The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs, via B2C.

1. Sincerity Is Serious Service

 When you screw up on your side or a customer has trouble with your website, admit the mistake honestly and say what you are doing to fix it. No apologies like, “I’m sorry you feel that way” — respond with, “I’m sorry you’re having trouble with our service.” People want sincerity and will give you the benefit of the doubt if you are open and real. -Nathan Lustig,Entrustet

2. Oh, the Humanity!

 Look at the way your customers experience your company and ask yourself if you treat them like a human or an open wallet. If your emails are full of junk jargon and there’s no way to talk to a human, you need some changes. It may not be inexpensive, but compared to losing repeat sales and good will, it’s a worthwhile investment. -Kelly Azevedo, She’s Got Systems

3. Better to Be Transparent

 One of the most important — yet overlooked — aspects of customer service is being transparent about your processes. It’s a completely inexpensive way to better connect with your customers, especially when things are not working ideally. Consider publishing your customer service policy publicly, or regularly communicating with a customer as they’re going through the service process. -Doreen Bloch, Poshly Inc.

4. Try On Zappos for Size

 Take the Zappos approach. Make customer service your number one priority and prove that to your customers. Start by responding to every customer on Twitter and Facebook to increase engagement and keep them happy. -Ben Lang, EpicLaunch

5. Makeshift Account Executives

 Trying to write emails on the fly will guarantee that your strategy gets derailed. Write out an editorial calendar, breaking down what will go into each email—at least for the length of the campaign. Personally, I prefer to plan six months in advance—minimum—so I can get ahead and stay ahead. If you’re segmenting your emails, build it into your calendar, as well as promotions. -Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting

6. Follow the Golden Rule

 Whether you are making a customer service policy, training a customer service representative or interacting with a customer, keep one thing in mind: how you would like to be treated as the customer. Formulate policies in a way you would accept and understand. Let reps help each individual by finding the best way for that particular situation. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. -Vanessa Nornberg, Metal Mafia

7. Can You Communicate Too Much?

 When in doubt, over-communicate with your customers. The last thing in the world your customer wants — especially if you’re in the service business — is to feel like they’re just a number or less important than your other or bigger customers. Treat every customer as if they are your biggest, and keep in touch with them throughout the process, whether things are going well or otherwise. -Justin Beegel, Infographic World, Inc.

8. The Friendly Followup

 Simply calling and saying, “Hello, we just wanted to call to see if you were still happy with your service you had with us,” has not only helped our company prevent bad reviews online, but also helped the customers feel extra special. Our employees have been trained to call back clients for a friendly followup within 24 hours to make sure that there are no fires to put out. -Nancy T. Nguyen, Sweet T

9. Where’s the WOW Factor?

 If you can make the client say “Wow” at every touch point, you’ll make that client a brand lover. Creating brand lovers is worth every penny you spend to do it. One of our “Wow factors” is a handwritten thank you card that we mail to each client after providing a service. Think outside the box and give the clients what they want but don’t expect. -Nick Friedman, College Hunks Hauling Junk

10. Give the Gift

 Send your customers gifts that show them that you know them and appreciate them. The gifts don’t have to be expensive, but will still make a lasting impression in your customers’ minds. -Brent Beshore, AdVentures

11. Make It Your DNA

 Make great customer service a part of your company DNA and culture. Let every employee at every level feel like they are contributing to making customers feeling great. If every employee is working towards great customer service, it will show. -Tim Jahn,Entrepreneurs Unpluggd

12. Become a Customer!

 Try your service but with an outsider’s perspective. Once you are on your website, ask yourself: Is ordering simple? Is finding customer support easy? Emulate the problems your customers will likely come across and observe every step of the process. Doing this objectively will give you a good idea of what your customer’s experience is like and what needs to be improved. -Christian Springub, Jimdo

13. Align Customer Experience With Positioning Strategy

 Customer service is the first line of marketing; they have the most contact with customers. A company must have a defined positioning strategy that customer service not only understands but also lives and breathes. Customers will be treated your way and will also spread your message. -David Gardner, ColorJar

14. Where Can I Reach You?

 As a consumer, I dislike not knowing with whom I’m speaking at customer service. We give all customers our personal email and cell phone addresses. They know that we are there to help and will actively service their issues. -Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

Please click here for more information and to arrange a meeting.

Direct Selling Association Annual Meeting

June 3 -5, 2012

Grapevine, Texas

13th Annual Call Center Week

June 4 – 7, 2012

Las Vegas, NV

Photo courtesy of Hunter Allen

By Brian Cantor, Customer Management IQ

This might be a world of “strategic calls” and revenue-driven customer service, and it is true that metrics like average handle time are losing meaning for many organizations, but do not dare assume that successful call center leaders are leaving performance metrics in the dust!

True, many are embracing customer satisfaction and NetPromoter scores as clearer indicators of excellence, but when it comes to overseeing their agents and maximizing investment into customer service, they cannot help but look at performance.

Consistent first call resolution, in particular, continues to represent a gold standard for call center management, at least for those Vice Presidents and other executives in attendance at the 7^thAnnual Call Centre Week Canada in Toronto, Ontario.

According to presenter Jane Torrance of Direct Energy, excellence against the first call resolution benchmark leads to reduced operating costs, improved customer and employee satisfaction, increased upsell opportunities and reduced customer complaints and negative word-of-mouth (if not an outright positive impact on brand advocacy).

It, for all intents and purposes, touches on every key element of a successful call center management strategy.

But those leaders who rely on first call resolution as a performance metric are cautioned to keep a sound perspective on the issue.  Even a measurement that seems as straightforward and self-explanatory as “first call resolution” can be nebulous, and a consequence of that muddiness is a damaging pitfall for many organizations.

In short, there is a wrong way to measure FCR.

As detailed above, one of the key reasons for FCR’s ongoing relevance is its direct connection to the customer experience.  It is not just a way to easily manage and evaluate staff—it actually speaks to the efficacy, enjoyment and value of each correspondence a customer has with the brand.

It, nonetheless, is technically a performance metric.  It is not necessarily scoring customer satisfaction, loyalty, effort or anything of the sort—it is scoring how well the agents are performing.

Photo courtesy of Lauren McCarthy

As an unfortunate consequence, far too many organizations focus on an internal vision for first call resolution.  They view first call resolution entirely through the lens of call center and call center agent, forgetting that resolution, at its core, is a measure that belongs wholly to the customer.

For organizations that actually care about customer satisfaction, there can be no debate—the “resolution” part of first call resolution must be defined by the customer.  It is the customer—not the agent—who knows whether or not his inquiry has reached a satisfactory end.

The “first call” part must also be determined by the customer.  Due to collapses in knowledge management and record keeping, it is entirely plausible that a customer who has tirelessly tried to reach the organization through various channels will be pegged as a “first-time caller” when his voice emerges on the other end of the telephone.  But a resolution on that call, though probably the best the organization can do at that given time, is not first call resolution if the customer believes it took more than one “call” to achieve the desired outcome.

In a customer-centric world, performance metrics should be selected based on their connection to positive outcomes for customers.  That reality, in and of itself, explains why organizations must view first call resolution as a customer-dictated measure.  If call centers are not performing the way customers desire, they are not performing well.

An insular, organizational vision of first call resolution also carries another severe consequence: it drives agents towards detrimental interactions with customers.

If required to achieve first call resolution against a company standard, agents will naturally attempt to fit all customer complaints, questions and comments into one of a few “boxes” for which a typical, hasty, painless resolution is offered.  This will minimize meaningful engagement and relationship-building, as the agent focuses on the broad, easily-addressable aspects of the customer’s call rather than the intricacies that complicate calls by getting at his true sentiment.

And so in addition to creating a disparity between the measured first call resolution rate and the percentage of customers who actually believe their issues to be resolved, the agent will actively undermine customer relationships as he seeks to deliver generic resolutions—quickly—at the expense of getting to know the customer and his expectations.

Customers, not managers, must be driving the conception of first call resolution.  Their satisfaction is what is at stake with each interaction, and their happiness and brand loyalty is what is either strengthened or weakened when the call ends.  We may use first call resolution to assess agent and organizational performance, but it only matters because it matters to the customer.

During her presentation, Torrance shared some key points to remember when measuring first call resolution:

• FCR is defined by the customer.  While organizations should be building their processes and standards to align with the customer vision, it is never sufficient to use a purely-internal measure to assess agent performance.  How the customer feels—and this will change from customer to customer, industry to industry, era to era—is what matters.
• Don’t ignore channels.  Customers might have accessed your brands through various touch points prior to calling the contact center; “first call resolution” cannot simply be a telephone-based proposition.  All channels should feature the same level of agent resolve.
• Collect meaningful feedback from callers.  First call resolution is a very specific concept, and post-call surveys and inquiries must be pointed enough to capture that feedback.  That data—not the agent’s confidence that he followed the script and delivered the typical, generic “resolution”—is what provides the calculation basis.
• Adjust metrics accordingly.  As noted, the era of “strategic calls” has made some metrics meaningless or counterproductive, and that fact is amplified by placing a high premium on first call resolution.  Performance against average handle time, calls per hour and all metrics predicated on speed and volume rather than satisfaction could suffer as a result of a meaningful commitment to FCR.
• Transferred calls are not “second calls.”  If customer conception of satisfaction is what matters, they will typically be fine with a transfer if that transfer quickly gets them to the person who can properly resolve the matter.  Agents should not feel discouraged from involving other team members and supervisors if it gets the job done—the only reason transfers should be penalized is if they are being done to “push off” angry customers.
• Resolution is not always instant.  FCR is about giving the customer what he wants on the first correspondence, but what he wants might not always be something that can be exchanged over the phone or Twitter.  If the call ends with a promise that tech support will show up to the customer’s house or that billing will mail a refund, this can count as FCR as long as the customer is happy and the promise is kept.

The Annual Top 50 Teleservices Agencies Ranking recognizes the top domestic and international inbound call center service agencies as well as outbound teleservices and interactive inbound centers, as measured by the amount of billable teleservices minutes they have completed during the past year. The Connection has met the stringent criteria set by the editors of Customer Interaction Solutions and its billable minutes were verified by the editors for accuracy and reliability and submitted a letter of verification from its telephone service providers certifying the number of minutes billed during the 12-month period.

“Through our consultative partnership approach and open communication, we have had the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with our clients to help them grow and succeed,” says Corey Kotlarz, Vice President of New Business Development at The Connection.

The Connection (www.the-connection.com) is an award winning, U.S.-based outsourced call center service provider.  The Connection provides extensive customer service, technical support and sales services via inbound calls, outbound teleservices, email response, live web chat, social media monitoring and interactive voice response (IVR) services.  With multiple call centers located throughout the nation, The Connection provides uninterrupted 24×7 support 365 days each year.  The Connection has provided call center support since 1981.  Industries include: telecom, wireless, broadband, cable, healthcare, pharmaceutical, Life and Health Insurance, utilities, financial services, Internet and catalog retailers, crisis management, product recall and direct response.

For additional information contact:

Erin Brooks, Senior Sales and Marketing Specialist – 800-883-5777 or sales@the-connection.com

# # #

Photo courtesy of Markr82

By Ron Burley, Inc.com

The Internet gives angry customers a megaphone; even one angry one can do a lot of damage. Here’s how to defend your company and defuse a crisis.

While the Internet has made global commerce a reality, the online social services it spawned have also provided a worldwide megaphone for dissatisfied customers. From Bank of America’s reversal on debit card fees to Apple’s “antenna-gate” to Netflix’s pricing plan backlash, companies have struggled to respond effectively in the social space.

Where do they go wrong? In almost every case, they forgot one of these five rules of online customer service.

1. Respond: Failing to respond to even one unhappy customer can be costly. United Airlines found that out the hard way, when they broke musician Dave Carroll’s expensive Taylor guitar–and then ignored him. With 12 million views, the songwriter’s YouTube video tore the wings off more than $7 million in positive advertising.

Ignoring a complaining customer was a 20th century solution. Without the Internet, one angry person–even a hundred–might not have had much effect on the bottom line. Of course, that’s not the case in this age of social media, where one guy with a busted guitar can speak to millions.

2. Acknowledge: Bank of America sounded out-of-touch last fall when the company failed to acknowledge that it was making debit card fee changes that would negatively affect millions of its customers. Even after a rising tide of criticism, the bank still didn’t admit a mistake. Rather, it attempted to retry its losing case in the online court of public opinion … and lost.

Whether your customers are on Facebook, Twitter, or your company website, you need to remember that the world is watching. If you’re right, make your case simply, compassionately, and professionally. When wrong, admit the error clearly and candidly. Surveys show that customers admire company executives able to accept fault and willing to take steps to eliminate future situations.

3. Elevate: In June 2010, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made one of his few PR stumbles in response to a tsunami of complaints about the iPhone 4′s antenna configuration. Apple eventually admitted a problem, but not before Jobs infamously suggested to a blogger that users should just hold the phone differently. His comments only fueled the online firestorm.

Like Jobs, you’re proud of your company. Pride is fine, but don’t fire back–it’s only business, and needs to stay that way. No matter how personal the barrage, stay above the fray. If you’re right, respond only on the merits of the case. If you attempt to discredit a complaining customer–directly or by innuendo–you risk sounding like a bully. Gloating, blaming, and deflecting are all losing strategies.

4. Apologize: Last summer, stockholders were calling for Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ head when he bungled the response to customer backlash over the company’s restructured pricing. Hastings did apologize for the misstep, but still tried to argue his case in the Twitterverse even as his company’s stock price took a 40% nosedive.

If you’re wrong, admit the fault and apologize. No excuses; no “buts.” An apology is not an opportunity to further the argument.

The rules of business apologies are no different than with your spouse. The only thing that should come after the apology is a promise to fix the problem and a pledge to never do it again–anything else and you’re liable to create more problems than you’ll solve.

5. Downsize: Handling customer complaints in the social media sphere is much different than a courtroom debate or advertising campaign. You lose almost all of the advantage of being a company. The discussion plays out on the small screen of your future customer’s computer. Waving the corporate flag isn’t going to be effective. You’ll need to downsize the discussion. Be casual, informative, and interactive. Don’t think of speaking to a group, but rather to every member of the Internet audience as a single individual.

If ignored, online complaints can undermine much of your hard work or even threaten your company’s future viability. On the other hand, pay attention to these five principles and you customers–current and future–will learn that yours is a company that listens, admits fault, and corrects mistakes.

Decades of studies and surveys show that is an effective strategy to win and keep customers.

Keynote speaker Garrison Wynn, who has worked with some of the world’s most effective corporate leaders and business developers, from multibillion-dollar manufacturers to top New York Stock Exchange wire houses, will examine the challenges customer interaction professionals face and how to focus on the power of change management and highlight how to combine relationship building with no-fluff motivation and change to deliver real solutions in uncertain times.

Are you planning on attending the upcoming ATA Convention & Expo? If so, we would love to have the opportunity to briefly meet with you to discuss your business and your call center outsourcing objectives for 2012. We will be sharing how The Connection helps leading national companies outsource their calls, emails, live web chat and social media monitoring services. —Caitlin Connors

Great service comes down to some essencial traits that can be developed anywhere. I want to cover 5 traits of great customer service. No matter what type of organization you are, no matter what service you perform, if you serve customers, focus on these 5 basic traits of great customer service and you’ll be on the track to provide great customer service.

1. Great Customer Service Is Passion

Passion is the most basic trait to great customer service people and organizations. It’s often referred to as the “it” factor. Passion separates the individuals and organizations who excel and those who just do enough to get by. Passion drives people or teams to push the extra mile or two to make a different. Passion is translated into great customer service when organizations make their business decisions centered around customers, customer needs, and the customer experience.

Passionate people are motivated. Passionate people feel satisfaction from the work they do, because they care about it. Passion in service, makes the act of service the reward for great service. Monetary compensation, though important (don’t kid yourself that it isn’t), is never the ultimate driver. Passionate customer service individuals need to connect, not just get a paycheck. Great service comes naturally as a consequence of passion and the satisfaction of making others happy.

2. Great Customer Service Is Hard Work

You aren’t born knowing how to speak, read, write, program, or provide great customer service. Great customer service requires effort. Customer service isn’t bliss 100% of the time (don’t fall for those who say it is). Customers are wrong sometimes, a bad day can be vented to the customer service person on the other end of the conversation, people can be petty, needy, demanding…but that’s ok, it’s part of the challenge of the customer.

Working with customers is one of the great mysteries of the business world. Think about it, when you are programming, you have your function want the computer to perform and you give it the commands needed to perform it. That’s it. It’s done. But customer service is harder than programming. Every customer is unique, every customer’s positive connection comes a different way. Some want things fast, others want you to show you’re willing to take the time. Some customers want to chat, others just want to get down to business. Not all customers are the same.

3. Great Customer Service Is Persistence (5 Years of Practice)

Malcom Gladwell’s book, Outliers, discusses the theory that it takes individuals 10,000 hours to master a subject. The 10,000 hours principle applies to any expertise. Unfortunately, customer service hasn’t been an area of business where individuals invest the necessary time for mastery. It’s an entry-level, bottom of the organization role that people enter and leave as quickly as possible. Without the time, it can’t be mastered.

As customer service managers and organization managers and executives, we can cultivate the need and importance of customer service professionals, and create the long-term career opportunities in the customer service field for our employees. Applying the 10,000 hour rule, it would take an individual who is working 40 hours per week 5 years to master great customer service! How many customer service people in your organization have 5 years of expertise? Do you see any of your current customer service people still in this role 5 years from now?

4. Great Customer Service Is Focused (Customer Focused)

Customer focus isn’t just about taking care of customers. Effective great customer service also involved on appropriate focus on who are your customers. What type of customers you have, and how you can progress your customers along the customer brand evangelist ladder.

The customer brand evangelist ladder involves gradually progressing customers from one-time purchasers to eventually become your customer advocate or brand evangelist.

One-time Customer > Occasional Customer > Frequent Customer > Loyal Customer, Advocate, Brand Evangelist.

5. Great Customer Service is Culture (Building a Service-minded Culture)

Don’t just enforce procedures and shouting instructions to get things done. Make your culture one that serves something of real value. Encourage your employees to connect with people by communicating with everybody from customers, employees, business partners and even with you as their employer. Get your employee to communicate with the aim to delight and not to antagonist people. Accept and encourage feedback be it criticism, complaints or compliments. Encourage learning via mistakes for only through mistakes can your employees grow, learn and improve. Customer service isn’t a policy, it’s a individual and organization mission. —Flavio Martins, The Mana.gr

• How will this affect my account?
• What adjustments do I have to make to my AR/AP entries?
• Will I have the same liaison or contact person?
• What new business practices will be implemented?

A constant influx of inbound calls and the added issue that you are conservatively looking at doubling your client base means what you’re going to need (and quickly) is a call center that will be able to handle the massive, sudden influx of calls and questions. While it’s true that recording an explanation and posting it on a voice-activated menu might get the information across, it’s also common knowledge that mergers make people nervous. The last thing you want to do is lose customers because their call has not been answered. let’s face it: a recording isn’t really an answer.

At The Connection we believe that personal contact is essential. Rather than post a recording explaining what’s going on and taking the risk of not answering all of your clients’ concerns, our qualified, highly trained professional operators can give peace of mind to your customers by addressing their inquiries personally at our U.S.-based inbound call center. Each live agent is trained specifically on one account and uses a variety of award-winning methods for getting questions answered on the first call. This will maximize client retention, which, with a merger, is always a concern.

We are real people with real skill and real world knowledge. Most importantly, we understand the value in a happy customer and the importance of first-call resolutions. Outsourcing your call center needs to one of our U.S. locations means that you can focus more time and energy on the details of a merger that require executive decisions. Let us handle the calls so you can concentrate on the bigger picture. —Kris Leeds

Deregulation of utilities has led to a massive influx of companies that offer services not specifically related to the delivery of the various energy sources. For instance, Companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple offer applications for download to your mobile phone or tablet that can tie in with a live network of smart appliances in your home and give you up-to-the-minute details on those appliances’ energy consumption. With deregulation there is now room for trade and competition in the utility industry, so the one thing that has become the single most crucial driving force in a utility company’s success is customer satisfaction. That’s where we come in. At The Connection it’s our job to train highly qualified live operators to see to the needs of your customers. For you, this translates to an exponential boost in efficiency.

On April 9^th through the 12^th, we’re going to have representatives at the AGA/EEI conference in Fort Worth, Texas. We are incredibly excited about the opportunity to meet with several dozen of our peers in the utility industry. Please feel free to meet up with us during this exciting exposition. We’ll be more than happy to have a sit down with you and discuss any of your needs. If you don’t plan to attend the conference, that’s okay, too. You can contact us at any time to inquire about our utility call center services, or any other services. We look forward to speaking with you!

The AGA/EEI conference include more than 50 of the industry’s top partners, and will include presentations on Billing and Payment Processing, Credit and Collections, Meter Reading, Revenue Protection, and Account Management. Attendees will get an opportunity to keep up on best practices as well as share our success stories! This will be an amazing opportunity for us at The Connection to network with our peers, and showcase our growing success.

If you’re planning on heading to the AGA/EEI conference this April, please drop in on us and say hello at booth #109, and don’t hesitate to pull one of our representatives aside and find out how we can help your business succeed. We have a wide array of services that will only prove a boon to your business. We are readily available to meet with you and set up a utility call center to maximize the efficiency of your business, and we can’t wait to get to Texas and meet so many of our peers!

About The Connection
The Connection is an award-winning call center services agency that proudly employs live operators for all of our services, including those for a utility call center. Over the past 30 years we have grown into one of the single largest call center service outsourcing companies in the United States and are a leader in quality and consistent performance. We specialize in providing customer service, tech support, and over-the-phone sales. We have a multitude of contact centers at various locations all in the U.S., including Minnesota, New York and Illinois.