How to Stop Your Service Reps from Messing up Your Marketing Efforts

What do you do when you run a business where the customer’s only contact with you is through a phone rep and/or in-field rep... and they don’t care about their job?

It won’t matter how much time and effort you put into finding a way to differentiate your products and/or service (which is becoming increasingly difficult these days), or much you invest in marketing campaigns and loyalty programs, you will lose customers if your CSRs don’t measure up.

I just had one like that leave my home... and I may be switching providers as a result. He started off acting like a total jerk. He was rude and didn’t really care too much about what he was there to do.

Not wanting my problem to go unresolved, or for it to be fixed in a so-so fashion, I decided to take the “let’s make friends” approach, and said, “It sounds like you must have had a long day in some very cold weather.”

“Huh?” he grunted in response.

As kindly as I could, despite not feeling very charitable inside, I said, “I know haven’t done anything to upset you, but from the sounds of it, someone has. Would you like a cup of coffee?”

With that the service rep turned and looked me in the eye for the first time. “Yeah, that would be great.”

Over the next 30 minutes or so, I learned that...

•  The company hires part-time union members to handle the weekend and after hours calls (which is when most homeowners are home!).
• These part-timers get no training and there is no incentive for them to be nice to customers.
• The emphasis is on getting as many calls completed in as short a time as possible and they are told to avoid going the extra yard. The direction these reps are given, paraphrased of course: “Get it working by doing the minimum work you can. Don’t do anything extra if you can help it.”
• If he gets reported for being rude, there are no real repercussions as long as the job got done. “John” told me, “Yeah, I’ve been written up before, but it doesn’t mean anything and the sheets are thrown out at the end of the month, anyway. Besides, it’s a union job and the rules don’t say anything about customer service, and I can get another one if I have to.”

Is this any way to run a business? No – not unless you only care about profits and are almost the only game in town. Not too smart, if you ask me.

 

We’ve worked with clients that depend on infield service people to represent their company and this is what we always tell them to do the following things:

•  Hire well and pay even better.

• Be fair, supportive and create an environment better than anything else available in the market and you will likely get great cooperation from your staff because they want to keep working for you.
   
• Same idea expressed a different way: Let your employees know that they matter and that the job they do is important... and do so on a regular basis.
   
• Let your employees know – specifically – what you expect in terms of customer service and make sure that this service is delivered consistently (mystery calls, follow-up with regular calls, etc.).
   
• Encourage employees to go the extra yard to help your customers (remember the power of Word of Mouth, especially given how easy it is to share using Facebook, twitter and other social media vehicles).
   
• Provide training: Technical and customer-service-related.
   
• Provide regular feedback and performance reviews; reward excellent performance.
   
• Facilitate the sharing of knowledge and insights among employees.
   
• Communicate regularly with your employees letting them know about changes, things that are happening in the company, etc.

 “Doesn’t this add to the overhead?”, you might ask.

 

The answer: “YES it does... but not as much as it adds to the bottom line!”