Tag Archive for: communication

The Top 3 Words that Your Company needs to Boost Customer Experiences

Companies always want to boost customer experiences. Better customer experiences means higher customer loyalty, and better sales. Customer service representatives get overwhelmed with the wealth of information available to them There’s a whole Internet of Things out there. There’s so much knowledge to be had and so many people offering it. What is the ‘right’ advice? Where do you get it? Once you get it, how do you make sense of it?

Let’s break all this information down to the basics:

1. Communication

This is about clarity and connectivity.

People don’t like being confused; they want to understanding:

  • What you’re offering
  • Where they can find it
  • When they can expect it
  • How it will arrive
  • Why they should use your company

In general, people crave simplicity: we don’t like to be forced out of our comfort zones. This is particularly true of people today: Millennials are more likely to check out what they want and whether they’ll buy it online than coming into a shop. By the time they set foot on an actual sales floor, 60% of them already know what they’re going to buy.

This connectivity comes from the clarity of your service or product, as it is presented to prospective customers. As a result, it’s not a bad idea to let the customer set the pace and choose how they’d like to be connected with you. For example, Millennials may prefer to connect to your product/service via social media platforms like Facebook or Snapchat, while an older generation would rather receive an email or even a phone call.

More than that, however, is the connection we forge as human beings: do you smile when I walk in to have my car serviced, for example? What sort of smile? What is your body language communicating to me, your customer? Do I feel welcome?

Good communication forges a bridge of understanding between people. This will allow both parties to avoid pitfalls like misunderstandings, badly explained expectations or desires, and a breakdown in the relationship. Communication is all about building trust and relationships, after all, and great communication will boost customer experiences to no end.

2. Consistency

Consistency and cohesion.

According to Google, ‘cohesion’ means:

‘…the action or fact of forming a united whole.’ [Source]

Customers are individuals, but a customer service team? They should be of one mind and one bo —er… nevermind, too creepy. Your customer-facing front line needs to be a team! This is the first step to great consistency, and through that to customer loyalty.

Google defines ‘consistency’ as follows:

‘…conformity in the application of something, typically that which is necessary for the sake of logic, accuracy, or fairness.’ [Source]

Now, conformity gets a bad rap, so we’ll just avoid that word. Let’s focus on the section about ‘logic, accuracy or fairness’.

For example, imagine you’re travelling abroad. You’re in a strange city, you don’t know how anything works, maybe the language is even different. Then you spot a Starbucks. You go in, you order, you pay, you wait, then you grab your caffeine and go. No drama, no panic – you knew exactly how it worked. Why? Because Starbucks, like so many global franchises, has mastered consistency. Their style of service is the same, whether you’re in New York, Hong Kong, or Sydney. That’s comforting because it means you’re always at home.

Small business with only one location aren’t exempt from this concept. A customer should be able to receive the same style – and hopefully good level – of service every time they purchase a product or utilize a service from that company, whether it’s today, in a year, online or offline.

3. Commitment

Last, but not least, and arguable more important than communication and consistency: commitment.

What’s that quote? Something about not bothering to get into the ring unless you plan on fighting? That.

Establishing trust is not something that happens over night, and any commitment to such a relationship will shine through! It’s important to look at any customer service strategy as a long term investment, one that is going to require time, people, effort and finances. No one’s asking you to marry your customer, but if you’re looking to boost customer experiences, you’re going to have to go all in as a company. Half measures will not do it.

This will also help build your capability, supporting your authority on your chosen subject matter(s), thus making you and your brand more trustworthy in the eyes of current and future prospects.

What to take away to boost customer experiences…

There are several big aspects of customer service you’re not allowed to miss, not if you’re really looking to boost your customer service experiences. There are also plenty of smaller ones; the important thing is to remember that many of the ‘small’ ones often fall under the ‘big’ ones. Next time you find yourself stressing out about the latest article talking about how you’re not communicating enough, or your not doing enough of something else — think about, maybe you’re already doing it, a little bit.

All three of the things – communication, consistency, commitment – are vital skills for good customer service. And remember:

Good customer service will boost customer experiences.

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Mystery Shopping Scams and How to Avoid Them

Many people believe that all mystery shopping is a scam. This is because of the way mystery shopping has been misrepresented by those performing the scams. Often it’s been set up as a ‘get rich quick’ scheme, or a way to “get cash quick”; people are told they can make a comfortable living off of mystery shopping, which isn’t necessarily a lie but when something looks too good to be true, it often is.

Mystery shopping scams have detrimental impacts on both mystery shoppers and mystery shopping companies, both of whom are simply trying to make an honest living the world of market research.

Types of Mystery Scams

On the whole, there are a variety of different scams, but all of them aim at one thing: stealing money from unsuspecting people.

The most common scam is the ‘fake cheque’ one. This one has been discussed on many occasions, and while there are many warnings about how it works it still occurs today.

Briefly, this scam functions as follows:

  1. You express interest in what you believe to be a legitimate company’s recruitment drive for new mystery shoppers.
  2. A ‘you’ve been selected’ congratulatory letter arrives in the mail, accompanied by a cheque that for all intents and purposes looks very real.
  3. The letter goes on to instruct you to cash the cheque, and then send money via wire transfer to a specific account elsewhere, usually overseas.
  4. They add further pressure, but telling you to do so within 48 hours or the offer expires and generously tell you that whatever percentage is left in the cheque is yours to keep.

Awesome! Free money! Right?

Wrong.

The catch here is that the cheque is fake and you’ve wired money you didn’t have to another account. If you’re extremely unlucky and lack the ability to properly explain what’s happened, you may also be liable for cashing in a fraudulent cheque.

That particular scam comes in all shapes and sizes, but at the core always remains the same.

All in all, not a fun experience, least of all because of the financial impact. Unfortunately, where there is an opportunity to exploit people, scammers are there to take advantage.

It would be easy to apply a blanket rule and say: “all mystery shopping jobs are scams”, but this simply isn’t true. There are plenty of legitimate companies out there providing honest opportunities, and it’s important to recognize what a scam looks like.

What does legitimate mystery shopping look like?

Real mystery shopping is designed to analyze certain elements of an industry, and one of the best definitions comes from Wikipedia:

“Mystery shopping or a mystery consumer or secret shopper, is a tool used externally by market research companies, watchdog organizations, or internally by companies themselves to measure quality of service, or compliance with regulation, or to gather specific information about products and services.”

Earlier this year, I wrote about how mystery shopping really works, giving a basic explanation of how it’s accomplished and what might be involved.

How to tell legitimate mystery shopping companies and mystery shopping scams apart:

As a rule of thumb, it’s good to keep the following pointers in mind and avoid companies that:

  • Require that you pay for “certification.”
  • Guarantee a job as a mystery shopper.
  • Charge a fee for access to mystery shopping opportunities.
  • Sell directories of companies that hire mystery shoppers.
  • Ask you to deposit a check and wire some or all of the money to someone.

Mystery Shopper Scams, The Federal Trade Commission

Not all companies that employ any or all of these tactics are necessarily scams, but err on the side of caution and understand what a genuine mystery shopping company looks like.

Most legitimate companies recruit their shoppers directly from their website, or through legitimate channels such as their social media accounts – only very rarely will they use newspaper ads or direct emails.

In addition, legitimate mystery shopping companies don’t require you to pay a registration or certification fee; they simply ask you to sign up to their platforms so they can keep you apprised of any open visits.

Further, they have a screening process: just because you’ve signed up doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically get a visit. Most companies will use a type of test, to make sure that your language skills are up to scratch – after all, you’ll be recording data for them, it helps if everyone knows what you’re saying – and I know that here at AQ, we also require our shoppers to complete a questionnaire that proves a competent understanding of the visit manual (the guideline that tells you how exactly to complete the shop in question). Any company that guarantees you work straight off the bat, is likely to be a scam.

Legitimate mystery shopping companies won’t charge you to access their shop boards; this beats the point for them after all, they recruited you to fill their shops, why make it so difficult for you to do so easily? Nor will they ask you to deposit cheques or wire money. At most, there’ll be a restaurant shop in which you pay for your meal and get a reimbursement up to a certain amount.

Another good thing to remember is that most mystery shops don’t pay heaps. Depending on the type of shop, you may get $5 to $20. Most mystery shoppers do their visits beside their day jobs to earn a little extra cash.

Can you make a living as a mystery shopper? Yes, I suppose it’s possible, but you’d have to be very motivated and very patient. I imagine that a dedicated mystery shopper would be able to make ends meet, if that was all they did, but on the whole, I wouldn’t suggest it be used that way. For further illustration, I stumbled across this article on Forbes that explains how it’s been done successfully, and an article on I’ve Tried That where it was less successful.

How to check if an opportunity is legitimate?

The biggest rule of thumb you can remember is that companies use mystery shoppers as a tool to gather research data. No company is going to pay you $2,000 (for example) simply to cash a cheque and wire $3k to Australia, it’s not a realistic business plan. It’s it’s one thing you can really trust, is that business won’t send themselves broke.

If you’ve no mind for business management then just remember this:

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Another good thing to do is check if the company is listed on the MSPA (Mystery Shopping Providers Association) website. Not all legitimate companies are members, but it’s a good place to start!

And if you’re in doubt at any point, then don’t sign up. Scammers are creative and often it can be tricky to tell one way or the other; if you think something doesn’t look right and you can’t get a clear answer anywhere then it’s probably a good idea to steer clear. Remember, a real mystery shopping company will be easy to find and be listed in legitimate databases, and you can get in touch with them to ask, whether by phone or by email from their website.

Only doom and gloom then?

Hardly, just like you could swim in the ocean your entire life and never experience a shark attack, anyone can enjoy mystery shopping. If you keep your wits about you you’ll never have to experience the frustrations and financial repercussions from a mystery shopping scam. Mystery shopping is a great way to earn extra money doing what you love.

For more information about AQ’s mystery shopping program, or to sign up for our shops, visit www.ilovemysteryshopping.com.

If you’re a business looking to see how mystery shopping can help you improve your customer service and sales, please Get In Touch!

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Customer Service & Customer Experience: The Difference You Should Probably Know About

Customer Service? Customer Experience? What are these two terms we talk about all the time?

On the phoneCustomer experience and customer service are two prominently used terms, but many of us don’t really differentiate between them. Probably best explained in this article by Elizabeth Clor, these two terms are not interchangeable, which is how they’ve often been used.

Customer service is just that: it deals with the service elements of the overall sales process: How friendly is the staff? How quickly do they see to a customer? What’s the procedure for processing customer complaints? Are they dealt with quickly?

Customer service involves the direct contact that customer-facing employees have with the customer. What type of contact is it? How good is that contact? How quickly are issues resolved? What options of service do customers have?

Customer experience is the experience that the service provides. What is it like for a customer to contact staff? How easy is it for them to give feedback or use the system? Is the store clean and easy to navigate?

If we were in a restaurant, for example, the customer service would revolve around the quality of service: does the waiter smile and answer questions cordially? How quickly does the food arrive? Whereas the experience can be defined by how pleasant the restaurant is: good atmosphere, good quality of food and beverages, prices appropriate for that quality.

Customer Service Experience

waiter
There’s a word in the Dutch language: gezelligheid. There’s no perfect translation into english, but Wikipedia offers this as an accurate:

“…depending on context, can be translated as convivial, cosy, fun, or nice atmosphere, but can also connote belonging, time spent with loved ones, the fact of seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness that gives a warm feeling.” [Gezelligheid, Wikipedia]

Why this tangent?

Any other business can make the greatest attempts at good customer service, but without the gezelligheid the customer experience will be severely lacking. Vice versa, you can have the coziest most ‘gezellig’ business in the world, but if the service is awful no one will come back either.

Creative Customer Service

There’s a restaurant in Melbourne that we tried out a few times before giving up. The decor was wonderful, and the food fantastic, the trouble was that the service was terrible. The few times we went, we were always made to feel like we were inconveniencing the staff when we placed orders, they almost never raised their eyes to look at you and they smiled even more rarely.

A year after they’d opened, they were shut and there was a rumor floating around that the owner took the forced shutdown as a surprise, complaining that the neighborhood just didn’t support his efforts to provide great food.

“The food was really good,” my mother-in-law said, “if they’d just been nicer we’d have gone there more often!”

We’ve all experienced in some shape or form: where either the service was so bad that we didn’t go back, or, even though the service was great, the experience left something to be desired. As customers, we have the right to choose what we want; and we want good everything, both service and experience.

Secret Shopper Companies that have that figured out, are virtually unstoppable.

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Don’t Just Use Customer Service Phrases: Act

How many times have we come across the phrase: “customer service is not a department, it’s an attitude”. I’ve used it myself several times for one reason: it’s true. And also because it’s a cool way of getting my point across.

Trouble is, when you say something too many times you end up losing its meaning. Like when you say ‘oil’ many times in a row; the word turns into a string of meaningless noises. (Or is that just me?) The overuse of the phrase ‘customer service isn’t a department etc’ has made it invisible. Invisibility might be useful for superheroes, but for customer-service reps it’s practically a sin.

We throw around plenty of words and phrases, and it’s become an issue.

Define ‘customer service’. Google it. It’s everywhere. As companies, we’re being told again and again that it’s time to ‘improve our customer service’ and that ‘this is the age of the customer’. ‘Be customer-centric’ is my personal favorite. In the white noise of the overwhelming evidence that ‘customer service is the future’ — another recurring phrase — the real meaning behind the term is slipping away.

So what does it mean?

If you’ve Googled ‘customer service’, you’ll know that the first definition that pops up (from Wikipedia) reads as follows:

“Customer service is the provision of services to customers before, during and after a purchase. The perception of success of such interactions is dependent on employees “who can adjust themselves to the personality of the guest”. Customer service is also often referred to when describing the culture of the organization.” (Source)

Does anyone else want to shake their monitor when they read that? I certainly do. Why? Because it could mean anything. A lack of understanding means a lack of goal. I’m not saying that this definition isn’t correct — it probably is — but what it definitely isn’t is helpful.

Customer service has a simpler definition and this is it:

“Customer Service: Helping customers meet their needs.”

That’s it. Throw out the big words, put the meaning back into the definition.

I know that ‘helping customers meet their needs’ is a lot more complicated than it actually sounds, but that’s not the point. By redefining ‘customer service’ we’ve gotten rid of the white noise and made it a responsibility again, rather than a chore.

Once people know the goal, it becomes obtainable. Suddenly, customer service really isn’t a department: it’s something anyone can do. Customer comes in and needs help? You help them. Hey, that’s customer service! That’s not your department — except that it is because no matter what industry we work in, or position we hold — from janitor to CEO and beyond — we are here to supply our customers with what they want.

That is customer service, and it isn’t a department. It’s really an attitude.

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What we need to know about Negative Experiences

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More often than not, we hear about bad customer service experiences. It makes you wonder if the world revolves around negative experiences. Apparently, people are far more likely to share their grievances publicly than they are to share compliments. According to ClickFox’s second annual benchmarking survey, Consumer Tipping Points, only 8% of customers are likely to make public posts or share a positive experience, whereas this percentage doubles in the case of a bad experience.

Think about that for a moment:

One of your customers has a great time, and they don’t tell anyone about it, but a bad time and suddenly their entire world knows about it.

Forget that it’s completely unfair; human nature isn’t about fair, unfortunately.

What do we do about it?

If you’re dealing with a specific negative review, make sure you reach out to that customer straight away. You’ve let them down somehow, best to dive straight in and apologize, perhaps offer them something to express your regret for the bad service they received; while you’re at it, why not ask for their input? If you can figure out what it was exactly that frustrated them, you can better address the problem. Maybe it was something that was said, not done — get the details so you can avoid the same issue in the future!

1. Identify the problem. There’s no point in plunging headlong in trying to solve your issues if you don’t know exactly what they are.

  • What section of your customer-facing department is letting the customer down? Are your customers complaining about something specific?
  • Is your sales team doing something ‘wrong’/not doing something ‘right’?
  • Are you meeting customer expectations in general?

Questions like this need to be answered before you ca begin to isolate the issues and deal with them. This can be tricky if you don’t have checklists in place, and some businesses find they need external help from customer improvement companies or other consultancies.

2. Isolate the problem. Don’t try and tackle everything at once. Which problem is the most pressing? Is it the way your staff greets customers, or is the long waiting periods that are creating negative feedback?

3. Fix the problem. You know what the problem is, you can take steps to make sure it never happens again. Are your customers waiting for half an hour before they’re served? Perhaps you need more staff. Did one of your sales consultants say something that generated the negative feedback? Time to discuss this with that consultant and have a general discussion with the entire team.

The goal here is to learn from the mistakes you’ve made. Don’t think of a customer’s negative review/complaints as a setback, think of it as an opportunity to do better.

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