101 Activities for Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service (Knock Your Socks Off Series)

382 Pages·2009·1.59 MB·English

by  Performance Research Associates

101 Activities for Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service
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101 Activities for
Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service
Performance Research Associates
Ann Thomas and Jill Applegate
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Library of Congress Cataloging-n-Publication
Thomas, Ann
101 activities for delivering knock your socks off service / Ann Thomas and Jill Applegate.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-1444-6
ISBN-10: 0-8144-444-3
1. Customer service. 2. Customer relations—Management. I. Applegate, Jill. II. Title.
III. One hundred one activities for delivering knock your socks off service.
HF5415.5.T477 2009
658.8’12—dc22 2008053482
© 2009 Performance Research Associates.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Art work © 2009 John Bush.
This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole
or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of AMACOM, a division of American
Management Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
Printing Number
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C O N T E N T S
Our Thanks xi
Introduction: About This Book xiii
SECTION ONE
The Fundamentals of Knock Your Socks Off Service
1 What Customers Want, What Customers Expect 3
2 Who’s Your Customer? 7
3 Knock Your Socks Off Service 10
4 Customers’ Ever-Changing Needs 12
5 The RATER Factors 14
6 How Do I RATE? 17
7 The Value of Reliability 21
8 Reliability: Promises, Promises 24
9 Reliability: Secret Shopper 28
10 Assurance: The Language of Competence 31
11 Assurance: The Knowledge Game 36
12 Assurance: Secret Shopper 39
13 Tangibles: Take a Field Trip 42
14 Tangibles: Sensory Perception 45
v
vi Contents
15 Tangibles: Customer Feedback 47
16 Tangibles: Secret Shopper 50
17 Empathy vs. Sympathy 52
18 Empathy: Building a Statement 55
19 Empathy: Scripting Tough Situations 58
20 Empathy: Partnering for Practice 61
21 Responsiveness: Identifying the Barriers 65
22 Responsiveness: Proactive vs. Reactive 68
23 Responsiveness: Role-Play 72
24 RATER Self-Assessment 76
25 The Ten Deadly Sins of Service 88
26 The Customer Is Always... the Customer 92
27 Educating Your Customer 95
28 Filling the Knowledge Gap 98
SECTION TWO
The How-To’s of Knock Your Socks Off Service
29 Good Question: Honesty 103
30 Identify the Rules: Red Rules/Blue Rules 106
31 Making Exceptions 109
32 Why Customers Don’t Trust 113
33 Create an Environment of Trust 116
34 Barriers to Effective Listening 118
35 Go Ahead, I’m Listening 122
36 Follow My Lead 126
Contents vii
37 Listening: Taking a Mental Detour 129
38 Crafting the Best Questions 131
39 The Name Game 134
40 Who Knows? 138
41 How Did I Do? 142
42 When Questions Go Wrong 144
43 Winning Words and Soothing Phrases 147
44 Scripting Better Responses 151
45 Give a Nonverbal Cue! 154
46 Face-to-Face Charades 158
47 Receiving Nonverbal Cues 163
48 Telephone Checklist 167
49 Be a Standout on the Phone 170
50 Just Phone Home! 175
51 Telephone Etiquette: Secret Shopper 179
52 Tongue Twisters with a Twist 182
53 E-Mail vs.Telephone 184
54 Written Communication Review 189
55 Practice E-Mail Communications 191
56 E-Mail Etiquette 195
57 Communication Sensitivity 198
58 It’s a Small World 200
59 The Generational Divide 202
60 Generations at Work 206
61 Saying “No,” Positively 209
viii Contents
SECTION THREE
Seamless Knock Your Socks Off Service
62 Communicating Across Functions 215
63 Hitting the Target 218
64 Visit an Internal Customer 221
65 It’s Not My Job 223
66 Mindbenders 227
67 It’s All About Kindness 231
68 Details, Details, Details 234
69 Creating a Cycle of Service 237
70 Analyzing Moments of Truth 241
71 Details That Make a Difference 244
72 Value-Added Service 248
73 Good Selling Is Good Service 251
74 So Many People to Thank 255
75 Making “Thank You” Personal 258
76 Thank-You Round Robin 260
SECTION FOUR
The Problem-Solving Side of Knock Your Socks Off Service
77 The Service Recovery Process 265
78 How Ready Are You to Recover? 268
79 Using the Well-Placed “I’m Sorry” 278
80 Finding the Right Fix 281
81 Putting Recovery Knowledge into Action 283
82 Tell Me a Story 286
83 Make Customers Your Partners in Problem Solving 288
Contents ix
84 Maximize Your Web Site Impact 292
85 Matching Atonement to the Error 295
86 Fix the Customer First, Then the Problem 300
87 Fix the Customer Role-Play 303
88 Calming Obnoxious Customers 306
89 Customers From Hell® Hall of Shame 309
90 Difficult Customer Match Game 313
91 A Question of Control 317
SECTION FIVE
Knock Your Socks Off Fitness
92 Stress Reducers 323
93 Create a Stress Log 327
94 Coping with Change 329
95 The Web of Support 333
96 The Power of Positive Talk 337
97 Keep It Professional 340
98 Learning Assessment 343
99 The Power of Curiosity 348
100 For All You Do, This Note’s For You 350
101 What’s Important to Me? 353
Credits 357
Index 359
About the Authors 367
All activities are available as PDF files at: www.amacombooks.org/go/101ActDKYSOS
© 2009 AMACOM, a division of American Management Association.