Many people consider polling or customer surveys to be corrupted or useless. There are 3 good reasons for this. First, we understand that questions and answers can be manipulated to get the responses the organization wants to see in order to push out data in a marketing campaign. Second, those who participate in a survey have biases: for or against something. In customer satisfaction surveys, for example, some admit they would never give anyone a perfect score: even if the representative’s performance was flawless. Third, others do an evaluation based on
call monitoring
Making Waves in Customer Service
It is such an honor for us here at Tooty to interact with and listen to so many amazing customer service representatives each month. Whether we are making old fashioned secret shopper calls or evaluating recorded customer calls for our clients, we find some amazing experts who also love interacting with their customers.
Those who are bi-lingual representatives and switch from one language to another throughout their day are exceptional and I had the opportunity to showcase one of the best bi-lingual representatives in Canada during a recent presentation to sales and marketing students at Chicago-based
Thankfulness
Lori Miller, President, Tooty Inc.
When I reflect on each person that makes up our team here at Tooty, I am thankful on a deep level. I know how 2020 has affected them, what they have had to overcome, and the super-human effort required to produce an excellent product every day.
Every organization has a similar testimony of their team’s resilience, persistence and unity. I reached out to some of our Tooty customers who were more than willing to share why they are so thankful for their teams. Be encouraged.
Pamela, New Mexico
I am thankful how the team has come together and even though we are physically distanced we are
Training Your Second-String Customer Service Team
Summer vacations leave your office short-handed. Often-times you find you must recruit someone to help with the phones who has not been trained or who isn’t working in customer service for a reason! Customers tend to wait on hold longer when you aren’t fully staffed, and they are likely to get incorrect information or incomplete help which generates additional calls. Training your second-string customer service representatives allows you to utilize your personnel more effectively and to be prepared for anything that affects customer care.
Tooty Secret Shopper Calls and employee performance evaluation scores do reveal what your customers are experiencing right now. My conversations with managers during June and July revealed that untrained back-up Customer Service and Sales representatives are causing more harm than good.
Selecting your second-string players
In a perfect world everyone within the office would be ready, willing and able to back-up customer service or sales. Use this check-list as you consider who your second-string players should be:
- Must have a nice voice
- Must love our customers and people in general
- Can step away from other duties to talk with customers
- Is a team player
Training your second-string players
No one performs well when they are thrown into something without training and practice. Training should begin 1-2 weeks before you expect the person to start taking calls, but it doesn’t have to take 1-2 weeks. The best process to develop someone who has helped in the past or who is new to customer service or sales should include:
- Side-by-side training with your best representative where he/she can hear the conversation and observe how the technology is used. Let the individual handle customer calls
I Hate Scripts
You and I have heard the declaration “I hate scripts!” more than once. We aren’t going to dwell on why you or someone you work with might get angry at the mention of a script. I want to point out what you and your team are missing when these great tools are left to gather dust on the corner of the desk.
Celebrating an individual’s improvement
Hunter is a CSR at the Orlando District and she has been with Waste Connections for almost a year. Her Tooty scores were up and down and she was frustrated by the scripts. During our coaching session together, she shared that she was frustrated by all the words on the script along with trying to figure out which one applied to the call at hand. We reviewed the residential and commercial existing customer scripts and she created her own version to use. It was a check list that applied to any customer calling. Hunter said, “I created this one to ensure I get all the information first, then I can determine which script I need so I’m not looking all over the place and losing my mind because of how different each one is laid out.” Hunter took initiative in creating a tool that would work for her. It had all the components of the full scripts, but visually it worked better for her because there were less words to look at. After using the new script, she gained confidence and found that it worked well for her and her customers. Hunter is happy to share the results of working with a script and not against it. “Thank you so much for helping me tweak it to fit my brain!! Just thought you should know your suggestion has worked for me marvelously and the underdog is going for the gold now J The last 2 tooties I had I received 100 % score on!”
For all you managers out there, this is what Hunter’s manager, Julia wants you to know.
“I decided to try the (Tooty) coaching. My job is to provide every opportunity for success for the folks who report to me. I try to accomplish that on my own, but I know that everyone learns differently and is motivated in different ways. These Tooty sessions are another tool for us that is clearly effective. I would be crazy not to tap into the mother-load as it were! Go straight to the source and get some coaching/teaching!!! It has clearly made a difference and reminds me to entertain all available options in the pursuit of success.”
Creating Scripting to Make More Sales
When I received an e-mail from an office manager with the subject “accidental sales” I was intrigued. Hilary, the Office Manager of Salina Waste in Kansas, had noticed that city customers call every day asking about bulk pick up or other service needs. She said, “
I would like to have a script or guidelines on how to navigate a phone call that wasn’t originally meant for our company. When city of Salina customers call, it would be great
Inspiration for Sales and Customer Service Teams
Where does your inspiration come from? Let me be more specific. Where do you go for fresh ideas to motivate your team? Possibly you have had a rough month or two with weather related heartaches, price increases, technology or attendance issues. For some of you it has been all of the above! Some of you are watching your team’s performance scores like a hawk and others are in a rebuilding phase and want to finish the 4th quarter well so that they can build momentum for 2018. I had the honor of interviewing 3 Customer Service Managers who have invested time and tears in shaping excellent customer service representatives, and in some cases, turning around their teams. They have some great ideas to share which should inspire you to do something different with your team as you press towards the finish line for 2017.
Charelle is ex-military and she ran her team with the chain of command approach and had distanced herself from the individuals on her team. When the team was not achieving their goals, she re-evaluated what she was doing and adjusted her management style. She intentionally got involved with each person on a personal level and noticed that when she showed she cared, everyone performed better.
Unique motivation and rewards:
1) Individuals earn wings for every 100 Tooty score and they compete to see who has the most.
2) When customer service representatives, CSRs, achieve their 10th 100 score they are rewarded with a great lunch along with a letterman’s jacket.
3) They love games and frequently play Tooty bingo with a reward of a gift card for the winner. They spent 8 months playing Wheel of Fortune and if a CSR received a 100 score she would have 5 seconds to guess a letter and 10 seconds to solve the puzzle. The winner received a $250.00 gift card.
Rohannah has a big customer service department and moving their average performance score up by 10 points this year has been a monumental accomplishment for all of them. She has created 2 teams within the department led by her 2 lead CSRs. They created smaller teams of 3 individuals who take turns role-playing and scoring each other every month to make sure that when they talk to customers they are doing their best.
Unique motivation and rewards:
1) Parking is a big deal. The individual with the best monthly performance score and year-to-date-average will have the CSR of the Month Parking spot close to the door!
Charelle is ex-military and she ran her team with the chain of command approach and had distanced herself from the individuals on her team. When the team was not achieving their goals, she re-evaluated what she was doing and adjusted her management style. She intentionally got involved with each person on a personal level and noticed that when she showed she cared, everyone performed better.
Unique motivation and rewards:
1) Individuals earn wings for every 100 Tooty score and they compete to see who has the most.
2) When customer service representatives, CSRs, achieve their 10th 100 score they are rewarded with a great lunch along with a letterman’s jacket.
3) They love games and frequently play Tooty bingo with a reward of a gift card for the winner. They spent 8 months playing Wheel of Fortune and if a CSR received a 100 score she would have 5 seconds to guess a letter and 10 seconds to solve the puzzle. The winner received a $250.00 gift card.
Rohannah has a big customer service department and moving their average performance score up by 10 points this year has been a monumental accomplishment for all of them. She has created 2 teams within the department led by her 2 lead CSRs. They created smaller teams of 3 individuals who take turns role-playing and scoring each other every month to make sure that when they talk to customers they are doing their best.
Unique motivation and rewards:
1) Parking is a big deal. The individual with the best monthly performance score and year-to-date-average will have the CSR of the Month Parking spot close to the door!
Talair has created a team culture in her department by strategically placing customer service representatives in smaller teams so they can help each other and work towards a common goal. Teams are changed regularly to build co-worker relationships. She has found that no one wants to let their team down, so they try harder and do better than if their recognition was focused on individual performance.
Unique motivation and rewards:
1) The manager will sing to his CSRs (which I have witnessed) and rewards high performers by having them be his co-manager for a half-day. He makes a big deal of their successes, but doesn’t gloss over failures.
2) CSRs can earn a mini fish tank to have on their desks if they have a 100-average score for a quarter. Talair didn’t anticipate what a motivator this was. The fish-tank-challenge brought them all together and stopped negative conversations as they talked about everything from fish food to decorating.
I’d love to hear from you regarding your teaching and coaching challenges and successes when it comes to training millennials versus GenX and Baby Boomers. We all need to implement more effective training techniques. Please contact me: lori_miller@tootyinc.com and I will be happy to share great options with you for classroom training and interactive webinars for 2018.
Do Unhappy Customers Scare You?
What is more intimidating than an angry customer complaining about service? An angry business customer complaining about service! Customer service and sales representatives have confessed that they are nervous when they hear a harsh tone of voice or have a business manager complain that he has called multiple times for the same thing. Costly short-cuts and ineffective solutions are used to get the unhappy person off the line as quickly as possible. Your team can confidently interact with the customers and provide right solutions, but it will take training and teamwork between the departments. It also means everyone needs to take an honest look at the difficult conversations your representatives are having each day and decide upon the right processes and solutions.
Using Tooty to Test Your Team
Do you regularly have customers (internal or external) asking to speak with a manager because they feel they aren’t getting answers or that the representative had a bad attitude? Not all customers are irrational and not all of your representatives have bad attitudes. The truth and the solutions can be found through a tried and tested process of using our secret shoppers to make calls into your departments. Testing each person on the same challenging situations allows you to determine who your best people are, what additional training is needed and whether a certain process is working or not. Tooty has the expertise to evaluate and train the following departments:
• Customer service
• Inside sales
• Operations
• Collections/accounting
• IT/Help desk
• HR
If you have a call monitoring program in place, Tooty has the expertise to evaluate those calls and provide you with fresh insights and new training tools. If your team needs some extra help in handling difficult customers, take the time to role-play demanding situations. The practice is necessary to overcome nervousness.
One customer recently commented that because Tooty secret shoppers projected difficult attitudes in the calls it has helped her to flush out specific areas that her staff needs to work on. Our classroom training is fantastic and helps to overcome the fear of dealing with difficult people. We have great tips including phrases to use to calm a difficult person and point out certain things you should never say to an unhappy customer. Most people have never been trained on how to use their voice to sound confident or calm, for example. Voice training is a regular part of Tooty training. A customer service manager recently shared that, “Tooty Training is excellent and the secret to our success.”
Customer Service Training- Eye on the Ball
In 2016, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series after a 108-year drought. The drought was not only the longest in major league baseball, but according to Wikipedia it was the longest in all major North American sports. They had great players, managers and games along the way and still didn’t achieve their goal of a World Series Win. The Cubs needed something. They were missing the special sauce needed to be a championship team.
Crane Kenney, the Cub’s President of Business Operations said this, “There’s a saying in business that ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ and there were a lot of strategies over the years. The Ricketts family brought a new culture…they told us to think big… to stop cutting corners…hire the best…build the best…don’t settle for second. Do it right…”. Their approach is an example for us regarding culture and creating a winning team.
At bats
In sales and customer service we often compare our representatives and the incoming opportunities to a batter receiving a pitch. In baseball, the batter needs to have more than a good-looking swing. He needs to see the ball that has been launched his way, predict what swing will work and execute all in a matter of seconds. A great swing at the ball isn’t enough. It must be the right swing delivered at the right time.
Your representatives need to be better at discerning what questions need to be asked to get to the root of a customer’s needs. This relates to both sales opportunities and problem situations. No one can predict what the customer is going to ask about when the phone rings, but you can train for it.
Common training mistakes
1) Instructing your representatives to “just follow the script”. That is how you create a robot. When they don’t understand the “why” behind the questions and answers, mistakes will be made. Covering everything, even that which does not apply, makes talk time longer and frustrates your customer. Ultimately, a work order may be created with wrong instructions or a sale may be lost.
2) Assuming your team knows more than they do. Don’t let the lack of questions asked by your team mask their lack of knowledge.
3) Not making time to do side-by-side coaching each week. You need to witness your team at bat and provide constructive feedback and encouragement. Skillful players have ongoing training. That means you invest in veterans and new people equally. Veterans have slumps, short-cuts that are problematic and often-times need a fresh approach.
4) Your skills as a coach are weak. There is a difference between giving a directive or order and coaching someone. If you are uncomfortable coaching, you haven’t implemented anything new or aren’t sure if you are as effective as you can be, I am happy to help you. Ask for help.
Testing
Crane Kenney, the Cub’s President of Business Operations said this, “There’s a saying in business that ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ and there were a lot of strategies over the years. The Ricketts family brought a new culture…they told us to think big… to stop cutting corners…hire the best…build the best…don’t settle for second. Do it right…”. Their approach is an example for us regarding culture and creating a winning team.
At bats
In sales and customer service we often compare our representatives and the incoming opportunities to a batter receiving a pitch. In baseball, the batter needs to have more than a good-looking swing. He needs to see the ball that has been launched his way, predict what swing will work and execute all in a matter of seconds. A great swing at the ball isn’t enough. It must be the right swing delivered at the right time.
Your representatives need to be better at discerning what questions need to be asked to get to the root of a customer’s needs. This relates to both sales opportunities and problem situations. No one can predict what the customer is going to ask about when the phone rings, but you can train for it.
Common training mistakes
1) Instructing your representatives to “just follow the script”. That is how you create a robot. When they don’t understand the “why” behind the questions and answers, mistakes will be made. Covering everything, even that which does not apply, makes talk time longer and frustrates your customer. Ultimately, a work order may be created with wrong instructions or a sale may be lost.
2) Assuming your team knows more than they do. Don’t let the lack of questions asked by your team mask their lack of knowledge.
3) Not making time to do side-by-side coaching each week. You need to witness your team at bat and provide constructive feedback and encouragement. Skillful players have ongoing training. That means you invest in veterans and new people equally. Veterans have slumps, short-cuts that are problematic and often-times need a fresh approach.
4) Your skills as a coach are weak. There is a difference between giving a directive or order and coaching someone. If you are uncomfortable coaching, you haven’t implemented anything new or aren’t sure if you are as effective as you can be, I am happy to help you. Ask for help.
Testing
Each week, e-mail your CSRs, sales reps and operation’s representatives a problem-solving scenario or a question that you would like the answer to. It should be based on something that transpired during the week so that your teaching makes a connection. Compare the answers so that you can see whether it is a team training issue or if you have 1 or 2 people who need direction. Provide the correct answer or solution so that everyone is on the same page. Make learning fun by creating an award or giving points towards a reward.
Role-playing is your version of batting practice. Role-playing should be done monthly or in preparation for difficult calls that may come about from a price increase, new product or service.
Finishing the Season Well
In comparing the Cub’s record from last year to this year, a sports writer summarized, “The bottom line is that there’s really nothing wrong with this year’s team that couldn’t be fixed by issuing a few less walks and giving up fewer home runs.” Maybe you are discouraged by your team’s results or you have had a set-back. Analyze what is going on and make some adjustments. Champions don’t give up. They play hard to the end of a game and the season. They ask questions, train hard, consider criticism a gift and improve. Focus your team on today’s game and being the best version of themselves that they can be. There’s a lot of game left.
Customer Service Department Efficiency
I recently had a manager ask me why having a customer hold for over 10 minutes deserved a zero score. She rationalized her location’s long hold times by saying she had waited on hold for 30 minutes with a vendor when she called her corporate office. Although a 10-minute hold is better than a 30-minute hold, long hold times point out inefficiencies within a company or a department. The top reasons for having long hold times include:
1) short staffed
2) phones and/or computers go down
3) new business
How can you know if your customer service
Preparing for A Price Increase to Your Customers
There is a lot that goes into implementing a price increase to your customer base. Operations, sales, accounting and many others need to coordinate what will happen and when. Customer service needs to brace for an influx of customer calls by adding additional staffing, some of whom may be temps or support staff within the office. Unfortunately, some leaders simply settle on a vague directive to the team that they should try to keep as much of the P.I. as possible. They leave the details of what will be said and done to the person taking the call. It has been my observation that sales people talk too much and give up too much and that customer service representatives get nervous and go right into rolling back the price completely. Here is an example of a conversation I witnessed during a customer’s price increase.
Customer: I noticed there is an increase on my invoice. Can you explain that to me?
Representative: Sure- I see you did get an increase and that you have been our customer for a long time. I can actually roll that price back to what you were paying before. Is that okay?
Customer: I am happy to have you do that, but I was only calling to verify what the increase was about and to adjust our purchase order. I wouldn’t have argued about it because I haven’t had an increase from you and you do a good job for us.
To prevent this catastrophe from happening at your organization you need your team to be prepared. Remember that for most customers price is A factor in decision-making but it isn’t necessarily THE factor. Helpful and knowledgeable representatives partnered with dependable product or service makes price a detail to discuss versus an obstacle to overcome.
Here is your P.I. preparation check list.
Scripts– Let Tooty create some effective and concise scripting for those who answer your calls. Often times sales leaders provide talking points, and too many of them, which don’t translate properly in a conversation.
Training– Both sales and customer service representatives need to practice how they will handle these conversations. The practice will boost confidence and your ability to maintain your increase. Tooty offers customized classroom training and interactive webinars. We also recommend that the training is scheduled within a week of when the invoices with the increase will hit the streets. The timing of the role-play practice needs to be as close to the expected time for customer phone calls as possible.
Strategy for new customers– You may have competitors who are also increasing their rates and their customers are calling you to compare prices. Be prepared to win those prospects.
Celebration– Share your goal not only with sales, but customer service. What will you do to celebrate your team’s success?
Customer: I noticed there is an increase on my invoice. Can you explain that to me?
Representative: Sure- I see you did get an increase and that you have been our customer for a long time. I can actually roll that price back to what you were paying before. Is that okay?
Customer: I am happy to have you do that, but I was only calling to verify what the increase was about and to adjust our purchase order. I wouldn’t have argued about it because I haven’t had an increase from you and you do a good job for us.
To prevent this catastrophe from happening at your organization you need your team to be prepared. Remember that for most customers price is A factor in decision-making but it isn’t necessarily THE factor. Helpful and knowledgeable representatives partnered with dependable product or service makes price a detail to discuss versus an obstacle to overcome.
Here is your P.I. preparation check list.
Scripts– Let Tooty create some effective and concise scripting for those who answer your calls. Often times sales leaders provide talking points, and too many of them, which don’t translate properly in a conversation.
Training– Both sales and customer service representatives need to practice how they will handle these conversations. The practice will boost confidence and your ability to maintain your increase. Tooty offers customized classroom training and interactive webinars. We also recommend that the training is scheduled within a week of when the invoices with the increase will hit the streets. The timing of the role-play practice needs to be as close to the expected time for customer phone calls as possible.
Strategy for new customers– You may have competitors who are also increasing their rates and their customers are calling you to compare prices. Be prepared to win those prospects.
Celebration– Share your goal not only with sales, but customer service. What will you do to celebrate your team’s success?
