The #1 quality of a customer service superstar is the ability to think about ALL of the concerns of others rather than how you yourself might be inconvenienced dealing with them. Customer care is about listening well and solving problems in a humble manner. Think about the purchase process from the customer’s point of view. The customer has likely researched your product or service. They have done some comparison shopping for price, value, and features. Just before the customer pulls the trigger to buy from you, they silently put you through one more test. How easy will it be to buy from you?
- They want the purchase to be safe i.e., they want to know they can get their money back if they are dissatisfied for some reason.
- They want the product or service to live up your brand promise. They don’t want the product to break or the service to be difficult to execute once they want to use it.
- After all their research and thought, they don’t want to go through the effort of returning the product or unsubscribing from a service. Why? Because they don’t want to run into an inquisition – or an expiration discussion. Customers have been conditioned to expect a conflict.
Can you hire people who possess the qualities of humility and other centeredness? Yes …and No. During the interview process, see how many questions the prospective hire asks you. Are they demonstrating the appropriate amount of curiosity and clarification? Do they handle pressure well? If you give them a “what would you do?” scenario, do they answer quickly – or do they stall as if they are thinking about what you want to hear? Ask them about how they grew up. How hard did they work? Did they live in a home where they got an allowance for doing chores? If so, they likely equate trading money for effort. If not, they likely equate being helpful for nothing more than a little recognition.
So, yes by the way your interviewee answers the questions, I think you can hire people who genuinely care about others.
But wait, I said “Yes…and No.”
The NO part of that statement is taking into consideration that some very good people might not be naturally curious. Do we dismiss these potential superstars because they didn’t answer the questions as we’d hoped? Not yet. I accept the challenge that the non-curious can be coached to form the new habit of curiosity. Here’s how I do it. I first bring their non-curious behaviors to light. Some people don’t even know they do it. Then, I have them practice asking Open-Ended Questions. Open-Ended questions start a sentence with WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, & WHY. (An old journalism and talk show host trick) If you ask a question in that form, your subject is forced to talk, to describe, or to elaborate…all of which makes the subject believe you are truly interested in what they have to say.
Close Ended questions like (Are those new shoes? How’s the job treating you? Did you have a good weekend?) allow a subject to answer in just 1-3 words (Uh-Huh, Yes, No, I don’t know, and I guess I’m ok). Close Ended questions are conversation killers.
I’ve found – IF the non-curious people dutifully and methodically practice the “Curiosity Exercise” of asking Open Ended questions— and YOU reward them with a “Thank You for showing interest in other people” or a “Your customer is really happy with you” feedback, that small reinforcement will change a non-curious habit to…a habit of genuine curiosity.
I also include a second phase in the curiosity coaching. I insist the New Habit People teach classes with the New Non-Curious types. There is nothing that galvanizes a lesson (and new habit) like teaching other people how to do it. In the substance abuse/rehab business, the best sponsors are people who were former addicts and alcoholics.
For my book, ARE YOU RELEVANT?, I interviewed the CEO of Nordstrom Department Stores, Bruce Nordstrom. Bruce had taken his company from $20 million in annual sales to $2 billion in sales. I asked him, “You have such an exemplary reputation for customer service. How do you hire nice, other-focused people … or do you have a training program to instill those kinds of qualities? He looked at me like I was speaking a different language. He said, “Oh we don’t train people for that. We leave that kind of training up to their parents.”
Ross Shafer is the author of (4) books on the customer experience CUSTOMER EMPATHY, THE CUSTOMER SHOUTS BACK, NO MORE CUSTOMER FRICTION, and GRAB MORE MARKET SHARE. He is a former talk and game show host who has won multiple TV Emmy awards. As a keynote speaker, Ross has given more than 2,500 speeches on leadership, customer experience, performance, and motivation. He is in the National Speakers Hall of Fame.
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