Customer Experience - The Sincera Way

How to Create a Service-Minded Customer Service Culture

I am often asked, "How do I create a Service-Minded Customer Service Culture?"

This is a powerful question that actually has an easy answer.

The culture of any organization is going to be a direct function of its "components".  The culture of the organization is made up of the people - the talent on the team.

Therefore, the answer is simply to carefully select the kind of talent that believes in being "service-minded" as a matter of habit. 

One either is "service-minded" or they are not.  The good news is it is actually quite easy to identify those that actually "service-minded".

These people can be found via one way and one way only - pre-employment personality profiling.  Over the last 15 years, I have yet to meet a human being that has the ability to truly identify "service-minded" talent.  Job interviews are easily "gamed" by well-prepared candidates. 

Your Customer Experience - How Do You Make Your Customers Feel?

"You are great!"

How does your Customer Experience make your Customer or Patient feel?

Do they feel GREAT?  Or do they feel ignored.

It all depends.

Emotions "rub off" on others.  The big questions are...

Are you purposefully selecting employee team members who make Customers and Patients feel better or worse emotionally?

Do your employee team members know why they are there?  Do they know what they really do?

Are your employee team members aware of their emotional impact on the Customer or Patient?

Do your employee team members really care?  Or are they acting like they care?

I came across a powerful video clip called, "Validation" thanks to a good friend of mine - Randy Hatzenbuhler, the president of The Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation.  Check it out...  Then share it with your team members.  You, they, and your Customers / Patients will be glad you did.

Spread the energy!

Employee or Team Member? Which Provides Better Customer Service?

Do you have employees or team members?

Which provides a better Customer Service Experience?

• Employees act like employees.

• Team members act like...  Team members.

Recently, I spoke at a conference hosted at the Green Valley Ranch Resort in Las Vegas.  It was my first stay at the Green Valley Ranch Resort.  I arrived late, checked in, and quickly found myself a bit lost in the dark.

Within seconds of realizing I was lost, a hotel employee asked me what my room number was and asked if I would like to follow him.  He lead me to the appropriate elevator.  He was gracious.  I was grateful.

My colleague had a small challenge with his room and when someone arrived to fix the issue, they greeted him by name and used his name several times.

The team members refreshing the room where I was speaking engaged myself and my colleague in polite banter. 

The shuttle driver was quite clear in communicating what to expect when arriving at the airport.

What made the difference?

I believe the Green Valley Ranch Resort's Customer Service Experience is the result of a solid combination of the Right Talent, the Right Touch Points, and the Right Culture. 

Part of the Right Culture "mix" is the Mindset of the Team Members who work there.  When I searched for the restrooms, I found a door that said, "Team Members Only".

• What kind of organization has Team Members?

• What kind of Customer Experience is delivered by an organization comprised of Team Members?

Nicely done.

Now go Maximize Possibility!

Chris Young helps organizations Maximize Possibility through talent management, cultural transformation, and strategic intervention.  Bring Chris in today!

1-866-988-RAIN

Copyright 2009, Chris Young - The Rainmaker Group, Inc.

Customer Service Experience Culture Shaping

Is everyone on your team on the same "page" regarding your Customer Service or Patient Experience "story"?  If they are not - your Customer Service Experience will be somewhat or completely random.  Inconsistent Customer and Patient Experiences drive your Customers and Patients toward your competition.

What can you do strategically?  Communicate - communicate - communicate.  Organizations committed to creating a consistent Customer Service Experience need to do one thing consistently - shape the mindset of the employee team members through powerful communication.

Actually for the record...  Strategic Customer and Patient-centric organizations consciously and actively seek to consistently create the desired Customer Service Experience.  Step one is to create the Customer Service vision in the minds of employee team members.  Unfortunately, few organizations are "strategic" because they fail to keep the "story" of "why we are here" - top-of-mind with employee team members.

The primary problem is one of assuming that everyone "gets it".  (The other problem is assuming that every employee team member fits the job.)  Too often, I find that organizations take for granted or assume that everyone on their "bus" is on the same "page" in terms of what the organization really does through their Customer or Patient Experience.

What can you do?  The answer is simply - talk about the emotional impact of your Customer or Patient Service Experience and do so daily - if not more often.  When your employee team members beg you to stop - keep talking about it.

Keep the pressure on - constantly.

Now go Maximize Possibility!

Chris Young helps organizations Maximize Possibility through talent management, cultural transformation, and strategic intervention.  Bring Chris in today!

1-866-988-RAIN

Copyright 2009, Chris Young - The Rainmaker Group, Inc.

Customer Service Experience Culture and Mindset - What is Yours?

How the Customer or Patient feels as a result of your Customer/Patient Experience is going to be the direct result of what your employee team members believe they are there to do.  The group "mindset" or Culture sets the Customer Service Experience tone. 

The big questions are, "How do employee team members talk to one another?  How do they talk with the Customer or Patient?" 

How employee team members communicate - what they talk about says a great deal about their story and the overall Culture of the team and organization.  The big question is...  "What is their story focused on?"

• Is their story "people-based" or "task-based"? 

• Is their story "ego-based" or "soul-based"?

Clearly, the overall story or "mindset" of the organization creates the overall Customer Service Experience Culture of the organization.  The more "task-focused" the overall Customer Service Experience Culture is, the more emotionally "chilly" it is. 

What is your team or organization's story, mindset, and Culture?

For example...  What does an orthodontist do?  What does their team talk about?

• Do employee team members talk about the misaligned teeth?  Do they talk in technical language?  (task-focus)

• Do employee team members talk about the transformation of lives by the individual names of the Patients they serve? (people-focus)

No judgement calls here...  Your Customers / Patients will judge your overall Experience!  What your employee team members talk about most determines precisely what they are focused on most - the task or the people. 

• An over-focus on task has the potential to be emotionally "cold" and emotionally upset "people-oriented" people.

• An over-focus on people has the potential to upset the "task-oriented" people.

Good organizations are technically-proficient - they do their job well - especially in medicine.  Great organizations are good at taking care of the technical elements as well as the "people" elements.

What is your team and organization focused on?

Technical proficiency is critically important in all Customer relationships.  Unfortunately, many organizations over-focus on the technical elements of the relationship.  In medicine, technical proficiency is particularly important for obvious reasons.  The real issue is many medical organizations think only about the technical elements while losing sight of the emotional elements.

From my perspective, "technicall proficiency" is a "ticket to the game" - it is a given.  Unless the technical talent is in extremely short-supply, the "technical proficiency" is relatively easy to copy.  The real challenge is to marry technical proficiency with emotional engagement of the Customer or Patient.

Do your Customers / Patients come to you because they want to or have to?

Now go Maximize Possibility!

Chris Young helps organizations Maximize Possibility through talent management, cultural transformation, and strategic intervention.  Bring Chris in today!

1-866-988-RAIN

Copyright 2009, Chris Young - The Rainmaker Group, Inc.