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Copyright, Ron Kaufman. Visit: www.RonKaufman.com
Thank you!
SRI LANKA DAILY MIRROR, Financial Times, May 31, 2004
Excerpts of interview:
Q - Why is customer service is so important to a healthy business in developing as well as developed countries?
A - Especially in developing countries you have the strong likelihood that "word of mouth" is a powerful means of advertising and gaining new business. Excellent customer relations is one of the best ways to create a strong and lasting reputation that people will talk about with other people. This leads to more business and prestige for your company, and even the ability to charge higher prices for your products and services. If you are only known for cheap or fast, you can be beaten by whomever is cheaper or faster. But if you are known for great service, others must work very very Hard to try and even match you.
Q - When practicing perfect customer relations, how does an institution overcome the difficulties such as personality, attitude and low team spirit?
A - The first step is to be fierce about hiring only those with the right attitude in the first place. Your recruitment procedure should only select and hire those with the "right" attitudes in the first place. I wrote about this recently in my monthly newsletter. If you want a strong and distinctive company culture, you need to get the right people on the job.
If you want innovation, hire creative people. If you want aggressive sales results, hire those with an energized 'can-do' approach. If you want to give great customer service, only hire people who will run the extra mile.
But how can you find such people in a market filled with too many resumes, retrenchments and early retirees? How can you avoid wasting time and money hiring new staff - only discovering later they weren't the right people for the job? Well-constructed job interviews can be useful. Candid referrals may help. Personality profiles might reveal who a person really is, and isn't.
Here's another approach that will save you time and money, but is very rarely used: raise the bar during the recruitment process so new job seekers 'self select'.
You want innovation? Run your recruitment advertisement upside down in the newspaper. (It will be the only one, and will definitely stand out!) Ask interested applicants to provide specific examples of how they do things 'differently' (and better) in their own lives and in their work. You want ambitious, aggressive new sales staff? Arrange job interviews at one location, then leave a note taped on the door explaining that the location has been changed to somewhere else. Include a short apology and a map, and request those still interested come to a different building several blocks away. At the new location, do it again, but this time move the meeting down the hall or up a few flights of stairs. Now interview and select only those applicants who arrive energised by this process. Those who complain, are upset or exhausted won't have the stamina to chase down sales leads and succeed.
You want to give great customer service? Conduct job interviews at 8:00pm on Friday night. When applicants arrive, ask them to help you pack a last minute customer order before the interview begins. Then have someone call in (pre-arranged) pretending to be your customer. Help them patiently over the phone, delaying your interview a few more minutes. Watch your applicant's mood throughout this process. Hire only those who nod and smile as they watch you go the extra mile.
The MGM Hotel applied this approach in a fast and effective manner. They needed to hire hundreds of new staff in a short period of time, but thousands of job seekers applied. One by one the applicants were guided down a long hallway. As they approached a junction at the end of the hall, an MGM staff looked up from his desk and said "Hello".
Applicants who responded with clear eye-contact, a warm smile and a positive tone of voice were guided to the right side for immediate interviews and job offers. Those who responded with a blank look or a flat tone of voice were guided gently to the left, and out the door.
The key learning point is that it is important to get the right people into your organization, and expensive to hire the wrong ones. Be creative with your recruitment and interview process. Take time up front to help job applicants 'self-select'.
In action steps look closely at your current new staff recruitment and interviewing process. Does it help you identify job applicants who are truly aligned with your mission, values and culture? How can you change, improve or modify the process to quickly attract who you WANT, and easily decline who you don't.
Q - Why does most business focus only in sales where less attention is given to after sales service?
A - Because they are incredibly short sighted!! Today's service equals tomorrow's sale! Today's sale without after sales service equals upset customers who will not come back and will tell other people (your prospects) bad things about you. The focus on sales is always looking for immediate money coming in. A focus on after sales service knows that money will come, and keep on coming, from a loyal customer base.
Q - How can a person pushback the boundaries of his own thinking when it comes to customer service?
A - You must study great customer service, keep yourself motivated to serve well, and build a team and culture around you that supports the highest levels of service delivery. All your readers should get my free monthly newsletter (visit www.RonKaufman.com ) and study other great examples and strategies for customer service.
Also, remember, your customers can be upset, angry, emotional and even abusive. Great service providers must always work to keep themselves uplifted and positive, which means surrounding yourself with positive colleagues, reading uplifting books, seeing the good in others, and praising great service whenever and wherever you find it.
Q - Are there any essential behaviours and practices to become a excellent customer service provider?
A - Chapter Two in my first book, "UP Your Service" is called "An up your Service mindset, which details six key characteristics of great service providers. I attach that chapter for you to this message for your review.
As to "practices" - the entire book is filled with them and they are all required
Q - With customer satisfaction and after sales service in place in which way could a business improve their profits?
A - Ask for referrals from happy customers. Ask current customers what ELSE they would like you to provide. Once your reputation for great service is in place, then you can leverage that by providing more and different products and services to your existing customer base as add-ons, premium items, bundles and packages, etc. But be sure to find out from your customers what else they would appreciate from You before you start developing potentially unprofitable businesses. For example, a grocery store might start a small restaurant or a cooking school, or a car wash in the parking lot, or babysitting services and child care for mothers. But which one to start? Ask your customers!
Q - Most Asian countries are known for practicing outstanding customer service, how do you see this comment?
A - I disagree. Certain Asian countries offer excellent customer service in certain ways. For example, Thailand is very gracious, but accuracy can be low. Japan is very respectful, but flexibility is limited. Hong Kong is very fast, but hardly warm and polite. Sri Lankans are naturally kind and helpful, but getting things done with efficiency can be a real adventure!
Q - How will Sri Lanka and South Asia stands when it comes to customer care?
A - This depends upon how you define customer care. I experience Sri Lankans as a very "caring" people: kindness, soft-spoken, gentle, genuinely desiring to be helpful. But the fundamental systems for speed, accuracy, reliability, etc are not up to global standards. As this changes, you can have the best of both worlds - and be amongst the best in the world.
Q - Could a business consider financial viability in implementing customer service?
A - Absolutely. I am a business person first, then a customer service expert. There is no sense giving a "great service" if you go out of business! But financial viability must be seen in light of long term success, not just short term dollars. Loyal customers cannot be created overnight - they must be cultivated with consistently excellent service time and time again. If you are not willing to Invest in excellent service (in training, hiring the right people, providing necessary systems), then go ahead and compete on price alone, and good luck to you in the long term.
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