Attitude of Gratitude: Are Your Front-Line Employees Leaving a Good Impression on Customers?
Attribution Busters made 25 calls to random security companies to evaluate their customer service, receiving mostly discouraging feedback.
Bob Harris is the president of Attrition Busters and SSI editorial Advisory Board member.
These four asked excellent qualifying questions with the intention of setting a day and time for a representative to meet us and discuss our needs. Even still, when we told them we would call back if we wanted to make an appointment, not one of them thanked us for calling! One looked forward to any opportunity to be of service, another would be happy to answer any questions we might have in the future. One said, “You’re welcome” when we said thank you, and another simply said, “Catch ya later!”
The hard truth is telephone excellence and etiquette has become the exception rather than the rule regardless of the size of the company. In fact, customer service in general pretty much stinks when business owners simply do not invest a penny in training for their employees.
When was the last time you called in to your own company as a prospect just to see how your employees sound over the telephone? How much effort do prospects have to exert just to speak with someone capable of answering a few simple sales related questions? Have you taken some time to call around and see how your competitors answer these calls? What are you investing in your team to educate them with knowledge about your company, the services you provide and to arm them with dynamic answers that make them and your company stand apart from competitors? When was the last time one of your employees took a moment to let any caller (prospect or existing customer) know how grateful they were for the call?
The hard truth is telephone excellence and etiquette has become the exception rather than the rule regardless of the size of the company. In fact, customer service in general pretty much stinks when business owners simply do not invest a penny in training for their employees.
Frankly, excellent customer service in just about every service industry is lacking. Based on responses from an end user focus group Attrition Busters held earlier this year in Los Angeles, the overwhelming feeling participants conveyed was that service stinks almost everywhere and service providers simply don’t care about them.
‘Hey, I have many choices but I’m calling you. Please, stand apart from others and help me give you some of my money!’
‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ are two phrases that seem to have disappeared from our society. The same is true when it comes to gratitude and empathy. When we make it hard for prospects and customers to get answers, when we fail to express an attitude of gratitude and when we fail to return phone calls, the underlying message you send is that you invest nothing in your team, which means you are likely also to invest nothing in me!
You might say my call is important to you or that you care about me but you really don’t.
Catch ya later!
…
About the Author: Bob Harris is president of Attrition Busters. With over 40 years in the alarm industry, he provides seminars, business consulting and workshops to help great companies become even better. Bob also is an SSI editorial Advisory Board member. Bob can be reached at (818) 730-4690 or by email at [email protected]. Learn more about Attrition Busters here.
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