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A Tale of 2 Auto Mechanics – Which One Would you Prefer?

customer service expert Jim Baston

Like us, our customers are in competitive industries and are struggling for a business edge. They want more than just good customer service that makes them feel good. They want GREAT customer service that also helps them gain a competitive advantage. The tale of 2 auto mechanics below, is indicative of the choice we have as service providers. Which one would you prefer?

Our technicians play a major role here. Their value comes from going beyond doing great work. They must also understand the goals their customers have and the challenges that they face and make recommendations based on their knowledge and expertise that will help the customer succeed. Those companies that don’t engage their technicians in this way are at risk of losing business in the future.

Imagine two scenarios. Read more

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The Limiting Reality of Getting Technicians to “Sell” – 4 Reasons Why

service tech training expertHow we define the world impacts our perception of it.  How we define our technicians’ role in promoting our services is no exception.  This blog post is about the limiting reality of getting technicians to “sell” and the 4 reasons why this is the case.

Maslow is attributed as saying, “If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”  This sentiment applies to how we view the role of service technicians.  If we see the proactive efforts of technicians to identify and speak to the customer about our services as that of a “salesperson” then everything they do in this regard looks like “selling”.  Unfortunately, this viewpoint greatly limits our imagination to capture the real value in what our technicians are providing.  This constrains our ability to capitalize on these efforts as a valuable and differentiated service offering. Read more

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4 Questions to Ask When Evaluating Technician “Sales” Training Programs

service tech training

Are you thinking of providing “sales” training for your technicians on how to promote your services? Before making a decision, consider what you want the training to achieve. Below are 4 questions that are key when evaluating training programs that can help you ensure you get a higher ROI.

Those of you who have read my book and subscribe to this blog know that I feel that the technician is in a unique position to identify opportunities that the customer can act on to help them operate their facilities and/or processes more effectively. In fact, I believe that technicians have an obligation to reach out to the customer to discuss these opportunities to help and to assist them in making informed decisions. To me, this really isn’t selling at all, but rather an important part of the service.  And, this approach has a significant benefit. My experience indicates that service firms that engage their technicians in this way will create a sustainable competitive advantage and be rewarded with more business, higher customer satisfaction and unprecedented levels of retention.

Read more

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5 Questions to Help you Evaluate How Proactive your Service Team Is

customer technician service checklistIf you are actively engaging your technicians in promoting your services, here are 5 questions to help you evaluate how proactive your service team is. These questions are part of our ‘How Proactive is Your Service Team’ Checklist.

Do you:

1. Position business development as an important service activity to be performed by your service technicians? When technicians recognize the valuable service they perform when making recommendations that will help the customer, they will be more likely to engage them in conversation rather than thinking that it is the salesperson’s job.

2. Have a fail-safe mechanism for handling leads from the field? When our office team does not follow up opportunities, we are in effect telling the technicians that we were “only kidding” when we asked them to explore ways to help the customer. Read more

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4 Components of a Better Technician Work Order Resolution Description

service tech training expertFrustrated by the poor quality of the information provided by your technicians on work orders? The importance of the quality of the work order resolution description is often overlooked. The fact is the quality of this information is very important! Below are 4 easily remembered components that your technicians can include to better communicate the value of the work they have performed. The four components are captured using the acronym CARE.

Whether we like it or not, what is written on the work order to describe the service that has been performed, is an important indicator to the customer of the quality of the work completed. This is because, under most circumstances, the customer cannot actually know the quality of the work itself. For example, how do they know if the hour it took the technician to troubleshoot the problem displayed brilliant detective work that would have taken any other person several hours to figure out, or if the hour demonstrated a poor grasp of the technology that another technician could have completed in only 5 minutes? The fact is the customer doesn’t know. They therefore look for evidence of the quality of the service and one of the most important factors that they rely on is how the work performed is described in the work order description. Read more

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5 Mistakes Service Companies Make Asking Technicians to Promote Services

click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge

Through the years working with Service providers across several industries, I have found that there are 5 common mistakes that service companies make when asking technicians to promote their services. These mistakes can cost the service company in lost revenues, reduced customer retention and higher technician turnover.

Engaging technicians in promoting services is a focus of many service organizations today – and for good reason. A program of this nature can be a significant differentiator in a highly competitive environment. Technicians who use their expertise and knowledge to recommend products and services that help their customers achieve their goals provide tremendous value. They help their customers recognize that they are better off for having known them. And, a customer who recognizes this value in the relationship is very unlikely to take their business elsewhere. Read more

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How is Your Business Really Doing? – Part 2

How to rate Customer ServiceHow is your business really doing was the subject of my last blog. In the article, I discussed the challenge of determining if your service technicians are really delivering a Proactive Service® experience by bringing ideas to your customers that will help them be better off. If you recall, I suggested that you consider two questions to ask your customers:

1. “Do our technicians bring you ideas that help you operate more effectively?”
2. “Do you feel that you are better off for having known us?”

If you are interested in tracking your progress over time or compare branch operations for these questions, for example, I would like to suggest a scoring key that will help you. In his article in the Harvard Business Review, “The One Number You Need to Grow”¹ , Frederick Reichheld introduces us to his research into the one question that he found was a good predictor of customer loyalty and growth. The question was “How likely would you recommend [company X] to a friend or colleague?”  He introduces a scoring key that provides a “net promoter” score.   The “net promoter” component comes from the fact that Reichheld’s scoring key considers not only the percentage of responders who rated the company highly (promoters) and who would likely promote the company (i.e. recommend to friends and colleagues), but also the percentage of responders who would rate the company poorly and likely speak negatively about their experience (detractors). By subtracting the percentage of “detractors” from the percentage of “promoters”, Reichheld ends up with a “net promoter score” that can be compared from branch to branch, period to period, etc. Read more

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How is Your Business Really Doing? Ask these 2 Questions

technican training expertWhenever I speak on the subject of Proactive Service® , invariably someone will ask me how do we really know how we are doing? I mention that there are several measures to consider. Higher sales and revenues, increased customer satisfaction and improved levels of customer retention are just a few to consider. However, if you really want to know how you are doing, here are 2 questions to ask your customers through your surveys and during face-to-face visits:

  1. Do our technicians bring you ideas that will help you operate more effectively?
  2. Do you feel that you are better off for having known us?

The first question, “Do our technicians bring you ideas that will help you operate more effectively?”, goes to the heart of Proactive Service® – engaging our technicians in proactive business development. The idea is to ensure our technicians recognize that service is more than simply fixing things. Service also includes ensuring that our technicians use their experience and expertise to look for opportunities to help their customers and take the initiative to discuss their ideas with them. The response to this question will give you insight into what is really happening in the field. Read more

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Empathy – I’ll Know it When I Feel it

Empathy“I’ll know it when I see it” is a phrase often used to describe a thing or situation which is typically subjective in nature and cannot be clearly defined.  However, when it comes to empathy perhaps a better way to describe it is “I’ll know it when I feel it”.

In our workshops we talk a lot about empathy and in fact, it is hard to define.  Empathy is not what we do so much as how it is reflected (or not) in what we do.  As a result, empathy really can’t be seen, but it can be felt.  And, interestingly enough, it is most often felt in the smallest, most common of actions.

I was reminded of the importance of small things that reflect empathy just last week and how it can make such an important difference.  I was at my mother’s house when the HVAC technician arrived to check the air conditioning system before the weather got too hot.   I answered the door to a bright, clean and friendly young man with a warm smile.  Here are four little things that he did during the course of his work that demonstrated that he had empathy.

Warm greeting with a smile.  “Good morning Mrs. Baston.  My name is Eric and I am with ABC Mechanical.  I have come to complete the spring start-up of your air conditioning system.  May I come in?”.

Taking time to understand the customer’s situation.  Before he got to work he asked my mother if she had had any questions about the heating or cooling.  Did everything seem to be working okay?  Any problems?, etc.  He then explained that he would like to start with the programmable thermostat.  He asked if she had any questions about the programming.

Keeping the customer informed.  Eric explained exactly what he was going to do.  Firstly he would check things out downstairs.  When that was done, he explained that he would be going to inspect and clean the air conditioner itself.

Explaining the work that was done.  When completed Eric explained exactly what he had done and went over the checklist while confirming understanding.  He explained that he had found something about the furnace that needed attention and would be putting in a work order for a part to be replaced.  He explained that my mother would be receiving a call in the next few days to schedule the part’s replacement.  “No charge Mrs. Baston.  It’s all under warranty.”  Again, he asked my mother if she had any questions.

Being in the customer service business, I couldn’t help but ask if his company did any customer service training.  “All the time”, he said.  “We talk about customer service constantly.  We take it very seriously and measure our performance.  You know, I always score at the top”, he said proudly.  No kidding, I thought.

So here it was, as fine an example of empathy as one is likely to feel.  Eric did nothing fancy, nothing special, just simple actions that showed that he really did care.  “I’ll know it when I feel it”.  I certainly felt it that warm day in June.

I’d love your feedback on this. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“From caring comes courage.”

Lao Tzu

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Taking the Stress out of Challenging Situations

Customer service expertIn our programs, we dedicate a portion of our time to presenting an effective technique for taking the stress out of challenging situations.  We discuss the impact of stress in emotional situations and the important role that we play as technicians to reduce it.  The power of this technique was brought home to me last week.

On a trip to western Canada, I had the dubious pleasure of having my email hacked by someone who gets their kicks out of making the lives of others miserable.  It started about 6 AM with a couple of “Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender…” email messages and suddenly it turned into a torrent.  My smart phone would not stop vibrating as message after messaged jammed my inbox.  And then, after about 10 minutes, it stopped.  Phew, I thought.  That must have been a glitch somewhere.  Just as my blood pressure was returning to normal, it started again and this time it did not stop.

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