They are predicting a major storm as 2025 starts and even though environmental services organizations have been through storms before, customers aren’t very understanding when it comes to delays in picking up their garbage. Often-times the only tool the customer service teams have at their disposal is to wait for updates on routes from the operations team and to hesitantly suggest recovery will be attempted “hopefully tomorrow”. You should be better prepared. You can be better prepared. Your team can surprise your customers with their great attitudes and
garbage industry
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
Patience and Understanding
I did some volunteer work with a group of first graders and one of our lessons focused on patience. It is endearing when a 6 year old scrunches her nose and asks, “Patience? What is that?” But, I admit I am more likely to throw my hands in the air as I shout, “Patience? What is that?” because there are days when it seems as if people are unable to tolerate anything that doesn’t go according to plan. Like you, I have many inconveniences that cross my path every day. It could be unexpected computer issues, airport delays or unreasonable people. On a recent trip during the height of the TSA delays at O’Hare, I remember looking at my boarding pass and the usual TSA pre-check was missing. I did not prepare for the extra time it would now take to wait in the long lines like everybody else and risked missing my flight. I wanted someone to take responsibility for my dilemma. I wanted to lash out. Then I took a deep breath and remembered that the way I act and respond during the unexpected things that life throws my way matters.
In customer service we are often hit with the unexpected. A truck issue can put a route behind which generates unexpected calls from customers. The computers may be slow which means it takes longer to help a customer and adds to the hold time for others. Or, a co-worker may call off sick and now you are trying to manage short-handed. Each of the scenarios I described represents something unexpected over which you have no control, but they are also situations where you have an opportunity to choose your response.
In customer service we are often hit with the unexpected. A truck issue can put a route behind which generates unexpected calls from customers. The computers may be slow which means it takes longer to help a customer and adds to the hold time for others. Or, a co-worker may call off sick and now you are trying to manage short-handed. Each of the scenarios I described represents something unexpected over which you have no control, but they are also situations where you have an opportunity to choose your response.
Recently, we conducted a test during which we spoke with customer service representatives and said, “You people are impossible to get a hold of” as we stated that we left 2 messages and no one called back.
Some of the reactionary responses we heard were:
1) We have been really busy and only have 2 people in the office.
2) Where did you leave the messages?
3) Did you call in during our hours?
4) I’ve worked here for 2 years and people say the opposite- that we are easy to get a hold of.
5) Did you actually reach the voice mail?
6) We had a lot of call volume the last couple of weeks.
7) We just took over a new company and we’ve got tons and tons of new clients calling.
When the words a customer uses are accusatory and the tone of voice is negative we are likely to react with our words and our tone of voice. Take a breath, smile and be prepared to offer a response that doesn’t make the situation worse.
Consider using phrases such as:
1) Thank you for taking the time to call us today.
2) I can see why you feel the way you do and I will help you.
3) I am sorry to hear that you have been having issues with you service. I’d like the opportunity to correct them for you.
Let your patience and understanding be the unexpected customer experience that separates you from other companies.
Scripts, Secret Shopper and Training
A few years ago I had a prospective customer tell me that they did not need the services that Tooty provides because they had the best customer service he had ever witnessed. He added in that the customer service department was well-run, sales were up and their customer satisfaction scores were all above average. The conversation reminded me of a scene from the movie Elf where Will Ferrell burst into a coffee shop shouting congratulations because he saw a sign outside that stated, “World’s Best Cup of Coffee”. He took the sign at face value and thought the claim was true. The expression on the faces of both customers and employees revealed the truth. The only one who thought they served the world’s best cup of coffee was the coffee shop owner.
In today’s marketplace customers no longer accept company slogans and promises as truth and you should not assume that you and your team are as good as you can be. That is exactly why you need help from the team at Tooty Inc. While Tooty is most known for our secret shopper programs and innovative classroom and webinar training, we have a very precise process of evaluating actual customer experience and employee performance for those businesses and organizations that interact with new and existing customers primarily over the phone. We are a tested and trusted resource for executives who aren’t satisfied with past or present results and want specific ways in which to improve sales, retention and customer satisfaction which can’t be done with a slick new tool, but through improving employee skills, knowledge and performance.
1) Secret shopper calls provide an opportunity to learn what really happens when new customers call in inquiring about your product or service or an existing customer calls with a question or concern. Hold time, your automated message and transfers can impact what the customer perceives about your company long before someone answers. The questions asked and information given may be different from person to person sending mixed messages and confusion to your customers. You may believe you have a great sales process, but could discover that those who talk with your customers have created their own sales process that isn’t effective. Opportunities to provide solutions to your customers can be mishandled which can escalate to cancellations and other escalated issues. Every customer conversation is full of opportunity. Every employee deserves respectful and constructive feedback in order to increase knowledge and effectiveness while representing your organization. Call monitoring is also available if you have a phone system with this option.
2) On-site evaluation allows me to spend time with your customer service and sales representatives along with dispatchers as they talk to customers. This side-by-side time provides real detail on what happens from the moment a customer calls to the completion of the request. You may have great tools and processes that aren’t being used. For example, “I am going to send Joe an e-mail about this versus creating a work order that may get him in trouble.” I am able to provide critical input on how your team manages call volume, whether you have the right people on the phones and whether you have the right number of people to effectively handle both phone and e-mail requests from your customers. This on-site evaluation partnered with secret shopper calls and evaluations allows you to benchmark where your team currently is, clarify where you want them to be with skills and performance, and create a training plan to get there.
3) Scripting is best defined as a step by step process to handle customer conversations effectively. Scripts get a bad rap, but when used in a positive way they help insure that customers receive consistently amazing service. Scripts make new hire training easy and provide employee performance evaluations with clear scoring guidelines. We are experts at making great scripts for sales, dispatch, service issues, retention, collections and more.
4) Training should be ongoing with the intention of developing your customer service, sales and support staff into a better version of themselves year by year. We customize training based on your company or organization’s brand, your product or service and where you want the team to be in the future. Classroom and interactive webinars are available. Tooty training is fun and thought-provoking.
In today’s marketplace customers no longer accept company slogans and promises as truth and you should not assume that you and your team are as good as you can be. That is exactly why you need help from the team at Tooty Inc. While Tooty is most known for our secret shopper programs and innovative classroom and webinar training, we have a very precise process of evaluating actual customer experience and employee performance for those businesses and organizations that interact with new and existing customers primarily over the phone. We are a tested and trusted resource for executives who aren’t satisfied with past or present results and want specific ways in which to improve sales, retention and customer satisfaction which can’t be done with a slick new tool, but through improving employee skills, knowledge and performance.
1) Secret shopper calls provide an opportunity to learn what really happens when new customers call in inquiring about your product or service or an existing customer calls with a question or concern. Hold time, your automated message and transfers can impact what the customer perceives about your company long before someone answers. The questions asked and information given may be different from person to person sending mixed messages and confusion to your customers. You may believe you have a great sales process, but could discover that those who talk with your customers have created their own sales process that isn’t effective. Opportunities to provide solutions to your customers can be mishandled which can escalate to cancellations and other escalated issues. Every customer conversation is full of opportunity. Every employee deserves respectful and constructive feedback in order to increase knowledge and effectiveness while representing your organization. Call monitoring is also available if you have a phone system with this option.
2) On-site evaluation allows me to spend time with your customer service and sales representatives along with dispatchers as they talk to customers. This side-by-side time provides real detail on what happens from the moment a customer calls to the completion of the request. You may have great tools and processes that aren’t being used. For example, “I am going to send Joe an e-mail about this versus creating a work order that may get him in trouble.” I am able to provide critical input on how your team manages call volume, whether you have the right people on the phones and whether you have the right number of people to effectively handle both phone and e-mail requests from your customers. This on-site evaluation partnered with secret shopper calls and evaluations allows you to benchmark where your team currently is, clarify where you want them to be with skills and performance, and create a training plan to get there.
3) Scripting is best defined as a step by step process to handle customer conversations effectively. Scripts get a bad rap, but when used in a positive way they help insure that customers receive consistently amazing service. Scripts make new hire training easy and provide employee performance evaluations with clear scoring guidelines. We are experts at making great scripts for sales, dispatch, service issues, retention, collections and more.
4) Training should be ongoing with the intention of developing your customer service, sales and support staff into a better version of themselves year by year. We customize training based on your company or organization’s brand, your product or service and where you want the team to be in the future. Classroom and interactive webinars are available. Tooty training is fun and thought-provoking.
Our goal as a company is to uplift, encourage and help you and your team be better today than you were yesterday.
C.S.I.- Customer Service Investigator
One of the benefits of my side-by-side coaching with customer service representatives is that I not only get to hear customers share their concerns about their garbage service, but I get to find out whether or not the company has a working process for investigating and solving repeat service issues. The conversation below is based on an actual customer conversation. It is a perfect case study for us to use to talk about the importance of developing your team’s investigative skills to improve customer service. Service issues can’t be solved if the real problem has not been identified and there must be a clear procedure regarding your repeat issues.
Customer: Hi Mary, it’s Susan Brooks. CSR: Hi Susan! What may I help you with today? Customer: You guys missed us again. I don’t get it. We have been with you for a month. You missed us 3 weeks in a row and finally we had our trash picked up last week. Now we were
You Talk Too Much
As a company, Tooty has listened to over half a million customer conversations which includes both secret shopper calls and monitored real customer conversations. Regardless of the industry or the office location, CSRs will tell me how different and demanding their customers are in comparison to anyone else. Some describe their customers as mean, long-winded or needy. I recently told a CSR I was hoping she would get some of “those” customers while I was with her, not because I wanted her to be nervous or to be given a hard time but because I wanted to take notice of how she navigated the call. The call that came in was a woman calling on behalf of her elderly mother. Yard waste had not been picked up after a severe storm and she was fearful that if something happened an emergency vehicle would not be able to get through. The CSR was sympathetic and let the customer share her story over and over and over and over again. After the 5th time of hearing the customer restate her concern and request I was wondering if the call would ever end. 7 minutes were spent talking in circles. It became clear that the Customer Service representative didn’t know how to wrap up a conversation and created a long winded talker.
Here are some short and sweet suggestions to aid you in keeping your customer conversations short.
Wrap up phrases:
- I know you’re busy Mr. Jones. Is there anything else you need before I let you go?
- Once we hang up I am going to do ___ on your behalf. Is there anything else you need from me right now?
- I need to get going on your request. Is there anything else you need right now?
- Just to summarize, I am going to escalate this to ___as soon as we hang up. Is there anything else you need before I let you go?
Keeping yourself in-check:
- Your customer will give you a signal that you are taking too long in wrapping up the call or that you haven’t been clear in what will happen after the call is done. That signal is usually
Automated Messages and Hold Music Can Create Angry Customers
Having irritating hold music or an out of date or out of tune automated message for your customers is the equivalent of having a sign on your door that says Keep Out. In customer service we often talk about hold time and how long a customer is willing to hold before hanging up. But how many of you have completely overlooked the customer’s experience while sitting on hold?
Many companies use an automated attendant to help during busy times. It is thought of as a way to help manage call volume. The automated attendant and its messaging should present an accurate impression of the company’s brand while making the customer feel comfortable and relaxed, even entertained. Technology used properly helps the customer feel as if the hold time wasn’t as long as it really was. Unfortunately, most managers don’t know what the customer is experiencing unless a customer takes the time to complain about it. I’d like to share a real experience from a few years ago. One of our secret shoppers called a company and here is the transcript of what took place.
Thank you for calling. To access customer service press zero now. If you know your party’s extension, please enter it now. Caller pressed zero. CSR: Unintelligible whisper by the person who answered. Caller: hello? CSR: Sniffling and crying. Caller: Hello? Are you okay? CSR screaming: You did this. You made him leave. Caller: Hello? CSR: Stay, stay away. Unintelligible screaming and crying. Caller: Hello? Is anybody there? CSR: Screaming and crying. Caller: Hello? Hold music comes on and the caller is on hold for 50 seconds. The phone rings and the initial automated message starts over. The caller hangs up after 3:38 convinced that something awful is happening within the office.
What a customer wouldn’t know, and our secret shopper didn’t, is that this company used a radio station for its on-hold music. As luck would have it, a Rascal Flatt’s song about domestic violence complete with crying and screaming began to play at the very moment the caller pressed zero for a CSR. While this is an extreme example of an automated messaging system gone wrong, some of you have problems with your automated messaging and music that are driving away customers or creating an angry customer out of a normally nice person.
There are 4 key details for you to evaluate when it comes to your own phone system.
1- What is the on hold music like? If you have the same musical notes repeat every 3 seconds, loud or out-of-tune music, a customer might feel angry by the time someone answers. All instrumental music is not the same. You might love fiddles or drums but too much in the wrong arrangement will cause your customer’s blood pressure to rise.
2- Check your after hours message. A Christmas holiday message in April gives the impression that no one will actually return a call. A prospective customer might get the feeling there won’t be a return call from you and hang up without you ever knowing that an opportunity was lost.
3- How many seconds go by before your company or organization name is given in the automated message? If the caller doesn’t hear your company name in the first couple of seconds he/she may hang up thinking it is a wrong number.
4-
The wording of the message and the voice used to deliver the
Get Rid of the Robot
Five year old Hunter asked me why he couldn’t burp out loud in Chick-fil-A. I tried to keep from laughing as I told him it wasn’t polite. I didn’t know if a 5 year old knew the meaning of polite and I really wanted to make sure he understood that burping out loud was not a good habit for a 5 year old to develop. So I asked him if he knew what it meant if I said he was not polite. He explained to me from his kindergarten perspective that not being polite was the same as not being nice. He understood. In recent training with some millennial CSRs I overheard them using some words in ways that didn’t make sense to me. I never heard of salty customers or being salty because of customers before! I could have overlooked that and moved on, but I wanted to understand. Because of my curiosity I now know that salty is more than seasoning.
Any manager can give a new CSR the scripts as a part of new hire orientation. But an AMAZING Customer Service Manager takes the time to make sure a CSR understands the reason behind the questions and details on each script. To only say something or ask something because it is on the script and to not know what the words mean or the intent makes a person robotic. For any person to be excellent at their job there needs to be a comprehension of the reason or purpose behind what we do. The “why” must be provided and understood.
There are certain things that should be memorized because they don’t change. In customer service, the way we start and end our calls doesn’t change so those skills should be memorized. There are some things that are situational in every industry, like knowing when to ask if concrete or roofing is a part of a project that requires a a roll-off container. In customer service, the questions we ask and the information we give is often situational. That is why you can’t afford to operate like a robot and only ask and answer because a script tells you to. You need to know the meaning behind the skills, when things apply and when they don’t and you need to be curious enough to ask questions. That is how employees become experts at what they do and become real assets to your company.
Those companies that measure or grade a customer service representative on call handling skills may use a secret shopper or call monitoring program such as the one that we offer here at Tooty Inc. The scoring is based on a script and required skills for different customer situations. A performance scoring system helps to flush out areas where a customer service or sales representative needs to improve in their understanding of why a certain question or information is relevant. It also helps you look at your team as a whole so that you can create additional training to educate everyone on the reason behind required questions and information.
As a manager you need to know the “whys”, too. Whenever scripting and performance scores are involved managers and the representatives can become hyper focused on the score. Scores often translate to bonuses or become a part of the employee file which makes the focus understandable. I have met several managers along the way who have directed their team to do everything on a script even if it doesn’t apply to the conversation in order to have a high score. Imagine how strange it would seem if your current customer was calling to buy something and your representative asked, “How did you hear about us?”
We need to change our approach from telling people what to do, to doing everything we can to help them understand why. Get rid of the robot and develop an industry expert.
