also involved in planning and
rolling out the policy. “My perception of how
business functions at a higher level may be in no way how
it is in reality,” states LeFebvre. “So, by
engaging them to be part of the process to define policy
and procedure, I get immediate
buy-in.”
The seventh step is simple: Have fun.
“I encourage everybody on my staff to enjoy their
jobs,” LeFebvre states. “Too much time is
spent at a job for you not to enjoy what you do.”
So, how does LeFebvre accomplish this? Not by playing
games or playing on a softball league; for her,
it’s by letting employees play an active part in
defining what their job is and where they would like for
it to go. Thereby creating a sense of pride in what they
do, all the while enjoying each other’s
company.
Sit Back and Enjoy the Ride
With seven of the eight steps incorporated into her
company, LeFebvre has just one step left: Reap the
benefits. “And that will naturally follow,”
LeFebvre contends. “Following these steps will
translate through your employee base to your customer
base and your customers will come back for
more.”
October 2001 News for a
Change Homepage
Issue Highlight —
A Day in the Life of a Fool
