Sometimes companies are so busy insisting that they are right that they forget to listen to their customers. And instead of providing stellar customer service and improving both customer relations and company good will, they alienate those valuable customers. Companies have got to stop ignoring customer feedback while trying to make it seem like they care. Drop the act. We know when you’re not really listening to us.

A few days ago, my son woke up crying. Usually some milk and a little cuddling take care of it and he goes back to sleep. That night it wasn’t the case. We made sure he was okay and checked all the basic needs. He didn’t want milk, and he kept crying even as we held, bounced and walked around with him. We were at our wits end. Since he did not seem ill, we just settled into bed with him and held and comforted him. We just let him cry it out while soothingly talking to him. Eventually, his crying eased up and he settled down. He finally was sleepy enough that we could put him back in the crib. There was nothing wrong with him except he was overtired. He just needed us to be there with him, and let him “get it out.”

And sometimes companies need to allow their customers to do the same. Many of us have had calls where the customer service representative interrupted us and didn’t let us tell them what was wrong. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? You need to teach your customer service people to let customers tell their story. Let them get everything out, and then you can ask questions and figure out how you can help. Sometimes, people just need you to acknowledge their frustration, even if you can’t make things better. But if you constantly cut them off, they’re only going to get angrier.

I used to work for a cell phone company and got a lot of irate calls. People get highly agitated when it comes to their mobile phones. One tactic that worked well for me was to just let the customer rant, rave, and scream, if needed. Then when they were done venting, we could address the real problem. I learned quickly that interrupting to ask questions only fired them up more. Waiting until they finished, and then asking questions in a calm manner went a long way towards defusing the situation.

I recently read of another writer who had a problem with her cable service. The bad customer service, along with policies that offer better deals to new customers than it does to existing, caused her to look for alternatives. Another customer lost.

In this economy — or any time — you shouldn’t be driving customers away. Take a long look at your current practices. Are they good for the customer, or just convenient for you? You can’t afford to push away your customers. None of us can.

image: sxc.hu

Will your customers remain on board in a business sale?  If you are selling or buying a business, you want to be sure the customers stay with the business.  Before the paperwork is complete, be sure you have worked out a transition plan that will keep the customers smiling and eager to remain.  Particularly in personal service businesses, this is tricky, but there are some procedures you can follow to keep the maximum number of customers.

Case in Point: I recently worked with a friend who has a cleaning business.  Her health is declining and she wanted to sell her business quickly.  I advised her on how to make the transition smooth to keep as many of her clients as possible.

Why is the transition important? In the sale of a small business, the primary asset being sold is the customer base, the client or patient list. Preserving the value of that valuable property is vital to the success of the new business, not only to the buyer, but also the seller.  Today’s business sales often involve seller financing, so if you are the seller you want to be sure your buyer is going to be able to keep the customers and, consequently, the income, so you can get paid.

How do you keep mutiny to a minimum? You both want to maintain the customer base through the transition and after.  Here are some tips to keeping customers happy and on board:

• It’s about them, not you. Your primary goal is to keep the customers happy.  This might mean spending time and energy you would rather spend in doing other things.  But keep them happy anyway.
• Let them know soon. It’s always difficult to know whether to tell the customers sooner rather than later, but unless there is some overriding reason not to say anything, it’s best to let them know as soon as you can.  People appreciate being told what’s going on.  In the case of the cleaning service, the owner was reluctant to tell people, but when she did, she found that they were interested, helpful, and willing to stay on.
• Introduce the new owner. If you are the seller, be sure to contact each customer in person, if possible, to talk about the transition and introduce the new owner. Express confidence in the new person’s ability to keep things going at the same high level of service.
• Make your contacts with customers personal. If you can’t contact them in person, call. Don’t just send an email or a letter.
• Listen to customer concerns. People don’t like change, and they will ask lots of questions, like, “Will the new owner raise prices?” “Will we continue to get our orders on time?” “Will you keep the same name?” and similar questions.  If the new owner plans on raising prices right away, of course you can’t lie.  But the responses from your customers will give you an indication of how receptive they will be to the new person and to changes.
• Spend some time together. My cleaning service friend and the new owner spent several weeks going to clients and cleaning together.  People got used to seeing the new person, so when the owner left, the transition was almost unnoticed.

The more information and assurance you can give to customers during a transition, the more likely they will be to stay on board.  And the new owner will find smooth sailing in the new business.

Image: Newscom

Last weekend I made a short list of interesting writing that you should be reading. Along those lines, I’d like to offer you some more this week. Again, I’d love to hear what you’ve enjoyed reading recently.

Mommybloggings Part Deux: The marketers are here to stay. Are we?
If your audience includes moms, you might be interested in Liz’s take on mom bloggers and marketers. The debate isn’t over yet.

7 Signs Your Marketing May Need to Evolve
Are some of your practices outdated? John tells you how to improve and update your marketing strategies.

Five Ways to Persuade Like a Silver-Tongued Trial Lawyer
Just the title alone is persuasive, but Brian delivers in the rest of the article as well. He reminds us to distill complex things into language the average person can understand.

The customer service disconnect
You know that I’ve mentioned how important customer service is to your business, and Susan goes over some of her thoughts on this topic. I cannot stress enough how important it is to treat your customer well after they are converted from a prospect.

Pie-Making 201: How The E-Myth is Screwing Your Business
When doing what you love turns into a chore because you made it into a business… then what?

image: morgueFile

Today’s Sunday Saying:

“Smiling makes you feel better about yourself, even if you don’t feel like it. And it always makes other people think better of you.”

Are you having a bad day?  Don’t let your customers know.  Case in point: I am helping a friend manage some rental properties and I had to call the cleaning service this morning to report that one of her cleaning crews was not doing their job.  When I called, she answered in an unfriendly manner.  I have known the owner for several years, so I identified myself and said cheerily “Hi Darla.  How is your day going?”  “Terrible,” she answered. “What do you want?”

As the customer, I certainly had a right to call and complain about the lack of service, but I was almost afraid to tell her about the problem.  I felt I was intruding on her bad day and I didn’t want to make it worse.  When I got off the phone, I thought, “Wait a minute!  Why would I have to worry about her problems?  I’m the customer!”

You can control  your own emotions, but what about your employees.  How do you keep them from letting their bad day spill over into their dealings with customers? Some thoughts:

• Let them know what you expect. As I mentioned a few days ago, communicate your expectations to employees so they know you want them to smile and be pleasant, even if they are having personal problems or not feeling well.
• Catch them smiling and being pleasant.  Thank them, recognize them when they do well.  Carrots are always better than sticks.
• Recognize consistent positive attitudes, with an “employee of the month” award.
• Let customers tell you who is doing well.  Survey them or ask them to vote on your “employee of the month.”

Positive, friendly, smiling employees make for happy customers.  And you get the added benefit of having a great place to work!

Image: FeVaPhotos@flickr

Sometimes it’s hard to remember that many of things you do on the internet can be seen by anyone. And whether you want it to or not, it may live on in infamy. So you want to be extra careful when you represent your company in social media. What you do can affect how people perceive you.

A blogger I know recently found her content on another site. It appears that it was scraped off of her RSS feed. She tried contacting the site via e-mail, asking that they remove her content. When she received no response, she went to Twitter to ask if anyone else had gotten their content scraped by this company.

What happened next could have been prevented by just taking some time to compose a professional and measured company response.

The company responded saying that she was bashing them and that they weren’t scraping her content. Of course, then the blogger wondered how they have her exact posts from her web site? Part of the problem was that the blogger’s content was not properly attributed or linked back to her site. How can a company claim to drive traffic to a writer if there are no links to the original work?

The conversation went downhill from there. The company complained that people were bashing them and calling the bloggers (at this point, more than one blogger was complaining) unreasonable. Instead of getting defensive, the company should have immediately complied with the request and then attempted to give more information about their business model.

And if you’re trying to drive traffic from your site to someone else’s, it helps if you actually link a short quote back to the original author. Unless someone releases their copyright, like Leo Babauta at Zen Habits, you should be very careful about how much content you reprint. Fair use is one thing, but reprinting an entire post without permission is something entirely different.

This back and forth on Twitter resulted in the blogger writing an entire post about the situation, drawing even further attention to what she considered a social media failure. Situations like this are easily preventable by just taking a moment and thinking about your best response. Don’t be that type of social media example.

image: Newscom

We have all done it - we meet someone and get introduced.  Then we promptly forget the name of the person we just met.  It happened to me last week.  I met someone at an important business lunch.  Then her name just flew right out of my head.  It was only because the person with us used her name in the conversation that I was able to recover and call her by her name.

The valuable business skill I’m talking about, of course, is remembering people.  Actually, it is remembering their names.  We all say, “I remember so and so - I’m good at faces but lousy at names.”  In business you cannot be lousy at names. With customers, employees, vendors, other business people, if you remember names you will have a huge business advantage.

The value of remembering names.  Remembering names improves your success in business for several reasons:

• It improves your credibility as a sharp business person.  Because most people are so bad a remembering, you stand out as someone special.
• It improves your relationship with the person.  If you can use someone’s name in conversation, it helps connect you to that person.  I’m not saying use it every two minutes like a used-car salesman.  I’m saying use it once or twice in the first conversation.
• It gives people a positive connection to you.  Everyone likes to feel special and important, and using a name improves the person’s self-image.  If they feel good about themselves when they are around you, they want to be around you more.  Kind of subtle, but I think you get what I mean.

Learning to Remember Names. So how do you improve your ability to remember people’s names?

• Repeat the name. Say, “Hello, Sue.  Nice to meet you.”  This helps imprint the name in your mind.
• Comment on the name. “That’s an interesting name.  Is it a family name?” Or, “I have a cousin named Cameron.”  Don’t comment on the ethnic origin of a name unless you can follow with a positive comment.  For example, “Ah, sounds Irish.  My family on both sides are Irish.”
• Find a mnemonic for the name. Find something memorable about the name to attach in your mind.  You can use a mental picture of something striking or funny.  For example, for Cameron, you could think of a camera on his head.  (This one can get you in trouble if you start laughing when you see the person.)
• Use the name in conversation, but not too much.  Twice is usually good during the first conversation with the person.  If you are meeting a customer at the cash register, you may not have time to use the name more than once.

Then practice. As you can see, I’m out of practice.  I used to teach at a business school and I could memorize up to 75 names each term.  After a few terms, it was easy to employ my tricks and remember all the names.

So make it a habit, find whatever tricks work for you, then practice to hone your most valuable business skill.

There are times when your customers are going to need to call you. And it’s possible that there’s no way around it. The customer’s question could be complex or hard to explain via email or web contact form. Maybe they have already tried contacting you via other methods, but either they’re not getting the point across or they don’t understand what you’ve told them. It could be any number of things. When they contact you via phone, you have the opportunity to shine - or shame yourself. Which will it be?

We all have nightmare tales about endless phone trees, waiting for an eternity to talk to someone, getting cut off before you have a chance to state your case. It’s frustrating. No one wants to be treated like a number or faceless entity. They just want someone to help!

Once upon a time I worked at a major university. It was my job to field student questions about, well, anything. When they didn’t know where to direct their question, they came to us. You see, I answered questions that came in via the student web site. And once they figured out that they got a response from us no matter what, they contacted us first.

While it could be frustrating when students emailed us for everything under the sun, we didn’t tell them that wasn’t our area. We got them to the right person, made sure they knew we were handing them off, and then checked back to make sure everything was resolved. And we gave them our phone number so they could call us, especially if the back-and-forth of email wasn’t working.

I even gave out my direct line. Surprised? I had a boss that emphasized customer service. We didn’t let one phone call or email go unanswered. That was what we were there for. We worked hard on our branding and wanted our response time to be part of that.

You need to do the same for your customers. Let them call you. Give out your company phone number and let your customers contact you. I can understand the need for phone trees on occasion so you can route calls to the right person. But almost every person I’ve ever talked to about customer service and calling companies absolutely hates phone trees beyond “press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish.” So think about that before setting up a long and intricate phone tree. Try to keep it to minimal sub-menus.

The longer you make the customer wait to speak to someone, the more frustrated they will be. Think about it. If you keep them on hold for more than five minutes, what does that say to your customer? It says that you don’t value their time. And no one wants to be told that their time isn’t important. We all have things to do, and waiting on the phone isn’t one of them. I had to make some calls today and by the time I was done, I was convinced that trying to make important calls could easily be a full-time job.

If you do have a phone tree or a wait time longer than five minutes, be sure you are making up for it once you get the customer on the call. Really listen to them and do everything you can to resolve their issue, answer their questions and make for a stellar experience. They will be so surprised that they will let other people know how pleasant it was to talk to you. And that can go a long way toward gaining you new business.

image: stock.xchng

You can’t go into a restaurant these days without hearing the scripted speech. “Hi, I’m Kelly and I’m your server.  I’ll be taking care of you tonight.  Would you like to start with something to drink?”  My question (not shared out loud) is, “If you are supposed to be taking care of me, why are you pusing alcohol on me?”

Poor scripts are a huge turn-off for customers. Scripts that are too patently obvious and obtrusive can work against the customer service effort you are trying to promote in your small business.  For example, one fast food franchise always tris to suggest menu items for me.  I usually end up shouting into the microphone at the drive-through, “I KNOW WHAT I WANT! LEAVE ME ALONE!”  Know what I mean?

But scripts used correctly can help you get customer compliance and actually add to the experience.  One example of a script that works:  In the office of a doctor/dentist/other health care provider, the patient stops at the front desk on the way out, and the front desk person says, “Would you like pay by check or debit card?”  Not, “Would you like to pay?” But assuming the patient is going to pay and prompting him or her to make that payment before leaving.  Simple and effective.

Effective Scripts Help Everyone. They help you, the small business owner, to be sure all employees are treating customers the same way and telling the same story.  They help your employees by giving them the exact words to say so they don’t have to fumble around.  And they help customers, because they know they are being given the same high quality service.

Implementing Scripts. The best way to implement scripts:

1. Start with words that sound genuine and natural. “I’ll be helping you today” doesn’t sound very genuine.  Find words that you would feel comfortable saying, and try them out on family and friends.

2. Work with all employees to make sure they use the scripts. Charge them a nickel every time they don’t, until the scripts are second nature to everyone.

3. Explain WHY you want them to use the scripts. People who are told why they are supposed to do something are much more compliant than people who are not told.

Finally, don’t be afraid to change a script if it isn’t working.  The “How would you like to pay today” script has been used by a friend of mine for many years.  But maybe it will be time soon for her to find something else.

Consider the benefits of using scripts, follow the guidelines, and see the positive effect on your customers.

Image: sxc.hu

One of my clients told me this story and asked for my advice.  The client is a doctor who has been in practice for several years.  Here is the story:

A  patient who is a travel agent had been coming to this doctor’s office for several months.  When  he asked how she was doing, she occasionally bemoaned the fact that her travel agency was not doing well.

The other day, he casually mentioned he was taking a cruise with his family and that he had booked it online to save money.  The patient was very upset and asked, “Why didn’t you book it with me?!”  Even though he apologized profusely, she stormed out of the office.

Several options occurred to me:

1. Apologize. The doctor could, and did, apologize.  He could continue to apologize by calling the patient and trying to calm her down.

2. Make amends. In addition to apologizing, he could try to make amends, by cancelling his trip and re-booking with her (I wouldn’t do it myself; I’m just providing options).  Or he could refer other people to her, hoping that the extra business would help her calm down.

3. Get angry and “fire” the customer. He could be angry at the customer and decide that this person isn’t the kind of person he wants to work with.  Anyone in business has the right to work with anyone they want. If you have a customer you can’t stand, you should have the right to tell the person you don’t want to work with him or her anymore.  This lady was ultra sensitive; maybe she was the kind of person who would take offense at anything.  You know the kind of person I mean.

4. Learn a Lesson. The doctor could let the patient go and chalk the debacle up to experience.  He should not have revealed his personal plans to a patient anyway.  He should have just said he would be out of the office for a couple of weeks; if pressed, he could say, “We’re taking a family vacation.”  It really isn’t the patient’s business where he goes or how he chooses to book his trip.  Bringing person stuff into the business environment isn’t very professional anyway.

So there you have the options, as I see them. You might have some other possibilities.  Which one would you choose?

Image: liaj@sxc

A business owner asked me about a new product she was considering selling, something that current customers as well as new ones might want.  She said, “What do you think?  Will my customers like this?”  I’m the wrong person to be asking.  She needs to ask her customers, since they are the ones doing the buying.

Asking customers can help you improve your small business in a variety of ways:

• New products/services. Like this business owner, you can find out what people think of new items you want to offer.
• Prices. You can also find out what people will pay for something.  This one’s a little tricky, since people won’t always tell you honestly.  I have tried this, and found that the best time to ask about price is when someone has first used a product and expresses satisfaction.
• Customer service. Asking your customers what they think of your customer service keeps you on your toes.  I just got off the phone with my cell phone provider, and I did a short phone survey afterward letting them know what I thought of the service (it was very good).
• New ways of “packaging” products/services. Ask customers what they would like to see.  How would they like products bundled? Would they like to see certain products together in a special?  Would they like you to change the way you offer your services to make them more convenient?
• Hours and availability. Ask people what hours they would like you to have, or how  you can be more available to them.  Asking about hours is another tricky area, because everyone will tell you something different and you can’t be open 24/7/365.  But if many of your customers would like evening hours, you could arrange to be open a couple of nights a week to see what happens.

Don’t forget to promote the changes you have made and make it clear that they are a result of customer feedback.  If people see that you value their opinions, it will increase their satisfaction and they will be more likely to comment in the future.

How to Ask. Before I get off this subject,  I should say there is a right and wrong way to ask.  Make your customer survey or questionnaire simple, short, and easy.  If it’s not all three of those, people won’t bother.  One page, no more than 4-5 questions, and fill in the blank is the best way.  Or use an online survey like SurveyMonkey or Zoomerang if you have an online business.

Give Incentives. You might want to give people an incentive to respond. One of my favorite restaurants periodically surveys customers and they give a free dessert when you turn in the questionnaire.

You can’t guess what people are thinking.  Don’t try.  Ask, and you will find out what you want to know.

Image: sxc.hu