by Clarity Patton Newhouse - Clarity.tv
Compliments of Metropolitan Lincoln Mercury in Garden City - MetroMichigan.com
The Yes! Network is one of America’s leading seminar training companies. President Michael Jeffreys offers complimentary workshops that can take place at your business, networking group or association meeting. For more information, visit YesMidwest.com.
September 15, 2010 – Novi, Michigan. This month’s Yes Network event featured two very different yet very engaging speakers, Lisa Ford on customer service and Stan Walters on detecting lies. In case you missed either of the seminars, or would simply enjoy a little refresher, here are some of the highlights.
AFTERNOON SESSION
Lisa Ford’s seminar titled “Customer Service Strategies That Work: How to Create More Loyalty in a Dynamic Competitive Marketplace” is packed with essential information and practical strategies that every business should know and implement.
Lisa begins with an acknowledgement that the customer service strategies she presents are basics that most of us might already know. However, the question is whether or not we’re implementing these basics on a consistent basis. “How many of you know more about diet and exercise than you actually apply in your life?” asks Lisa. “We all know what we should do, we just don’t do it.” In that way, customer service is like exercise. So the goal of this seminar is to review the basics and urge you to implement them.
In today’s dynamically changing marketplace, “good” customer service is not enough. We have to work harder than ever to earn the loyalty of customers who are demanding, sophisticated, knowledgeable, tech-savvy and impatient. “We have to capture this customer, keep up with them and stay ahead of them,” says Lisa.
Lisa references Frederick Reichheld’s research on customer satisfaction, revealing that 60-80% of customers who checked the box indicating “satisfied” on a company’s customer survey stopped doing business with the company. The customers that checked the box indicating “totally satisfied” are the ones that returned. “A satisfied customer is up for grabs by anybody,” Lisa explains. “We can’t let that happen.”
“How do we make sure we’re so good that we drive our customers to be loyal?” asks Lisa. The answer involves taking personal responsibility during every interaction with a customer. “You’re the one that makes the difference every day,” she says. “We’re engaging our customer in so many ways (in person, on the phone, live chat and more) that we have to be incredibly good. We have to be part great listener, empathizer, comforter, problem solver, detective, social worker, babysitter, physiotherapist, or all of the above.”
Ask yourself, “Are you delivering exceptional service to every customer, every time at every touch point?” Customers want service that engages them, and it’s achieved by treating people as people, not just as customers to be processed. In order for them to become loyal and talk about you to others, they have to love your service. So how can we achieve this everyday? Lisa says, “Make sure you are showing the customer that you know them.” For example, if their account indicates that they’ve been a longtime customer, comment on it and thank them. Similarly, welcome and thank them if they’re a new customer.
“I took my daughter to a Take Care clinic inside a Walgreens,” Lisa recalls. “The nurse did a great job. Then the following afternoon I received a phone call from her checking on my daughter.” Lisa was amazed by the call, “Let me ask you, do you think that happens from our primary physician’s office? No! The Take Care clinic has fewer staff but they’re doing it!” Their service differentiates them from the competition.
“So what are we doing to truly be different?” Lisa prompts us to ask ourselves. For example, “After our customers receive their first invoice, do we call them to ask if they have any questions?” Lisa says we must constantly look for ways to exceed customer expectations and go beyond the following five “basics.”
- Reliability – Do what you say you’re going to do, do it when you say you’re going to do it, do it right the first time.
- Responsiveness – For example, a railroad company that says, “Our customers can handle it when the trains are running late, but they can’t handle it if we don’t tell them they’re running late.”
- Feeling Valued – Each customer wants to feel like they’re the only customer at that point and time.
- Empathy – Customers want to know that we’re on their side and can see things from their perspective.
- Competency – Customers want someone to “own” their situation or their problem; they don’t want to talk to three people.
One of the most common mistakes people make with customer service is not listening. “Too often with customers, we’re not listening but rather waiting for our turn to talk,” says Lisa. “Especially when we have a lot of experience doing what we’re doing, we assume we know what the customer wants, we interrupt and we talk too much, often giving too much information, which opens a can of worms,” she warns. “When you’re a great listener, you shorten the time with the customer because you show them that you’re actually listening. Then they don’t have to keep repeating themselves and you’re able to take the conversation where it needs to go.”
Lisa explains that “How we say something is more important than what we say.” In fact, when communicating one-on-one with someone, the message received by the other person is based 55% on body language, 38% on tone of voice and only 7% on words. “For us to be effective with customers, we have to be congruent with our body language, our tone of voice and our words,” says Lisa. “We’ve got to make sure that all three match in order to be effective in dealing with customers.”
“Much of what we’ve talked about face to face also works on the phone,” Lisa continues. “But some extra skills are needed for the phone, because it creates a bit of a barrier.”
- Smile, they can hear it.
- Always identify yourself when you answer the phone.
- When you need to transfer the customer to someone else, make sure the next person is the right person and make sure the next person is there and available.
- If you don’t have the information the customer needs, but you can get it for them, say “What is the best number to reach you at and I’ll get back to you.”
- When placing someone on hold, ask their permission and then wait for an answer.
- Say “thank you.” This makes a big difference in how you and the organization are perceived.
Lisa concluded her seminar by emphasizing that one person can make a big difference. “How do you ‘be’ the one that truly, every single day, stands up and makes this stuff work?” she asks. “Self talk” makes a big difference. Unfortunately, in most people 80% of our internal dialogue is negative. “Start listening to what you’re saying to yourself; it can make or break how you feel about things,” warns Lisa. “Use your self talk to work for you, not against you. And remember that your attitude is contagious. Are you spreading anything people want to catch? We’ve got to make certain that the contagious attitude we’re spreading is positive, especially when serving customers.
If you’d like to know more about Lisa Ford beyond these highlights, additional information is available at LisaFord.com.
EVENING SESSION
Stan B. Walters’ seminar titled “The Truth About Lying: How to Spot a Lie and Protect Yourself from Deception” is an interesting and insightful examination of human behavior. Stan’s law enforcement background and interrogation expertise, combined with his use of interview video footage to illustrate his techniques, give this seminar a hands-on feel.
Stan sets the stage with some sobering statistics about the prevalence of lying, within a survey of 40,000 people:
- 91% say they lie routinely
- 36% confess to dark important lies
- 86% lie to parents
- 75% lie to friends
- 73% lie to siblings
- 69% lie to spouses
- 81% lie about their feelings
- 43% lie about income
- 40% lie about sex
- The average person tells about 25 lies per day
In order to conduct a successful interview that elicits as much information as possible, Stan advocates a four-phase process honed through working with law enforcement. But first he says we must let go of our preconceptions about people, before we’ll be able to observe them accurately. Once we have an open mind, we can put Stan’s interview process into practice.
The four phases of the interview are Orientation, Narration, Cross-Examination and Resolution. During the Orientation phase, the objective is to engage the subject and observe him or her in order to identify a “baseline of behavior.” Stan explains, “You’re building a bond with the person.”
During the Narration phase, ask questions regarding one topic or area and get clarification before going on to the next question. Look for variations from the baseline that was established during the Orientation phase. “Not every change you see and hear means deception,” says Stan. “People react both cognitively and emotionally; when these two elements are in sync you have a nice balance. But when you’re lying, you’re either hiding an emotion you feel or faking an emotion you don’t feel, which throws this delicate balance out of sync. This might create a change in voice or perhaps body language that doesn’t agree with the voice or expression.”
“In the Narration phase you’re looking for consistency, change, contradictions and clusters,” Stan explains. “A ‘cluster’ means two or more stress or deception symptoms per sentence or response.” For example, stress might cause pitch and volume to go up, while deception might be revealed by the subject moving away.
The Cross-Examination phase is done without hostility. For example, if you encounter inconsistencies during the narration phase you can redirect by saying things like, “Go back to the part about x,” Stan illustrates. Lastly, the Resolution phase is where you clear up the inconsistencies.
Throughout the interview process, there are various behaviors and “symptoms” for which to look and listen. “Single symptoms mean nothing,” emphasizes Stan. “Random stuff happens so look for clusters of two or more symptoms from the subject. Also look for contradictions.”
Some of the important symptoms Stan says to watch for include:
- Cognitive dissonance – the message or story not being clear
- Stalling – such as repeating the question
- Claiming memory loss – one of the most common forms of deception
- Flag expressions – such as “Trust me,” “Why would I lie?” “Let me say this about that,” “Just between us,” etc.
- Surgical denial – such as “Why would I do something like that?”
- Disqualifiers – such as “I hardly ever…,” “This may sound strange, but…,” etc.
- Bridging phrases – such as “After a while…,” “The next thing I knew…,” etc.
However, there is one significant aspect of body language that is commonly found in studies, namely aversion. “Aversion is aggressive movement away from the interviewer,” explains Stan. “Looking away is not what’s significant; it’s the movement away that’s noteworthy, like moving away from a threat.”
In conclusion, Stan encourages us to practice these observation techniques in order to help us identify harmful lies. “You have to become a student of human behavior,” says Stan, “because the greatest barriers we have involve communication.” At the same time he warns, “Don’t practice on your friends or you’ll end up drinking alone and people will want to kill you in your sleep.” Instead, use this information as a tool to help you make informed decisions and protect yourself from becoming a victim of deception.
If you’d like to know more about Stan B. Walters beyond these highlights, additional information is available at StanBWalters.com.
Regarding these reviews, your feedback and comments are welcomed and appreciated.
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