Developing Excellent Customer Service

According to Phillip Crosby, management guru, "Put dedicated people in a flawed process and the process wins every time."

At Everson Consulting we focus our efforts on the basics of success: Planning - Organizing - Controlling. We don't get enamored with the latest Fad of the Month (FOTM). We want to help your people, your processes, and your technologies to exceed customers' expectations.

According to Karl Albrecht, “If you aren't serving the customer you better be serving someone who is.”

Now comes the real question. Has customer service gotten better, has it stayed about the same, or has it gotten worse? Most people sadly report that it has gotten worse. In fact, our research confirms that service levels have stayed about the same over the past many years. What has changed is our “expectations”.

Everson Consulting has a long history of customer service training. We have identified four areas that stand out when customers define their expectations. We call them The 4 P’s of Service:

	Professional - your look, your feel, your mood, your manner, your words, your office. They all speak volumes.
	Positive - a positive mental attitude, "PMA", is a must, even if the customer isn't always right. You can only control you.
	Personal - we need to show the customer that they are the most important person in the world.
	Present - even “difficult” customers should get an initial hall pass. They may just be having the ultimate “bad day.”

Every customer service interaction, be it with an external customer, a "customer" from another department, or your office mate, follows a very strict script. The words may vary, the feelings may differ, but the steps occur every time.

Emotion - if we have positive emotion in place we have the likelihood of a positive customer service interaction.
Logic and Reason - once the emotion is in place we can move on to the logic/reason for the interaction. Negative emotion can creep back in at anytime, so be alert. You may have to revisit Step 1 several times before you are able to resolve step 2.
Emotion - this is the final step and it is often overlooked. You are now able to determine whether you were able to “satisfy” the customer, or determine what it will take to “WOW” the customer, creating a loyal supporter.

Finally, customer service is really about one-on-one interaction. To better understand the relationship, (and to always maintain a professional presence), we teach from an "oldie but goodie" model: the parent-adult-child roles of transactional analysis.

We "win" when we are able to interact in an "adult to adult" manner

We lose when we as Customer Service Professionals act like a "parent" or a "child"

We can’t “control” the customer but we can sure create an environment where 98% of the people are at least “satisfied."

Our goal at Everson Consulting is to create “loyal” customers. They become your strongest allies.

Resource. Go Here to download a series of articles (pdf file - 1.18 mb) I wrote on Customer Service for the Student Financial Aid industry. Regardless of industry or work settings the general principles outlined in these articles apply.

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