Читать книгу Pattern for Excellence - Brigham Dickinson - Страница 12
ОглавлениеFocus on eight Master Principles
Great customer service is all the rage right now! Well-known companies like Zappos, Chick-Fil-A, and
Southwest Airlines have experienced incredible growth because they’ve learned how to deliver phenomenal customer service consistently to their customers in addition to their quality product.
How do they constantly deliver what we now know as the WOW Experience? They master the art of making timely applications of timeless principles. Mandated policies and procedures usually stipulate one acceptable application. In contrast, principles enable you to make endless applications. The Pattern for Excellence is a principle-based framework for learning best practices in delivering phenomenal service. While applying these principles, you will experience autonomy within yourself and your organization and create your best practices.
For example, what do you do when a customer approaches you with a bad experience? Notice I didn’t ask about your company because it is not as much about the company as it is about you. It is you the customer is approaching, and from you, they expect results. At Zappos, their purpose is not to deliver shoes; rather, it is to deliver happiness to their customer. Zappos employees take ownership of a customer’s bad experience, independently of whether or not they are personally involved because they emotionally connect with their company’s purpose. They have found their Why, and it drives them to create WOW Experiences.
What drives you personally to go above and beyond to restore that customer’s trust, friendship, and business?
Eight Master Principles
I am often asked three questions: 1) why these eight principles, 2) why this sequence, and 3) how these principles in this sequence constitute a Pattern for Excellence in both sales and customer service.
The Master Principles are listed in a particular sequence around the Pattern’s end goal. Each principle in the Pattern is needed and carries equal weight in creating WOW Experiences.
1. Be Positive – Powerful Interpersonal Energy
Is your passion for the work you do electric and contagious? This principle refers to your attitude toward your work, as manifested in your ability to transmit powerful interpersonal energy with a smile or in the way you go about tirelessly creating unique customer experiences over and over again. Passion for your work also shows through in the amazing service you provide. To say that you need to learn to be positive has become cliché, perhaps because most people have it backward. A clear company vision drives individual behavior. A positive attitude toward what you do for a living is the fruit or byproduct of that vision. Your attitude becomes electric and contagious because to you, the “work” is a cause for which you are willing to fight.
2. Be Confident – Prepared to WOW
Are you practiced and prepared in the work that you do? Your attitude towards your work can only go so far without mastering the mechanics behind it. You need to refine the mechanics to the point where your service looks and feels like magic. Continual training and coaching enable you to work effectively with your peers and learn how to create WOW Experiences. How often do you work on the game that you play as opposed to just playing in it? There is a big difference between professional athletes and their fans. Like professional athletes, you must be practiced and well prepared before the game. Be constantly learning and improving skills. Continual preparation and practice will give you confidence. This swagger, in turn, will make it much easier for customers to believe in your company as well as the services you provide and perpetuate the relationship. With practice and preparation, you can hone your interpersonal skills to create WOW Experiences consistently.
3. Listen – Become Present First
Do you connect by listening first, and by remaining present? This means understanding the expression, tone, and intent of others. Active listening is difficult, even for the greatest of salespersons. Thinking about what to say next as you wait for the customer to stop talking is not active listening. You have to get your mind right by minimizing the conversation going on in your head while others are talking. Just ask yourself if you know what I mean—and you’ll know what I’m saying. To be present requires that we turn off the chatter in our heads and requires us to be in a highly aware state. Pay attention to your customer’s words and phrases as well as the tone and intent behind their words. Be clear on what they want as well as the experience they are looking for when working with you and your company. Rephrase the content you receive in your words to show that you understand, and ask additional questions to make sure you align with what the customer wants. To create value and a WOW Experience for your customers, you have to understand what is most important to them first. That is what active listening is all about.
4. Care – Respect Individual Worth
Others can connect and become present as you show genuine empathy and respect for their worth. Do you give others the opportunity to connect with you? Do you show them that you care? People need to feel your sincere concern for them and their situation. They don’t want to feel unworthy or less than around you. The inability to connect often occurs when you cannot seem to relate. The word awkward has become more prevalent because we seldom understand why others speak or act differently than us. Even when we try to show our concern for others, it comes off as superficial or even fake. The word sorry is used so often in our communication that it has lost its meaning. There are so many other ways to express real empathy for one another. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. You can empathize with a customer and use that to relate to their situation or need. Simple expressions in your tone of voice as you listen shows that you feel what they are describing. Agreeing with them or expressing that you can only imagine how they feel shows great empathy. If what they are feeling is caused by you, you can apologize, take full responsibility and list specific steps you will take to correct the situation. Showing you care goes a long way in rectifying difficult or awkward situations. They are not awkward at all when you show respect for an individual’s worth.
5. Say “YES” – Give Beyond Expectation
Do you give first, to create WOW Experiences and build long-term relationships? Customers tend to mirror what we say and do in our interactions. When we say “no,” they say “no,” when we say “Yes,” they often say “Yes” in return. Once I was hosted for dinner by a famous chef named Kent Andersen in Provo, Utah. He stated that he always looks for ways to say “Yes” when serving customers at his restaurants. He told of a time when a customer noted with sadness that his banana Foster was no longer on the menu. He immediately sent one of his busboys out the back door to the supermarket to get everything he needed so that the customer could have the banana Foster he craved. “Yes” is about giving beyond expectation to create WOW Experiences and build long-term relationships. Focus on what you can do for the customer as opposed to what you cannot do by always saying “Yes!”
6. Ask – Encourage Autonomous Work
Are you accountable to clarify what is missing, learn the right answers and respond accordingly? This principle is about taking ownership of what you do. Scripts and selling systems help you know what to say and what questions to Ask and they can be a good starting point in any position. Obviously, it helps to know your playbook. However, there is a big difference between knowing each play and carrying out each play effectively. The principles in the Pattern for Excellence precede the skill set (scripts and selling systems) because it is essential that you first understand, then perfect the skill. In the Ask principle, the notion of autonomous work comes into play. Your actions must become intentional in nature; your company’s purpose must so motivate you that you do not consider how hard the work is, how long it takes or how much you are being compensated to do it. The service you provide must come from the heart. It must be bigger than you—a cause worthy of your effort. Since every customer is different, you need to ask questions to clarify what the customer wants—the desired outcome to their circumstances during each transaction—and respond accordingly. With this autonomous mindset, a disciplined response to a customer’s need or want is not just about knowing what to say or do; it is about learning how to say or do it in response to the specific expectation set by the customer. When you are empowered to use your judgment to create WOW Experiences for your clients, you will more consistently provide phenomenal customer service and exceed their expectations. You will become proactive in responding to customers’ needs and wants. That is the Ask principle in action.
7. Be Valuable – Consciously Create Value
Do you create value within your area of responsibility and encourage your peers to do the same? Although you may be a customer, you are not your customer. Treating others the way you want to be treated is a default or reactive way to serve others. It is much more effective to get clear on how others want to be treated and then proactively serve them in that desired way. Creativity, innovation and maybe a little discomfort may be required on your part. When we endeavor to create value for others by providing a service in a unique and innovative way, our energy goes up. We feel good as we go above and beyond to create WOW and help others feel good. These good vibes between the service provider and client are perpetuated.
When you, the service provider, create value for your clients, independent of how hard it is, how long it takes or how much you are being compensated to provide it, you become invaluable to your company. You become valuable, even indispensable. Be creative in the way you serve others, innovative in ways others do not expect, and you’ll experience great satisfaction when you hear them say words like, “remarkable,” “extraordinary” and “WOW.”
8. Be Grateful – Honor Our Stewardship
Serving others together in stewardship is a blessing that we honor and value. When you sincerely thank someone, your expression of gratitude towards them means that they made a difference. When people feel they have made a difference, they feel important and become more connected and loyal to the one that expressed gratitude. Recognizing the time, contribution or effort of another requires humility. Seeing that the work you do needs customers, it becomes a stewardship—an opportunity to serve and create WOW Experiences for others. Doing work that fulfills you isn’t work at all—it is a cause that you honor and value.
These eight principles in the Pattern for Excellence constitute the behaviors and framework for learning best practices in phenomenal customer service. Mastery of these principles empowers you to achieve at a higher level and makes you more valuable to the company and clients you serve. You become more aware and persuasive in your communication. You get more done in less time and are able to create more WOW Experiences for your clients.
