How many words does it take for you to determine if the customer on the other end of the line is in a bad mood? One? Maybe two? You hear your customer’s voice and you can’t help but start to pass judgment on cranky old Mr. Miller. After the conversation is over, you turn to your co-worker and say, “You won’t believe the jerk I just spoke with!” Your teammate nods her head and smiles as she says, “Wait until I tell you about mine!” Before you know it, everyone is talking about their customer as that jerk or that idiot that needs to get some manners.
How many words
Healthy Customer Service
When the nurse told me my blood pressure was 120/70 I felt great. It seemed as if diet and exercise were paying off for me. To be honest, the only number I have paid any attention to is the high pressure reading. As long as I stay within the 120 range I am in great shape. The low number didn’t mean anything to me until a paramedic took my father-in-law’s blood pressure. When he said it was 90/30, I casually asked what the low number meant. The paramedic seemed alarmed as he shouted that he was bleeding somewhere. He told me that the lower the low number was, the more serious
Solid Detective Work Solves Service Issues
It was just a few minutes past 8:00 and already a customer was calling in to report that the trash had been missed. The customer service representative looked at the account and saw that the driver had documented that it was not out when he came by the day before. The CSR spoke in a cheerful voice as she told her customer that she failed to put the trash out on time. She offered to send the driver back this time as a courtesy. The customer was notably irritated as she defended herself and said that she always puts the trash out the night before. The CSR rolled her eyes and sighed as
In Pursuit of Roll-Off Sales
Customer service is trained and ready to sell your roll-off service when they hear people say they need a “big thing” for a project. They are quick to promote roll-off when someone is calling to ask about your weekly service, too. Where are the luscious roll-off sales you enjoyed in years past? The economy or the competition may have taken a toll, but maybe we have stopped looking for sales opportunities in less than obvious places.
Here are some easy things you can do to grow your roll-off sales now.
- Have the CSRs tally the number of calls they receive in a day by category; new roll-off, new commercial, new residential, switch-out, service issue/complaint, billing, cancellation and other. Have them do this for 3-5 days and look at your numbers. I recently conducted an audit like this and found that 28% of the calls were for new sales opportunities where the CSRs had been effectively trained to promote other services. 55% of the customer calls were for things where we would not traditionally promote roll-off and they included switch-outs, service issues/complaints and billing questions or payment. You need to have a strategy to promote roll-off for all types of customer calls.
- Calls to switch out a container are generally quick and easy. Consider asking your customers if they are working on any projects where they aren’t using you for roll-off now. That would be very insightful and should prompt more conversation. Create an incentive for those permanent roll-off customers who provide you with a referral.
- When a customer is calling to discuss or pay a bill, the CSR should do a commercial on roll-off before the conversation ends. If you are trying to build your e-mail addresses in the database, consider this approach, “Mr. Smith, we appreciate you as our customer and I would like to e-mail you a discount coupon towards our roll-off service. May I have your e-mail address?”
- Customers call about their service every day and sometimes there are simple solutions. Why not promote roll-off at the end of those conversations? For the more difficult service issue conversations, consider this approach, “Ms. Jones we appreciate your feedback and your willingness to work with us. I would like to send you a discount coupon for our roll-off service as a thank you. May I have your e-mail address?”
- What your staff does with the lead information from these unclosed roll-off opportunities is important to growing roll-off sales. Many CSRs say they keep notes in case the potential customer calls back. What usually happens is the customer’s information gets buried under other stuff and it is rarely used to follow up. Create an excel document that each CSR must complete daily that includes name, address, phone, e-mail, project and reason the sale wasn’t closed. It only takes a few minutes in a day for them to complete something like this. Tooty can help with scripting that addresses an objection to the sale which will help your staff develop more advanced selling skills. This excel document will make it easy to follow up on unclosed roll-off sales. Did you know that about 30% of those you call back will go ahead and have you schedule delivery?
- Outside sales people are often lax about promoting roll-off to their prospects. Many don’t understand that a new business may need to do construction before they are ready to open the doors. When working on retention, consider offering a discount coupon for future roll-off service as a thank you.
Your customer service department has the best opportunity to grow your roll-off
Prepare For the Unexpected With Good Organization
I was 20 when I began working for the CFO of a trucking company. Lou was responsible for the financial stability of the company and I was his bookkeeper, file clerk, administrative assistant and gopher. Lou had a unique filing system which involved stacking paper and file folders in piles on his desk, the credenza and all available floor space around him. I personally thought it was a mess and wanted to help Lou get his act together. I rolled up my sleeves and marched into his office to grab the first pile I came across. Lou was busy working on the month end reports and I doubted he
An Unforgettable Customer Experience Isn’t a Good Thing
I went out with some friends for a burger the other night to a chain restaurant that resembles a 50’s diner. The service was slow, but we didn’t mind because we were busy talking. When the burgers arrived, I took a big bite of mine and began to remove the paper wrapper so I could get more. I was quite surprised to find a rubber glove tucked inside. We waved to our bubbly waitress and showed her the obviously worn glove wrapped up with my beef patty. She looked shocked and said she wasn’t going to “touch this one” and went to get her manager. Barry showed up with a big smile
Re-Imagine Your Customer Service Standards For 2013
Excellence requires that we don’t rest on past achievements. The world pressures us to be bigger and better than the year before. We are constantly trying to out-perform or out-smart our competitors. We are directed to keep our eyes focused forward and warned that the past is full of useless and obsolete processes, technologies and people. However, there is great value in telling the story of past challenges and achievements because those stories define the heart and soul of your company and how it treats its customers. I want to introduce you to the 3-R’s of customer service design
Even Nice Employees Can Make Your Customer Mad
I thought I had everything timed perfectly. Dinner was simmering on the stove and I had 2 hours before our guests would arrive. I needed to make a quick run to the store and planned to be home within the hour. I thought I was quite lucky to get someone to help me right away. Tammy greeted me with a smile and asked how she could help. She was very nice! I explained what I needed and she said she could take care of it right away. She asked me for some of my account information and began to enter it in the computer. I sensed there was a problem when she started pounding on the enter key. She looked
Looking For Leaders in All the Wrong Places
I happened to meet a customer service manager recently who I will call Felix. The call center he is responsible for is experiencing turn-over, they are unable to manage the call volume and their mistakes are high. Felix is a great guy and he is a hard worker. Leadership is puzzled. Why is he failing as a customer service manager? Felix got the position as the manager because he had previous management experience and he knew someone at the company. He had not worked in a call center before and he had no experience in the industry. His lack of industry knowledge has become a disadvantage because
Office Morale Impacts Customer Service and Sales Efforts
I have a friend who works in a doctor’s office. She mentioned to me that the doctor fixed a couple of her toes the other day and I joked with her as I asked if the
procedure was done at her desk. She laughed as she said I was pretty close to the truth. Not only did she have the office phone with her during the surgery to answer incoming calls, but she also assisted in her own surgery. This bad behavior from her boss didn’t happen overnight. It started out with, “Can you help me out this one time” and “Could you do me a favor”? Before she knew it she was picking up his dry
