Time 4 change? I am a Service Advocate. Customer Service passé?

Should we abandon the term “Customer Service Representative”? If you are in the profession of providing a product or service to others, and most of us are, isn’t what we do more aligned with the term “Customer Advocate”?

The general term customer service has been so over used and it really is a passive term. There is a customer and there is service. But a customer advocate suggests a commitment to advocate for the customer. It implies action. The definition of an advocate: A person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy. So if we preface it with service we are now supporting and recommending the right course of action or right product, and advocating for our customer on behalf of our company.

Words mean things. Customer service has been around since the dawn of time and little has changed. Maybe customer service hasn’t changed because we have been defining it with such a generic term? Maybe great customer service is not achievable without customer advocates and we have overlooked this aspect and focused on changing organizations instead of individuals?

I know when I am representing my organization I provide a service and I advocate for great results in my interactions. I am responsible for providing a great experience not my company. My company’s reputation for service is built on each one of our customer interactions with every member of our organization. The organization is just the wrapping around the individuals that work for it.

We have been advocating for the customer forever and still there is lousy service in some sectors. Maybe a new approach is needed that focuses on empowering each of our team members to be a Service Advocate for our customers…

Want to lower the cost in the contact center? Improve the customer experience throughout the organization.

If you are not a sales based contact center and your mission is to handle customer issues involving a product or service. The best way to reduce the costs in the center is to improve how the customer interfaces with your organization at every level.

It might be a better website, a more understandable billing process, or better communication after a customer has placed an order. Every area of interface with the customer, whether that be physical or virtual, understand the areas of opportunities that could be improved. Be a customer of your own company and be honest about how many touch points are in need of improvement. Then improve them.

Don’t expect the contact center to improve a bad billing process. They can empathize with the customer but beyond making the issue visible to the owners of the billing department, they don’t control the issue and can’t reduce their cost until the process is improved.

So if you’re looking for contact center efficiencies: look beyond the contact center.

This has been a public service reminder to all executive teams that keep wondering why the contact center can’t reduce their costs.

Why Customers Become Difficult…

Have you ever wondered why customers enter into a conversation with our representatives seemingly annoyed? Your agents have answered a call and it seems as if the customer becomes unreasonable without the consideration of the agent that is trying to help the customer?

If we look at this from the customer’s perspective, they often are calling due to a breach of an implied contract. For example, our company has agreed to provide a service, and somewhere along the way we have not provided that service to the expectation of the customer. It could be a service outage, an internal problem at our organization, a mistake on a bill, or a failure in the technology or equipment we provide. The call center is an extension of the company and the customer sees us as one. Even though we often don’t control the service or technology we are seen as one company to the customer.

Customers are spending their hard earned money with us and that gives them the right to be annoyed if they don’t receive the value we have committed to for that money. They are not unreasonable to expect the service for which they paid. They could be “nice” about it but they have earned the right to be annoyed with us. I know we often take these negative encounters personally but it is simply a business discussion.

When a customer has a complaint we must approach it from the perspective of that customer and the implied contract we have with them if we expect them to continue to do business with us. We must acknowledge we have failed in their expectation in order to respect the customer’s concern. I know this seems basic to many but it must be reaffirmed often in our front line representatives. After all they are human too and the natural reaction is to be defensive and respond that it is not our (personal) fault. But it is our fault because we represent the company.

This response to difficult customers is a very basic lesson in customer service but one that every one of us as managers must reinforce every day with our supervisors. When your team puts this simple lesson into action, and more importantly understands why it is important, your customers will appreciate it with loyalty. You will be trusted in the customer’s eyes because you didn’t make any excuses. There are no excuses in customer service only solutions…

Do you have “Alternate Online Personality” syndrome?

Recently I watched in amazement the number of people in shopping areas, restaurants, and public places totally engaged with their cell phone or as they say “smart” phone. The phone may be smart but as a society are we heading in a “smart” direction?

It used to be that people learned how to handle being “social” by reading body language and assessing the situation around them and acting accordingly. For example, if you found yourself standing alone for a few minutes in a public area, you had to learn how to behave by either engaging in a conversation with a stranger or standing there confidently knowing that being alone was not a sign of being a nerd, having no friends, or all of the other thoughts that embarrass you when standing alone. It was a “Right of passage” as a teenager to learn how to handle these awkward moments in life. It was the precursor to handling business functions, parties, and weddings as we grew older.

This social lesson is no longer taking place as far as I observed since these awkward moments have been replaced with interaction between the individual and their technology device. No longer does a teenager or adult have to worry about being confronted with an awkward moment, all they have to do is look down on their technology and shazammm we are safe! We become part of the “norm” as every empty moment is filled with people looking into or typing a note into their technology gadget.

I don’t know if it will be the end of our society as we know it, but this new way of social engagement will reduce the skill it takes to be social. Being social on the social network circuit is different than being social in person. Having the ability to socialize in person will become more difficult if we “practice” the art of communication less by avoiding the opportunities through using our technology devices. Does this make sense?

I love to engage in personal settings much more than social technology platforms. I find social networks so impersonal in a personal way. Watching the behavior on Facebook and Twitter at first glance seems social but all it really is people posting their current status and others responding if they so choose. How is that social? It is definitely a form of engagement but in order to have a true social interaction you need to see the look in their eye, body language, and have the opportunity to show your true interest and empathy that only a personal engagement offers. Otherwise the interaction is prone to a syndrome I call “Alternate Online Personality” syndrome. This syndrome is prevalent in technical social interactions where people become more aggressive or rude because they do not have to look the person in the eye when they respond.

As contact center professionals we have been dealing with this for a long time over the phone. Many customer interactions are more aggressive because the person on the other end of the phone knows they don’t have to deal with the customer service representative face to face. If they did, the interaction would most likely be different. Phone and offshore customer service has given people the excuse to be less respectful and more unreasonable in their expectations of the customer service experience. If every customer interaction was face to face, customer service would be different from both the expectation and delivery.

As human beings we need to interact in person to maintain a level of civility or we could end up with a very aggressive and disconnected society which could impact the way we behave as humans in the long run. I know that millions and millions of people that would not have access to the world without technology might disagree with my concerns. But as a society develops and assesses the impacts of new technology we must consider what the overall impacts to our society are, and whether or not they are worth it.

There are many good things about technology and social networking but there are disturbing trends that are surfacing. We know some of those trends in the contact center and have had to live with rude customers on the phone, often with minimal justification for the rudeness. The question is, do we want this to be the way we interact throughout all of society? Will rude and aggressive be the “normal” of the future? By focusing so much of our social interaction online, will we lose our ability to interact in person effectively, leading to a more disconnected society overall?

I believe we need to balance our online and in-person personalities by staying in practice. The next time you find yourself in an awkward social setting instead of reaching for your “smart” phone, reach for a word or two to share with the person next to you. Practice, practice, practice…

Special Edition with Song Writer/Musician Pete Cassani

You may have heard  Pete’s songs if you have ever watched the Discovery Channel, an NBA game, MTV Behind The Scenes, The Shield and many more shows too numerous to list. He along with his band The Peasants’ have opened for Aerosmith, a former member of The Stray Cats, and The White Stripes. He is a regular member of the Boston music circuit and his songs, including one of his singles from his latest release Big Sunny Day called “Waddlin”, can be heard on WAAF in Boston. He made a living playing in the Subways of Boston with an open guitar case even though he holds a degree from the prestigious Binghamton University in NY.

Link to our interview

I interviewed Pete about his long “career” as a musician and song writer and he burst out laughing about the use of “career”. The inconsistency of money doesn’t mean his life’s work is anything less than a career in the true sense of the word. He is a dedicated artist and has an impressive list of credits even though he wishes his bank account was bigger. But don’t we all wish our bank account was bigger? The true value of what Pete has accomplished in his life is to be true to himself.

I asked Pete about what he wanted his legacy as a song writer/musician to be and after emphatically stating “I am not planning to die anytime soon”, he wants to be remembered for “telling the truth” through his songs. He likens his style to Dylan, Neil Young, and Lennon in his honest approach to his songwriting. He is also quick to note that he is not “comparing himself as a musician to these legends”.

As we think about our lives as professionals, I have the utmost respect for people that have dedicated their life to their passion. It could be in business or it could be a career as a musician. Pete graduated from the prestigious University of Binghamton in NY with a journalism degree. But Pete chose to be true to what really drives his spirit. I asked Pete what the best part of being a musician is and he said,” there is nothing like playing live in front of an audience. You have this opportunity as a musician to take them on this journey and it is an awesome experience. There is nothing like it.”

When I think about what Pete just said right there I have to wonder, am I doing something I can say “there is nothing like it”. I do have parts of what I do that I get that feeling. I hope we all do.

I hope you listen to this interview but I really hope you support him by buying a song from this site . You can listen to hear each song but I would suggest everyone buy “Waddlin” and listen closely to the lyrics. They will make you laugh but they point out an epidemic in our society.

Pete has played on almost every original song I have recorded. If you want to hear some of his guitar work on my original songs you can just head over to my website and click on the Music tab.

I encourage you to take on life with the same passion Pete has for his craft. Thanks Pete for sharing your music and your passion with us. Join Pete’s Facebook page at and share the music with the music lovers in your life…

 Share Tweet Forward

$70,000 Minimum Wage

This CEO decided on a $70,000 Minimum Wage: What minimum wage could we provide to our front line that would guarantee a better return?

A recent article in the New York Times highlights a CEO/Owner of a credit card payment processing center in Seattle who is experimenting with a $70,000 minimum wage. He currently has 120 employees. He read an article about how people that make less than $70K a year are more focused on paying the bills which distracts from their performance at work. He decided he would remove the distraction by paying everyone, including himself $70,000 a year.

I have always been an advocate for paying front line employees that engage with our most important asset, our customer, more money. It never made sense to me that the people that deal with our customers, who we supposedly treasure, or at least create the treasure, are entry level and paid the lowest salaries in the company. I started to think about the scenario if we paid our call center, inside sales agents, and customer facing staff a minimum wage of $50K. Some organizations depending on the complexity of the position already make respectable salaries but what about the typical call center employee?

One of the biggest issues in a call center is attrition. We spend a lot of money and resources hiring, training, and onboarding new employees. What if we raised the wage for our specific industry to 30% higher than our competition for employees in the area? Would it reduce our attrition and improve productivity? Would employees be happier, more engaged, and appreciate the fact that they are being paid top dollar in their field? Could the company survive or possibly thrive by attracting the best talent in the industry?

Based on interviews of the CEO in the New York Times article, he is experimenting with this wage increase but I think he may have made a few mistakes. Only time will tell if this works for his company. For example, if everyone makes the same wage no matter how they perform or what they do for the company, how long before resentment sets in from employees that work harder than others?  Will $70K become the expectation and lose its luster? Will people take for granted this generous gesture in time and then expect $90K as a minimum wage. Merit systems were created because over time they were the most effective driver of performance. Maybe things have changed in the workplace market and history and experience are irrelevant in today’s market. I doubt it but I respect the CEO for trying something different.

There are a lot of questions to be answered in this experiment but I think the CEO is on the right track if this is what he believes he needs to do as an owner to grow and maintain his business. I believe people respond differently to incentives and incentives can be used effectively to drive performance, especially sales performance. If we all make the same whether I sell 100 accounts a month or 10, how do you manage that discrepancy.

The increase sounds good, and it will be for the people that just received a huge raise. But what about the person who had earned her way to $75 - $80K; How would she feel?

In the call center I think this idea as a concept would make a great experiment. What do you think?

You’re Hired! This is Why!

·         Enthusiasm

·         Eager to Please

·         Ability to Reason

·         Open to Constructive Feedback

·         Dreamer

If you give me a person that has all of these traits I will guarantee your business will be a success.

Enthusiasm is contagious and attracts customers and colleagues alike. No problem is too big or request too small to tackle.

People that are eager to please will find a way to get it done. They derive their satisfaction from other’s satisfaction with their performance.

If you can’t reason you cannot continually improve. You must have the capacity to think. I am not talking knowledge, I am talking common sense.

Successful people learn from feedback. If we don’t accept feedback we will not change.

People with dreams are goal setters that never give up. They are the ultimate optimist and know that everything takes time but you only get there if you remain determined to reach your goal. Dreamers discount negativity about ideas and are not discouraged by people that don’t share their dream.

Everything else can be trained!