Customer Service that Works

Copyright 2019 by Roberta Cava

Customer Service That Works

Roberta Cava

Published by Cava Consulting

info@dealingwithdifficultpeople.info

www.dealingwithdifficultpeople.info

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ISBN 978-0-463369579

Companies are struggling with customer service because of the influx of people using on-line ordering. For those shoppers who still need to physically touch see their items, there’s even more need for fully trained staff who how to deal with customer purchases, returns and problems. To know how to listen carefully to determine what the customer wants and ensure that they feel better after they leave their shop than when they entered.

Some staff face queue rage – where clients go viral and take out their rage on staff. Some companies have had to hire security guards to protect their employees.

Giving better customer service, is a must for companies in this age of zealous competition between firms. How does your company measure up?

Roberta Cava is the owner of Cava Consulting in Australia. She is the author of 38 books and will be writing more. 33 are non-fiction and 5 are fiction. Her book Dealing with Difficult People has been an international best-seller since 1990 with 24 publishers and in 17 languages.

BOOKS BY ROBERTA CAVA

Non-Fiction

Dealing with Difficult People (24 publishers – in 17 languages)

Dealing with Difficult Situations – at Work and at Home

Dealing with Difficult Spouses and Children

Dealing with Difficult Relatives and In-Laws

Dealing with Domestic Violence and Child Abuse

Dealing with School Bullying

Dealing with Workplace Bullying

Retirement Village Bullies

Keeping Our Children Safe

Just say no

What am I going to do with the rest of my life?

Interpersonal Communication at Work

Change? Not me!

Creative Problem-Solving & Decision-Making

Customer Service that Works

Team Building

Before tying the knot

How Women can advance in business

Survival Skills for Supervisors and Managers

Human Resources at its Best!

Human Resources Policies and Procedures - Australia

Employee Handbook

Easy Come – Hard to go – The Art of Hiring, Disciplining and Firing Employees

Time and Stress – Today’s silent killers

Take Command of your Future – Make things Happen

Belly Laughs for All! – Volumes 1 to 6

Wisdom of the World! The happy, sad and wise things in life!

Fiction

That Something Special

Something Missing

I can do it! The sky’s the limit!

Trilogy: Life Gets Complicated

Life Goes On

Life Gets Better

CUSTOMER SERVICE THAT WORKS

Table of contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 – Dealing with Clients

Customer Service

Not enough staff

Call Centres

Inattentive shop assistants

Knowledgeable employees know

Dealing with Angry clients

Get your act together

Guilt

Rude behaviour

Bad customer Service

Auto parts staff

Techniques for dealing with angry clients

Doctor’s Offices

Government Offices

Queue rage

Lethal employees

Unprofessonal Behaviour

Restaurants and Hotels

Recreational Facilities

Services to the Elderly

Clients with Disabilities

Correcting your own mistakes

Client abuses you

Client blocks

General principles and techniques

Dealing with language barriers

Dealing with persistent people

The stuck record technique

Using the stuck record technique

Using the telephone

Telephone etiquette

Telephone responses

Answering phone messages

Insurance problem

Chapter 2 – Other types of Client Problems

The client:

Has already had the run-around

Acts like the class clown

Blames you for someone else’s mistake

Drops in without an appointment

Is long-winded

Needs an immediate answer

Is a know-it-all

Is condescending and rude

Puts long-distance calls on hold

Refuses to wait for his/her turn

Uses profane language or threatening behaviour

Must deal with two clients simultaneously

Drunk or threatening behaviour

Serviceman gets uncivil treatment

Client has tantrums

Boss has tantrums

Sarcastic remarks

Saboteur

Personality clashes

Always slow

Procrastinator

Lateness

Keeps me waiting

Gossip

Sham assertive

Bootlickers]

Over-committers – renegers

Sexual harassment

Stalking client

Email abuses

Chapter 3 – Communication Tips

Communication Tips

Paraphrasing

Using paraphrasing in training others

Sensory language

Feedback

Guidelines for giving feedback

Guidelines for receiving feedback

Examples of how to use feedback

Process of feedback

Feedback steps

Power trips

Using feedback with very difficult people

Listening

Kinds of bad listeners

Blocks to effective listening

Be a good listener

How do you rate as a listener?

How to improve your listening skills

Qualities of a good listener

Speaking

How do you rate as a speaker?

Reasons why you may not be a good speaker

Non-verbal signals

What body language can tell us

Lying

Space bubbles

Territorial supremacy

Eye contact

Writing skills

Messages lost through repetition

Communication process

How to avoid being misunderstood

Ways to reduce communication problems

Chapter 4 – Supervisors in Customer Service

Why do supervisors fail when it comes to customer service?

The person in the middle

Supervisors from Hell

What a chauvinist!

Ignoring or the silent treatment

Tantrums

The skill of brainstorming

Chapter 5 - Behaviours

What kind of personality are you and others?

Your strengths

Your weaknesses

Analyse your difficult clients

Working with your difficult clients

Queue rage

Client abuses/bullies

Passive-aggressive behaviour in clients who bully

Passive-aggressive characteristics

Effects of client bullying

Wife sexually harassed by client

Strokes/recognition

Expert strokers

18 Games people play

Arguments

The way to win arguments

Using common sense and good manners

Avoiding ambiguous messages

Avoid defensiveness in communication

Handling criticism and disapproval

Chapter 6 – Styles of Behaviours

Styles of behaviour and their effects

How passive people feel about themselves

Indecisive passivity

How aggressive people feel about them-selves

How assertive people feel about themselves

Consequences of these behavioural styles

Passive people can make others feel

Aggressive people can make others feel

Assertive people can make others feel

Who wins?

Determine your personality style

Assertiveness blocks

Dysfunctional childhood

Freezes under pressure

Bashful

Self-beraters

Uninvolved

Chapter 7 - Dealing with Angry Clients

Coping strategy

Dealing with my own anger

Dealing with others’ anger

Repression of anger

How to handle anger

Conflict resolution

The Chicken Problem

Conclusion

Back to Top

INTRODUCTION

Companies are struggling with their customer service because of the influx of people using on-line ordering. If they don’t get on the bandwagon and offer on-line ordering and delivery, they will likely lose clients.

For those shoppers who still go physically to touch, see and buy their items, there’s even more need that the company ensures that their sales staff are fully trained in how to deal with customer purchases, returns and problems. They need to be trained how to listen carefully to determine what the customer wants and be there to make them feel better after they leave their shop than when they entered.

If a client came because of a product or service problem, it’s essential that staff listen and respond correctly so they can find a solution to the client’s problems. Sometimes this involves some negotiation and creative solutions to their problems.

Some staff face queue rage – where clients go viral and take out their rage on staff. Some companies have had to hire security guards to protect their employees. In emergency hospitals, many are having two entrances to their emergency departments – one for ordinary cases – the other for those who appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The latter emergency wards have security guards to protect their staff.

Learning how to give better customer service is a must for companies in this age of zealous competition between firms. How does your company measure up?

Back to Top

CHAPTER ONE

DEALING WITH CLIENTS

Customer Service

Customer service is more important today than it was in the past. When clients are asked why they purchase a product or service, most of them say that their decision was heavily influenced by the quality of service provided by the client.

If you’re like me and run into someone who doesn’t answer the phone properly, or handles clients in less than a professional manner, your impression of the entire company goes rapidly downhill.

Some service personnel act as if looking after clients is an interruption to their work. Ask yourself this question, Do I like serving people? If your honest answer is No, please do everyone a favour and get out of the service industry!

How can you provide TLC when something’s gone wrong and the customer is upset?

Saying, I can see you’re upset about this - let’s see what I can do to fix things. Can go a long way towards calming the customer down.

Customer service revolves around - empathy - empathy and more empathy!

Customers appreciate courtesy in the service provided to them. One thing employees may forget, is that the customer is always number one. Some employees give the impression that looking after a client is an interruption to their real work. Such behaviour implies that the employee is doing clients a favour by helping them. The customer’s needs should take precedence over any other work the employee has.

Unfortunately, many people are employed in the service industry simply because the job was available. These people should be employed elsewhere. If you work in the service industry, ask yourself, Do I enjoy serving people? Do I want to make their day better than it was before they met me? If the answer is, No, get out of the service industry!

One goal society should have, is to create a way of life that allows people to serve others without feeling subservient. Some men may feel that serving others (either at home or on the job) is demeaning or women’s work. They believe they’ll lose their masculinity if they serve others.

Not enough staff

I went to a large department store yesterday and had to join a long line of people waiting for one shop assistant to help them. There was another till available, but nobody was at it. After twenty minutes, I went up to the counter and dumped my goods on the counter beside the clerk and said ‘I’m out of here. Your customer service here has got to improve before I come back.’ And I huffed off. I saw two other customers do the same and made the same angry comments. Why doesn’t the company understand how bad this looks to potential customers because I will tell two people about the bad service who will tell two more people and before you now it the company will be out of business.

I feel sorry for the lone shop assistant who was probably going full-out trying to deal with in influx of customers. Here’s a situation I faced, and the solution is the same for your problem.

I was checking in at an airline desk and found that they had given me a middle seat. I had booked an aisle seat because I have long legs and wanted the extra room. I proved this by showing her my booking documents She explained that the plane was full, and she could not change my seat. I asked to speak to her supervisor. I explained the problem, showed her my documents and she quickly corrected the issue by giving me the aisle seat I had booked. She explained that the seat had not been allotted to anyone before I checked in.

She also added the comment that I have remembered when dealing with any difficult client/company problem. She said, If you’re satisfied with our service - please tell everyone. If you are unhappy with our service –please speak to a senior staff member who is in a position to help you.

So that’s what you should do. With on-line shopping taking over – these companies are frantically trying to find ways to keep their customers. You should contact someone in authority at the store and if you can’t talk in person to them, at least ask for an email address so you can state your concerns and the solution to those concerns. If the department store has a head office – send a copy of that information to them.

Call Centres

More and more, businesses are sending their call centres to foreign countries where the call centre staff have strong accents. This has caused considerable problems for those who are trying to get the companies to solve their problems.

I had problems with my web server and called them to obtain a solution to my problem. The phone was answered by a woman I simply could not understand. I asked her time and again to repeat what she was saying and finally had to hang up. I phoned again and this time I spoke with a man – and had the same problem, I couldn’t understand most of what he was saying. I gave up in disgust. How should I handle this kind of problem?

I have been told that if one insists on speaking with someone in their own country, the company must do so. If they don’t – write a letter or send an email to that company complaining about their customer service and request that they set up another call centre for those in their country who can’t understand the people in their existing call centre. Insist that if they don’t answer your email, you will move to a company that will do so. If they don’t comply – follow through, and move to another server.

When you investigate other options, be sure to ask them where they have their call centre. Keep looking until you find one that will look after you, the customer, instead of cutting their costs of call centres by going overseas where they can hire people at lower than our minimum wage.

My problem is the consistent calls I get from someone from a company’s call centre and firstly I can’t understand what they’re saying, and secondly, if I want their product, I will buy it without them hassling me to buy it!

There is a do not call registry you can use for your phone and if the company sends you emails, just block them in your spam file.

Inattentive shop assistants

"I went to a ladies’ fashion shop, picked out an outfit I wanted to try on, but could not find a fitting room, so went to the sales desk. Behind the desk were two sales assistants who were busy talking about what they did on the weekend. I waited for five minutes for them to recognise me and when they didn’t, I said, ‘Does anyone work here?’

They both turned to me with a nasty look on their faces and said, Do you want something?

That’s why I’m here, and I am very upset that you have ignored me and continued your talk about what you did on the weekend. Now, where is the fitting room, I’d like to try on this outfit.

One of the women didn’t say anything, just pointed in the direction which I assumed was the fitting room. I followed her directions, couldn’t find the fitting room, so I went back to the desk to find them still talking about what they had done that weekend. I dumped the outfit on the desk, gave them a dirty look then went to the Customer Service desk. I asked to speak to a supervisor and explained what had happened. A few days later, I went back to see if the outfit was still available, found it, and was able to find the fitting room because it had been clearly identified. When I went to pay for the item, I noticed that the desk I had gone to now had two different shop assistants who had obviously been properly trained."

Yes, training is essential for all sales staff. Many of them have never worked before and have no idea what customer service is about. Smart companies ensure that their shop assistants