Attitude Control in Tough Service Situations

Companies are facing unprecedented pressure from the financial crisis. As a result, many of their employees may get nervous and start complaining emotionally to their vendors - you! Here are 8 tips you can use to help you and your customer service team control stress and worry in tough situations:

1. Live in a compartment of the present. The professional with a commitment to service seals off each interaction with a customer so that negative experiences don't poison future interactions. Don't allow past successes or failures or future anticipated success or difficulties influence your current performance. When it comes to customer service, live in the moment.

2. Don't fuss about trifles. A "trifle" is something that is insignificant in comparison to other things in your life. When you focus on trifles, you lose perspective. Keep the big picture in mind. Doing so will help you objectively sort out the small stuff from the important issues.

3. Cooperate with the inevitable. Realize when your situation is inevitable. If you can learn to recognize situations where you have no control, you can gain some control over the emotional aspects of the situation. By cooperating with the outcome, you are making a conscious choice about how to respond to an inevitable situation.

4. Decide just how much anxiety a situation is worth and refuse to give it any more of your energy. Once you make it this decision, it is easier to find ways you can improve on the situation or let it go and move on.

5. Create happiness for others. This principle appeals to your nobler motives. It is difficult to sustain a negative attitude when you are doing something good or helpful for someone else. Simply put: Doing good for others makes you feel better.

6. Expect ingratitude. In your job, you provide many diverse services. When you do so, you probably expect in return some signal of gratitude for your assistance. This expectation is rarely met. If you do receive heartfelt thanks from someone, you should count yourself lucky you are dealing with a grateful person. Most people are simply not accustomed to being grateful, even when you provide them with excellent service. You shouldn't let ingratitude deter you from providing top-quality service.

7. Put enthusiasm into your work. Enthusiasm is the positive energy and sustained effort that keeps you driving toward your goals. Making a decision to have a positive outlook can be critical in enjoying your job and working with your internal and external customers.

8. Do the very best you can. It can be difficult to deal with criticism, especially if you feel it is undeserved or if it hurts your self-esteem. One way to put criticism in perspective is to ask yourself if you are doing the very best you can with what you know and are able to do. If you are, then you can avoid taking the criticism personally. If there is room for improvement in your performance, you can look at the criticism objectively and take responsibility for improving your performance.

Resolving Customer Complaints

Complaints are a necessary part of doing business, and you can expect even MORE complaints in today's market. Customers are becoming increasingly choosy about how they spend their limited available cash. When they make a decision to purchase a product or service, they expect excellent customer service to accompany that purchase.

Some people who complain will be difficult to please, but if your company can develop a consistent procedure employees can use for resolving complaints, you are one important step closer to assuring that you deal with the emotional and practical aspects of customer service.

These seven steps should form the core of your customer complaint resolution process:

1. Greet. Always answer the phone or greet people in person as though you are happy to hear from them. Begin in a friendly way. This first step can be more difficult than it sounds. You need to be able to separate previous negative customer service and daily life experiences from your present customer contact.

2. Listen. In customer service, you often hear the same kinds of complaints, so it can be challenging to give each customer's complaint your full attention. If you can truly listen, however, and give each customer an opportunity to vent some frustration, your customer will appreciate the special attention. Be empathetic. Listen for facts and feelings. Show signs of active listening.

3. Questions. Ask questions to clarify your customer's concerns. Again, you need to resist responding until you understand your customer and their issues -- even if you're familiar with that type of concern. Use these three types of questions to gain a comprehensive understanding of your customer's issue.

Elementary questions capture the basic facts of the problem. These questions give you an opportunity to take some of the emotion out of the customer's experience and complaint.
Elaborative questions gather more details. These questions give the customer a chance to expand on their issues and feelings. These questions should be relatively short but inquisitive to encourage the customer to talk more about their concerns. Evaluative questions help you determine how severely this issue effects the customer. This is also where you evaluate what you can do to satisfy the customer.

4. Empathize. Find a point of agreement with the customer. This does not necessarily mean that you agree with the complaint, but only that you are able to find a common ground. This is where you show the customer that you heard and understood their concern and that you recognize that this issue is important to them.

5. Address the Issue. Now that you have addressed and helped diffuse some of the complaint's emotional issues, do everything in your power to resolve the practical aspects. Take responsibility for your organization's role in the customer's dissatisfaction. This is your opportunity to turn a lemon into lemonade. People who have their problems successfully resolved tend to choose to do business with those companies again.6. Test QuestionsAsk questions to test how well you have resolved the emotional and practical sides of the complaint. If the customer is satisfied with the resolution, this will make it easier to end the experience on a positive note.

7. Follow Through. Often, complaints cannot be resolved completely on the first point of contact. If you need to get back to the customer, do so quickly and be thorough in your response. Even if the complaint has been resolved, create a reason to contact the customer again. For example, find a way to offer added value to the customer's experience with the company. Also, look for ways to solve the root cause of problems within your organization. If you can solve some root causes of common complaints, you will experience fewer complaints.

Creating Loyal Customers

Sixty-eight percent of customers leave because of what they perceive as indifference from the merchant or someone within the merchant's organization. They feel unappreciated, unimportant, and taken-for-granted. (Source: Research by Dan S. Kennedy)

Today's customer is more educated, better prepared, and has more alternatives than at any other time. Given the complexity of the marketplace, it is not enough to merely satisfy your customers. You must turn them into fans, who will not only remain loyal to your product or service, but who will spread the good word about your company. You need to exceed expectations, show customers you care, and provide exceptional customer service. You need every good word you can get in this turbulent market!

Challenges to achieving high levels of customer focus and loyalty generally fall under one or more of the following areas: PRIDE

Process: How your company or organization operates on a daily basis. This includes how your company communicates and aligns the features and value of the product or service with your customers' expectations.

Roles: Who does what in your company or organization? Your employees must agree on tasks and responsibilities and hold employees accountable to those priorities.

Interpersonal Issues: How your customer service personnel get along with each other and with other departments. This includes their attitude, teamwork, and loyalty.

Direction: How your company defines and communicates its overall and departmental vision and mission.

External Pressures: In addition to market conditions, other sources of pressure include the availability of resources such as time and money. You may or may not be in control of the availability of these resources.

Keys to creating top-notch customer service are: BE SURE!

Broad product knowledge through insights into what your product or service can and cannot do.

Extreme desire to help. Show your goodwill, passion, and eagerness to please.

Sincere interest in your customer's situation. Don't assume the customer is simply being unreasonable when they may have a very good reason to be upset.

Understand customer expectations, which may be extremely demanding in these challenging times.

Respect for the customer's point of view.

Empowered with authority to provide answers, solutions, and any other help.