Knock Their Socks Off

The Lesson

Last summer I was asked to give a presentation on how to deliver great customer service. It seems today that good customer service just isn’t good enough—it has to be great.

For an icebreaker activity, I decided to break the group into triads. I gave each triad a piece of flipchart paper and asked them to write a definition for great customer service. As expected, there were as many different definitions as there were groups. Coincidently, however, many of the definitions revolved around the same theme: You know it when you experience it. Isn’t that the truth?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been re-reading the book, Sustaining Knock Your Socks Off Service. Although the book is nearly 20 years old, I noticed that it is still very relevant to delivering great customer service in 2010. One part in particular caught my attention: The Customer’s Five Criteria for Service. Looking back to last year’s training session, I couldn’t help but notice how the majority of groups’ definitions included one or more of these five criteria:

• Reliability – The ability to provide what is promised, dependably and accurately.
• Responsiveness – The willingness to help customers promptly. The turnaround time or response time.
• Assurance -The knowledge displayed to customers, and your ability to convey trust, competence, and confidence.
• Empathy – The degree of caring and individual attention you show customers. The warm feeling customers get when doing business with your organization.
• Tangibles – The physical appearance of facilities and equipment. Your own and others’ appearance.”

The book goes on to state:

“In short, customers want you to be reliable and responsive; they want you to act in a manner that inspires confidence in your ability to meet their expectations; they want you to treat them as individuals and their concerns as important; and they want you to maintain a physical environment that enhances their experience of doing business with you. These five factors form the foundation upon which customers base their perceptions of your organization’s service quality.”

“Every time a customer comes in contact with your organization, it’s a Moment of Truth. Think of the five factors–reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles–as a template against which you can examine each Moment of Truth and determine what you need to measure, track, or be concerned with.”

The Challenge

This week, commit to approaching each Moment of Truth ready to deliver great customer service using the five items above as your framework. Resolve to “knock the socks off” your customers.

And if you are one of the collectors who say, “I’m in collections. I’m not in the business of delivering customer service,” you have an extra challenge: Pick up the phone and call one of your clients and ask them if they agree with you. If you’re a first-party collector, ask your CEO if he/she agrees.

The Reflection

1.    What did you learn about yourself this week as a result of completing this challenge?
2.    How can you continue to benefit from this challenge in the future?
3.    What was your biggest takeaway?
4.    What positive changes could you make going forward in order to maximize the benefit of this challenge?
5.    How would continual practice of this challenge change your life?

Knock their socks off this week!

Gary Jensen
Editor | collector mentor