FROM JIM SIRBASKU’S DESK
 

Eight Questions for Customer-Facing Leaders
 

Do you know the two-thirds/one-third rule of business? Our "Six Crucial Behaviors" report makes it simple. Commonly, organizations enjoy two-thirds of their business from existing clients and one-third from new customers. So you'd better make sure the young woman with perfect nails can hustle up lots of new business to make up for the clients she is filing away.

A more productive action would be to hire the right person in the first place—who may or may not be the woman filing her nails. And if she is the best person for the job, your organization can coach her to better—dare we say superb—customer service?

Our report on customer-facing employees identifies six core behaviors for those who face the public, and discusses each behavior in detail. In addition to examining that list and analyzing your company's record, a bit of self-examination is in order. How do you, as a leader, treat customers?

Some questions for top leaders to ask themselves:

• Are you establishing relationships with loyal customers or ignoring them until you need something? Mining a relationship means getting to know your customer's business, and discovering what he needs from you—sometimes before he knows. Teach your employees how to do this and watch your business grow.

• Are you clear with employees about your expectations and following your own rules? If you tell workers how you want them to behave with existing customers, then brush off a difficult or demanding customer because you are too busy or just do not want to deal with him, you are sending conflicting messages. Leaders need to walk the walk.

• Does everyone in your organization know your customer-service attitudes and follow them? Or do you leave the "duty" of customer service to one department? Everyone who works for your company represents it; this is the way your customers see things, and wise leaders understand this.

• Do you ask your customers about their experience at your business? They will tell you, especially if they like your company and see a way to do business with you that makes their experience better.

• Do you know how to express yourself with tact, even when you disagree with a customer? Knowing how to state your disagreement with diplomacy is a skill not everyone possesses. Some people can learn it, however. If you, as a leader, have this skill, let others see how you use it.

• Do you treat employees with respect? They are your personal customers, and they respond to others in kind. Remember to listen, to praise in public, and to correct in private. Do you have a system in place that remembers birthdays and anniversaries with the company? Do you treat workers as well as you do your valued outside clients? Cultivating your professional relationship with employees produces better attitudes and helps reduce turnover.

• Do you empower employees to make customer service decisions, or do you require them to get permission from someone else—or from you—before helping a customer? Train your employees well and they will know what to do. If they make a decision that appeared right at the time but turned out not to be so, treat it as a learning experience.

• Do you require that customer service issues be resolved pronto, or do you allow them to drag on? Painful indecision benefits no one. The customer will be unhappy and your workers will spend too much time on details while ignoring the big picture.

The illustration of the young woman filing her nails while ignoring customers shows an obvious lapse; most customer service issues are more subtle, often hidden from the boss. The happy news is that fixing customer service is not impossible, with the right people on the job, getting the right message from the top.

Jim Sirbasku, CEO
Profiles International

"Customers complain because they want you to address a perceived shortcoming—not because they don't like you."—Bud Haney/Jim Sirbasku, founders of Profiles International, in their book 40 Strategies for Winning in Business

"Two-thirds of business from existing accounts and one-third from new accounts is the common balance."—From the report Six Crucial Behaviors for Customer-Facing Employees, Profiles International

"If you get everybody in the company involved in customer service, not only are they 'feeling the customer' but they're also getting a feeling for what’s not working."—Penny Handscomb, HR professional

"You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you."—Dale Carnegie, self-improvement consultant

"How you say something to a customer can be just as important as what you say, especially in an emotionally charged situation."—From the report Six Crucial Behaviors for Customer-Facing Employees, Profiles International

Profiles International is pleased to announce a

NEW Resource for our Clients!

Solutions Services – 800.776.5405

Solutions.Services@ profilesmail.com

Solutions Services will be available to meet all your service needs.
Monday – Friday 8:00 am – 6:00 pm, CST
 

Use CSP to Keep Your Customers

If supplying customers with good service is not rocket science, why are so many organizations lacking? One reason is that the person who most often meets your customers does not fit his job.

As Profiles' International discovered 22 years ago when it developed the Customer Service Knowledge Scale, not every worker is an ideal candidate for customer service, and some employees just do not naturally possess the knowledge they need to supply your customers with the best possible outcome.

But there are ways to find new candidates who are right for your organization, and to train existing employees in the fine points of customer service the way you see it. Profiles' Customer Service Profile offers several options—four versions specific to the areas of healthcare, finance, retail and hospitality, and one general edition for any industry.

As you know from reading Profiles' report, "Six Crucial Behaviors for Customer-Facing Employees," six employee behaviors are necessary for extraordinary customer service. These are trust, tact, empathy, conformity, focus and flexibility. Our report describes each behavior in detail, and the CSP measures each. It also sizes up how closely the candidate's perspective matches your company’s customer service policies and attitudes—information that goes to the heart of your mission.

Here are the reports employers receive after a candidate takes CSP:

• The Placement Report. This offers a Job Match Percentage that tells you how well the candidate measures up to your standards and the degree of alignment between what she thinks and what you expect. The report also contains "Considerations for Interviewing." Whenever the candidate’s score misses your customized Job Match Pattern, the report suggests interview questions to stimulate a dialogue. This reinforces your expectations and gives the candidate a clear understanding of them.

• The Coaching Report. Even if you know the employee needs coaching, you may not know where to start. This report shows you the areas to work on to obtain the customer service attitudes you want.

• The Individual Report. Not everyone can see himself as others see him. This report increases the candidate's self-awareness and helps him follow through with the customer service that contributes to your success.

• The Company Perspective Comparison Report. Want to see the differences between your expectations and the candidate's responses side-by-side? Here's your opportunity.

CSP can help conquer the challenges of dissatisfied customers, legal liability, high turnover, and inappropriate messaging about your business. It's so versatile you can use it not only for initial placement, but also as a tool for employee promotion, and for succession planning, coaching and self-improvement.

If you are ready to ensure your customer-facing employees are pointed in exactly the right direction, call us at 254-751-1644. We provide the compass

Exceptional products and services, outstanding prices, and excellent service after the sale are no longer a guarantee that your best customers will stay with you. A loyal customer base can be established only through Customer Relationship Management, which requires the conscious focus of the entire company on the development of mutually profitable customer partnerships.

A Personal Story from Jim Sirbasku
One of the things about Profiles that makes Bud and me especially proud is the number of wonderful relationships we have formed with so many people around the world. Bernard Rapoport, a former CEO of American Income Life, a large insurance company, is one of these people. One day, he mentioned he was looking for someone to conduct special training for his salespeople. Mr. Rapoport told me about the specific information he wanted to impart, and it happened to be a subject in which I consider myself something of an expert. I told him I would be delighted to speak to his salespeople.

Agents and managers from across the United States attended the company's next quarterly meeting. My presentation was well received and Mr. Rapoport reported that I received more favorable comments than any of the company's previous speakers. Because of this, I was invited to do the presentation at the company's next annual convention.

I continued to participate in the company's training at their home office as well as regional conferences around the country. During this period, I noticed that the company used more Profiles' assessments. In fact, after every one of my sessions, the number increased substantially. I feel our business was helped because I was able to form relationships with Mr. Rapoport's people. I spent a great deal of time with them and got to know their individual situations and specific problems. This knowledge made it possible for me to relate to the company's independent agents and managers on a very personal basis and learn about their business. I then made specific recommendations of Profiles' products to help them increase their efficiency and sales.

This is a typical win-win situation. The company's agents and managers benefited from the information, and Profiles capitalized on the increased business. All of this happened because of relationships. In business, building relationships builds sales!

Existing Customers—Your Greatest Assets
There are two ways to increase your sales volume:

•Find new customers, and
• Sell more to existing customers

Most companies seem to focus naturally on the first option. Traditional sales training and methodologies historically have focused on selling new business, often to the detriment of the development of existing customers. The reality is, however, that it is usually less expensive and consequently more profitable to sell to an existing customer than to win a new customer, because selling to an existing customer costs less, they will refer you, and they are willing to pay more for the value of time saved and reduced risk

Seven Steps to Better Customer Relationships
Relationship development is generally considered the sole responsibility of individual salespeople. Successful relationships are often deemed dependent upon the personal abilities of salespeople to establish rapport with key individuals in important accounts. This should not be so.

Relationship building can be formally planned and monitored in exactly the same fashion as any sales or marketing campaign—by setting firm objectives for everyone who has any contact within the key customer accounts, and by measuring performance against those objectives. A relationship development program should include action plans to realize the following objectives, at the very least.

Involve Everyone
Make sure that all personnel who interface with customers:

• Know something about each customer's business
• Know the names of key contacts
• Understand the priorities of different customers in terms of the product/services they source from you
• Share the value that you place on your customers' priorities, and portray a partnership approach to addressing them
• Appreciate what makes your organization's products/services so special
• View complaints as a high priority and a chance to excel

However, involving frontline personnel is only half the task. Senior management must also take responsibility for working with account development teams to establish peer level contact in customer accounts. That sort of contact can open doors that would otherwise remain closed to sales or support personnel, and insulates the account relationship from dependence on a single contact, such as the salesperson.

Know Their Business Inside Out
Team members who have frequent contact within the customer account—sales or support people, for example—best build this level of customer knowledge. Customers will happily provide you with information that makes this awareness possible. Personnel in contact with the account should continually seek input through questions like:

• What are your organizational objectives—short, medium and long term?
• What are your department's objectives?
• What part will you play in meeting those objectives?
• How might the operation of the organization be improved?
• How might the operation of your department be improved?
• What do you view as the key trends in your industry?
• Whom do you consider your main competitors?
• How do you position yourself against these competitors?

Know Them Personally
People make decisions based on who they are. Account teams should seek to understand personal ambitions and objectives—where do their contacts see themselves going in the context of their organizations: What are they trying to achieve? Can your organization be an ally in helping them to meet their personal objectives or career aspirations? Harvey Mackay, a successful entrepreneur who has written several best-selling books, including Swim with the Sharks, has a system called the Mackay 55—containing at least 55 pieces of information on every one of his business contacts. The availability of inexpensive, easy-to-use, online customer retention systems makes the collection and management of this sort of information much easier than it has ever been.

Pulse-Check the Relationship Frequently
Account teams must take control of relationship development, continually seeking feedback about how you and your product/services are perceived. Be sure that they are not too afraid to hear what they're doing wrong, or too modest to hear what they are doing right, asking:

• Are we living up to your expectations?
• How can we improve what we are doing for you?
• Is there anything else we should be doing to ensure our position as a favored supplier?
• Is there anyone else within the organization to whom you feel we should be talking?
• Who is your number one supplier of (the same products/services your company provides?) Why?
• How can we become your number one supplier?
• Who is currently providing other products/services that we could potentially supply?
• Why are these suppliers used?
• What should we do to position ourselves for this business?
• What new challenges might we be able to help you meet?

Account teams should listen to what they are told, and be seen to act upon it—feeding back any improvements or changes made because of customer comments.

Be Their Eyes and Ears
Another way to improve relationships with key account contacts is through the unsolicited provision of information relevant to their personal and organizational goals—identifying materials, ideas and news that might be of practical use to them. No one has as much time as he feels he needs to keep up-to-date in today's fast-moving, information-rich business world. Sources include newspapers, industry periodicals and the World Wide Web. Maintain a steady stream of value-added communication with key account contacts. This alone can have a powerful effect in positioning you as a valued partner.

Thank Them—Every Time
It is not possible to overstate the impact of two such small words. Be sure that your customers are aware of the value you place on doing business with them.

Do it Again, and Again, and…
Make customer development an integral part of the way you do business. Ensure that everyone on your team understands the part he must play in maintaining and developing good profitable relationships with your major accounts. When almost every other aspect of your business environment is changing at a rate that makes even medium-term planning difficult, Customer Relationship Management provides a reliable link to a profitable future. Invest in it.

*From the book 40 STRATEGIES FOR WINNING IN BUSINESS by Bud Haney and Jim Sirbasku. © S&H Publishing Co., 5205 Lake Shore Drive, Waco, Texas 76710-1732. All rights reserved. Contact S&H Publishing Co., (254) 751-1644, for reprint permission.

How to Retain Employees with CSP

Profiles' clients hear this message repeatedly: Carefully consider how well an employee’s core behaviors fit with the actual job he or she will be performing. As this case study illustrates, an organization will enjoy the benefits of understanding its workers and replicating the skills of top performers.

Background
Leaders at a financial services organization wanted to increase employee retention. Their solution was to conduct a two-year study with Profiles International to examine the relationship between employee turnover and how strongly candidates matched positions they sought. Customer Service Profile measured this relationship.

First Steps
The organization first developed a Job Match Pattern using CSP. This pattern reflected the company’s views on customer service. The Job Match Pattern, which used information gathered from the employer's top performers, reflected the qualities that the organization valued in customer relations. Participants that responded in a similar manner to that pattern implicitly share the organization’s belief in customer service and thus are a stronger fit than those who lack the same congruence in responding.

Participants
Leaders at the organization administered CSP to 1,287 candidates and evaluated their Job Match Percent. They described 80 percent or greater score as a strong fit to the job and 79 percent or less as a weak fit.

Next, the financial services organization hired 226 of the 1,287 candidates participating, then monitored their employment status.

Performance Grouping
One hundred sixty-six of the 226 hired obtained an 80 percent or greater score on the Job Match question, and leaders saw them as a strong fit to the job and the organization.

Sixty participants of the 226 obtained a 79 percent or less score on the Job Match question, and leaders saw them as a weak fit.

Next, analysts tracked the turnover figures for each group:

Strong fit employees registered a 36.7 percent turnover rate. (61 of 166 employees)
Weak fit employees demonstrated a 41.7 percent turnover rate. (25 or 60 employees)

Summary
By using the Customer Service Profile to benchmark, select and train employees, the organization realized the ability to successfully predict employee turnover based on Job Match Percent. It reduced by 12 percent its financial burden of filling voided positions, resulting in substantial savings. By using the CSP to increase employee retention, this organization will continue to hire candidates it is likely to retain.

Understanding its people helps an organization:

• Identify those who excel in their role, and then use assessments to discover what makes them tick
• Create a model against which it can match potential employees
interested in the same job
• Gain insight as to where employees may be at risk
• Offer specific coaching tips and development suggestions

This pattern now serves as a benchmark for leaders to match to other job candidates and employees at the financial services organization.