by Charles Bernard

When I was running sales at my systems integration company, NETLAN, we went through a period of friction between sales and engineering.  We got into the email wars where someone in one department would blast someone in the other department and make sure that plenty of other people were copied on the emails, including the respective department heads.  The problem got out of control, and eventually we called a meeting. 

The tension in this particular case did not get resolved through a simple meeting, so we had to come up with something else.  I remember brainstorming ideas and still nothing seemed to work. Then one evening I went home and explained the story to my eight-year old daughter, Sophia.  “Some guys at the office are being a little bit mean to each other, what would you do?”  She promptly replied, “Send them a Valentine’s Day card!” February 14th was quickly approaching. 

What a fabulous idea!

With that, I went to the nearest Hallmark store and bought the largest Valentine’s Day card I could find.  Two days later, after my team had signed it, we called a meeting for both sales and engineering in the conference room. 

We surprised everyone with the card, and what followed was unexpected, but also a welcome surprise.  I have never seen grown men display such emotion.  Hugging, crying and basically discovering how foolish and self-centered we had all become. 

What really got us afterwards was the discussion about putting aside our differences and creating a process that focused our attention on providing better service to our customers.  To put our solution into action, we invented a process called CFS, which later became my current company’s name sake.

Sometimes, we need to take a step back and realize how our internal service affects our coworkers.  And from time to time the best way to do that is through the eyes of a child. Amazing how a simple kid’s mindset can solve the toughest of problems.  Go Soph!

by Elizabeth Frederick

We always say the best compliment a client or former client can give you is a referral – it means they were so happy with your service they are willing to recommend it to a friend.

Well, if a referral is the best compliment, repeat business has to be second best.

This week has been a crazy one at CFS – we’re heavily involved in the Exploration phase of a new client engagement, and we’re continuing to offer our highest level of service to our other clients.  On top of that, it’s been a busy week in sales!

We moved forward with Terms of Engagement for three prospects, and we developed a Confirmation Document (proposal) for another one.  The best part?  All four of these prospective clients are actually past clients who have come back for new projects!

We do our best every day to help our clients improve sales, and we always strive to provide excellent customer service.  It’s immensely gratifying to see that our clients have valued our efforts and are willing to invest in new projects with us.

Thank you to all of our current and former clients!  We’re honored to work with you.

by Natalie Johnson

The event that was perhaps the inspiration for our blog theme of the month was a customer service training we held with a client this past Wednesday evening. 

Customer service is an element of sales that we have always stressed, but until now had never conducted a training solely on.  In the sales world we all know customer service not only dictates the success of the sale at hand, but also promotes the concept of repeat business.  The purpose of our training was to stress the consequences of poor customer service both internally and externally. 

Post-training we always take the time to dissect the wide array of feedback from the audience, and brainstorm how we can improve the training. 

After our review we realized that the standard approach we took to the customer service theme of our training may not be the best future method.  In other words, a nonspecific response to a client or customer problem is not always the best solution.  A generic solution will not suffice if the situation is realistic and the client is emotionally involved in the dilemma.  Every client has different desires and the best way to meet them as the provider is to educate ourselves of these differences and to remain open minded.   

Therefore, the main lesson we received from the training: everyone is unique. 

In the case of our training we needed to consider that our client conducts the majority of their customer service over the phone, so lessons on body language and in-person service did not directly apply.  Their form of service lasts several months, and develops a relationship with the customer, a type of customer service that in the future we will be sure to address.

However, in terms of internal customer service, we stimulated significant conversations about how your attitude in the office affects the attitude you have with your clients.  In our feedback we found that of the elements of the training the participants found especially helpful were that it taught them to, “be more positive in the office” and keep in mind that “complaints affect everyone around you and bring down morale.”  Participants also realized that their fellow employees may react to their negative attitude and thus, everyone should “be aware of how your actions are affecting those around you.”

The main take away from our review of our customer service training is that in order to provide the best service possible to our customers, we must listen to their specific complaints and requests, and be respectful of others’ opinions.  The views of one individual may at first appear outrageous, but it is surprising how often these views are shared by others. 

by Elizabeth Frederick

Those of you in the Northeast know we’ve been having a heat wave for the past few weeks.  Last week was the worst yet in New York – it topped 100° three days in a row.  On the hottest day of the week, Charles was visiting a friend.  His air conditioner had stopped working, and he had placed a call the previous day to schedule a repair.  After waiting on hold for 15 minutes, the technician was scheduled to arrive the following day between 2 and 8.

Charles met his friend at 6, and the technician still hadn’t arrived.  They sat and waited, and at 7 his friend called the service company to confirm his appointment.  After waiting on hold again, he was told the technician would arrive by 8.

At 8:30, the technician still hadn’t come.  He placed another call, waited on hold again, and was then told his appointment had been rescheduled to the following day.

Now this situation would have been annoying anytime, but on a day that hit 104°, it was unacceptable.

Charles shared this story and it made me think.  We’ve been focusing on customer service this month, and something I don’t often hear discussed is that service can be seasonal.

Think about it – you expect a repair appointment with the cable company to be difficult to schedule, and you’re not necessarily surprised if the technician doesn’t show up on time.  If you called the day before your Super Bowl party, though, you’d hope for better service.

The retail industry is a great example.  In preparation for the holiday shopping rush, retail employers typically increase their workforce by at least 4%.  They could maintain their pre-holiday employment numbers and force customers to deal with longer lines, but they’ve made the conscious decision to spend the money to ensure a more pleasant shopping experience.

Many businesses don’t really think of themselves as seasonal, but if you take a step back you can see situations in which it might make sense to place a higher emphasis than usual on customer service.

If you recently experienced a product failure, you might want to hire extra customer service reps to handle the additional calls – the last thing upset customers want is a longer hold time.  If a competitor is slashing prices, you could offer free samples, friendly and efficient reps, and faster shipping to compete.  If you’re struggling in sales and every deal counts, it might help to train your sales team to improve communication and response times.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t always strive for excellent customer service, but some situations require additional focus.  Are you ensuring that service is in season?