One thing that can make you better at service recovery

My wife and I own a vacation rental cabin called The Overlook. It's located in a rural mountain village where propane is used for heating and cooking.

Our propane supplier offers a "worry free" service where they monitor the propane tank for us and fill it up once it gets too low. This service worked like clockwork for several years until we experienced trouble last December, when we didn't get our usual refill.

The supplier usually tops off the tank in December, right when the cold winter season is starting. My wife, Sally, called our supplier to make sure a delivery hadn't been missed. The rep in our local office promised to check on it and call back.

She never did.

The cabin was booked solid when a cold snap hit in January, and our guests were using a lot of propane. The tank dropped below 20 percent and we were going through two percent per day. At that rate, we had just over a week of propane remaining.

Sally called the propane company again. The person in the local office seemed unconcerned, but promised to check into it and call back. She never did.

Now we were really worried.

We escalated the issue to someone I know in the corporate office. Fortunately, she got our tank filled the next day.

It was tempting to dismiss the local rep as lazy and uncaring. Later on, I discovered the root cause of our local rep's apparent complacency. The problem is more widespread than you might think.

Look closely, and you'll find one insight you can use to prevent problems like this. It can make anyone better at service recovery.

What problem is your customer trying to solve?

Service recovery becomes much easier when you know what problem your customer is trying to solve.

Customer service employees can miss the customer's true problem if they only listen for the thing the customer is requesting, not the reason behind it. One technique to overcome this challenge is to listen for your customer's "I need to" statement.

Consider these examples. What is the customer really worried about?

• “I need to get my car fixed today so I don’t miss work tomorrow.”

• “I need to resolve this billing error so my accountant can reconcile my company’s finances.”

• “I need to get this stain out so I can wear this suit to a big meeting next Wednesday.”

It’s tempting to focus on fixing the car, solving the billing error, or getting the stain out. And while those might be important steps, the real concern for these customers is not missing work, reconciling company finances, and looking good at a big meeting.

At The Overlook, Sally repeatedly told the local rep, "I need to get our propane tank filled so our guests will have heat and be able to use the stove." Our biggest concern was keeping our guests happy, not making sure we knew the propane delivery schedule.

The local customer service rep missed all that.

What she heard instead was a request to check on the delivery schedule. She mistakenly thought the problem was resolved when she confirmed our cabin had not missed a scheduled propane delivery.

You might be wondering how can things be running normally when our tank was getting so dangerously low. We'll get to that part of the story in just a moment.

For now, take a moment to think about a recent service failure one of your customers experienced. Can you identify the real problem they were trying to solve?

Service recovery becomes much easier when you understand what's truly making your customer anxious. Fail to understand your customer's source of anxiety and you will likely miss your chance to help them feel better.

Can you make your customer feel better?

The goal of service recovery is to help customers feel better about your company, product, or service after something went wrong. You want to prove to them you can fix the problem and earn their trust for future business.

This requires customer service professionals to look beyond their own processes and see the situation through the eyes of their customer.

Our biggest worry at The Overlook was running out of propane so guests couldn't heat the cabin or cook food. The customer service rep misunderstood our problem and focused instead on the delivery schedule.

What could she have done instead?

• Investigate the issue, even though things seemed normal.

• Call back when she said she would call back.

• Verify that our propane tank would not run out and provide us with assurance.

That last one was most important.

After escalating the issue, we received an update assuring us our propane tank would be filled the next day. That instantly reduced our anxiety. We then felt a sense of relief once the tank had been filled.

Are there any barriers to understanding your customer?

Many customer service reps face hidden obstacles that make listening to customers more difficult than it seems. I devoted an entire chapter to this topic in my book, Getting Service Right.

At the propane company, two problems conspired to cause the customer service rep to do a poor job of listening.

The first was the company changed its delivery threshold. In the past, it refilled customers' tanks when the propane level went below 40 percent. The operations team changed that to 20 percent in an effort to route deliveries more efficiently, but failed to tell customers about it.

This generated a lot of phone calls from customers like us who were used to getting their tanks filled once it went below 40 percent and were suddenly worried when the expected refill never came. Local reps didn’t realize that customers hadn’t been informed, and many, like ours, got annoyed at all the extra call volume. That made listening even more difficult.

The second problem was the propane company's estimates were off. They relied on historical consumption to estimate when our tank was running low. However, it was unusually cold that winter and our cabin was rented far more often than the year before.

That meant we were using a lot more propane than normal. We later discovered that our actual tank reading was 15 percentage points lower than our supplier estimated.

The local customer service rep couldn't understand our sense of urgency as a result. She likely thought my wife was being hysterical when Sally said she was concerned we would run out because the rep thought our tank was at 33 percent when it was really at 18.

Many customer service reps face similar barriers when it comes to understanding their customers. Here are a few more examples:

• Long queues that pressure employees to work too quickly.

• Scripts that tell employees exactly what to say, but discourage listening.

• Customer service software that doesn't track interactions over multiple channels.

• Poor internal communication.

• Lack of training on listening skills.

Customer service reps can overcome these listening barriers, but it takes practice. You can use this listening skills guide to help.

Conclusion

Understanding the problem your customers are trying to solve unlocks many opportunities to serve them better.

Sales and marketing teams can use this insight to add new business. Operations can use it to guide improvements, such as a change to the propane delivery schedule. And customer service teams can use it to recover from service failures.

You can learn more about service recovery from these resources:

• Create experience guarantees with The Guaranteed Customer Experience.

• Discover how to win back your customer's heart with an apology.

• Watch the LinkedIn Learning course, Working with Upset Customers.

Three ways to help your employees become brand evangelists

There's something amazing about being served by an employee who loves the brand they represent.

My wife, Sally, and I experienced that recently at the Dr. Martens store on Newbury Street in Boston. We walked in the store and Sally quickly zeroed in on a pair of shoes she liked.

Scratch that. Loved.

"Aren't those great?" asked an employee as she approached Sally. "They just came in. That stitching looks soooo good." Her excitement was just as sincere as Sally's.

In fact, if it wasn't for the name tag and the employees' offer to retrieve a pair of shoes in Sally's size, we might have easily mistaken the employee for another Dr. Martens fan.

Another employee chimed in as he was walking by. "I saw those as soon as they came and I immediately bought a pair. They really stand out."

Now two employees were fawning over the shoes as Sally tried them on. Their enthusiasm made it far easier to connect with customers and assist them.

Sally can attest to that. Her new shoes look awesome.

You might not work for an iconic brand like Dr. Martens, but you can still turn your employees into brand evangelists.

Who is an employee brand evangelist?

Some companies have marketing roles with the word "evangelist" in the job title. Their job is to get the word out about a company's products and services. An employee brand evangelist is a bit different.

An employee brand evangelist can work in any role. You might find them in sales, marketing, customer service, operations, or even finance. They are a brand evangelist who happens to work for your company.

Brittany Hodak, an expert on helping brands create superfans, offers this definition of a brand evangelist on her blog:

A brand evangelist is a customer who is so passionate about your brand, product, service, or business that they advocate on your behalf. In other words, brand evangelists love you so much that they create more customers by sharing your story.

Now, imagine that customer is also an employee. That's an employee brand evangelist!

It's someone like those Dr. Martens employees who genuinely advocate on behalf of their company. Employee brand evangelists:

• Are naturally customer-centric.

• Spread contagious enthusiasm to other employees.

• Proudly tell friends and family who they work for.

Why do you need employee brand evangelists?

Turning your employees into brand evangelists can create several big advantages when serving customers.

One benefit is credibility.

Dr. Martens employees literally walk in the same shoes as their customers. There's not an ounce of insincerity when an employee gushes about a new style.

Another benefit is knowledge.

Employees at Armstrong Garden Centers have incredible knowledge about the plants they sell in part because they're planting those same plants in their own gardens. They're able to tap into their experiences as gardeners when advising a customer on how to grow a bumper crop of tomatoes or resuscitate a dying houseplant.

A third benefit is customer advocacy.

Employees at Slack become customer advocates by using the product every day. According to Kevin Albers, Slack's Vice President of Customer Experience, this helps employees make the product better because they share their customers' experiences.

"Everyone—from our support staff to office managers to sales leaders—can offer their feedback and perspective on how we might improve our product. We have a dedicated channel just for this topic, and each submission is reviewed and responded to by a product manager. Having a voice to influence the direction of the software that continues to improve your working life, you feel empowered to be part of the journey and take pride in being an expert."

How can you turn employees into brand evangelists?

A great product or service is table stakes for evangelism. Assuming you've got that, here are three ways you can turn your employees into brand evangelists.

#1 Hire customers

One of the easiest approaches is to hire people who already love your product. These employees were already brand evangelists before you hired them.

I probably write too much about the outdoor gear retailer REI, but there's a reason for it. REI employees are avid outdoor enthusiasts who are passionate about helping others enjoy the outdoors, too.

My last visit to REI was a perfect example. An employee named Todd expertly answered questions about REI's bike selection and gave me some inside tips on how to get the right bike for me. We also had an in-depth conversation about Mission Trails, which is an amazing open-space park in San Diego that has miles of biking and hiking trails spread out over more than 8,000 acres.

It felt more like a buddy providing some helpful advice than a retail associate dutifully answering questions.

Do you have customers who are passionate brand evangelists? If so, can you find a way to hire them, even on a part-time basis?

#2 Create customers

There are some situations where you can create customers by having employees use your own products or services. This can naturally turn some employees into brand evangelists.

Customer service software provider, Zendesk, is a great example.

Zendesk employees use Zendesk software when supporting their own customers. This creates a built-in advantage where employees are intimately familiar with the product because they use it in their everyday work.

According to Dave Dyson, a Zendesk Community Engagement Specialist, other Zendesk employees use the product as well.

"Many of our teams, from IT to People Ops and Workplace Experience, use it to manage internal requests—so all employees are exposed to our products in one way or another. We also have a program that encourages employees to share blog posts and other announcements via social media."

Is there an opportunity for employees to regularly use your products or services?

Some companies, such as at Zendesk or Slack, make using the product part of employees' daily work. Other companies, such as REI, offer a generous employee discount.

#3 Follow customer journeys

Another way to help create employee brand evangelists is to have employees follow a customer journey from a customer's perspective.

The USS Midway Museum is the top-rated tourist attraction in San Diego. One of the Midway's many secrets to success is each employee is given the opportunity to take the museum tour so they can experience the Midway as a guest and see for themselves what makes the museum so special.

The people who work there are really enthusiastic. Check out this video featuring my friend, Jamie. And yes, her enthusiasm is real.

Can you have employees become a customer for a day? If that's not feasible, can employees shadow a customer or conduct an in-depth interview?

Additional Resources

Employee brand evangelists can provide your company with a huge advantage. Just imagine having a passionate group of employees who take pride in their company and can't wait to tell other people about the products and services you sell.

You can learn more about some of the companies described in this article from the following resources.

1. Brittany Hodak's website has a lot of great resources for creating brand evangelists.

2. A recent feature in Inc. Magazine profiled how organic baby food company, Little Spoon, used employee brand evangelists to grow its subscriber base by 250 percent.

3. Armstrong Garden Centers is profiled in the book, The Guaranteed Customer Experience.

4. Slack's Kevin Albers and I facilitated a recent webinar on creating consistently great customer experiences.

5. Both REI and Zendesk are profiled in the book, The Service Culture Handbook.

6. The USS Midway Museum is profiled in the book, Getting Service Right. You can also read more from this post.

How to master new skills like a training professional

I frequently hear from people who are trying to learn new skills.

They know I create a lot of content around customer service training, so they ask me for some recommendations. Can I suggest a class, a blog, or a book to help them?

I usually don't recommend any of those, at least not right away.

This might seem like strange advice coming from someone who makes a living from online training classes, has a blog, and has written several books. Yet, I've been an adult learning professional for nearly 30 years and have spent most of that time trying to figure out how people learn best.

I also enjoy learning new things myself, and I usually follow a very specific process.

Right now, I'm picking up a few new skills. On a personal level, I'm learning navigational skills to use while hiking. Professionally, I'm improving my networking skills.

Here's how I learn new skills, and how I advise others to learn them, too.

The author scrambling over a rock in the desert. Climbing up this remote mountain required a few navigational skills such as reading a topographical map, using a GPS device, and finding trail markers along the way.

Set a goal

The first step on any learning journey is to define the problem you're trying to solve by setting a goal. There are a few reasons why having a goal is critical.

1. Learning takes effort, so it helps to have a reason.

2. A goal provides context, so you can apply what you learn.

3. You can make better learning choices when you have a goal.

You can set your goal using a formal process, like the ABCD method, but it's not required. In many cases, I find it helpful just to focus on the specific reason I want to learn a new skill.

For example, I'm planning a backpacking trip this winter to a remote desert wilderness. The trail isn't clearly marked in places, so I'll have to navigate my way to avoid getting lost.

Professionally, almost all my keynote speaking business comes from relationships. I've set an ambitious goal of increasing my keynotes by 50 percent next year, so that requires me to network with people to create new relationships and strengthen the ones I already have.

Having a clear sense of purpose helps you stay focused on your learning journey and make good choices about the next steps.

Start small

Once you set a learning goal, find just enough training, advice, or content to get you started.

Many people try to consume as much content as they can, but it's often wasted. That's because knowledge is use it or lose it, so if you consume too much content at this stage, you'll quickly forget most of it.

I focused my quest to improve my networking skills by creating a visual map of the relationships that led me to all my clients and current sales prospects. The map helped identify specific people who have had an outsized impact on my success.

Now I can focus my attention on building stronger relationships with those key people and creating new relationships with people who fit a similar profile.

Gain experience

Experience plays an incredibly important role in the learning process.

1. It reveals exactly what you need to learn.

2. It provides a feedback loop for making iterative improvements.

3. You don't learn a new skill until you use it.

That last one is the most important. Learning is just theoretical until you apply it.

For example, I could read a blog post about navigating on the trail. I might even think I understand the concepts. But I won’t really know until I use the skills in a realistic setting.

So I recently went on a hike in the desert that tested my skills. It was a relatively short trail, and there was little chance of getting lost, but the trail itself required a bit of navigation. It was a perfect chance to gain some experience.

The experience helped me understand that I was fairly adept and reading the faint trail and using GPS, but I needed to improve my skill using a compass and topographical map to get more precise routing in certain situations where the trail is poorly marked or GPS is unreliable.

I enjoy following David Kolb's experiential learning model. Here's a high-level summary:

1. Gain experience.

2. Reflect on what happened.

3. Decide what to do next time.

4. Experiment with new ideas.

Using this model makes learning an iterative process, where you quickly build new skills on top of the skills you've already gained.

Find a guide

Now that you've set a goal, tried a few techniques, and gained some experience, it's finally time to search for more content or guidance. You'll be able to make much better decisions about what is right for you now that you better understand your needs.

Your guide could take the form of a class, blog, or book. It also could be someone you know who is willing to act as a coach or mentor.

As a hiker, I've gotten great advice from hiking bloggers such as Cris Hazzard. Hazzard creates incredibly detailed trail guides for his Hiking Guy blog, and each post features tons of navigational advice. I've also found some helpful blog posts on the REI website, like this one on how to use a compass.

When it comes to growing my keynote speaking business, I rely on the advice of several successful keynote speakers. I've been fortunate to build relationships with people who have all given me terrific ideas for growing my network and growing my business.

I'm also reading a very helpful book from Keith Ferrazzi called Never Eat Alone. Rather than reading the whole thing at once, I'm taking it one chapter at a time and implementing each lesson.

Conclusion

Yes, classes, blogs, books, and other content can play an important role in the learning process. The key is setting a goal and starting your journey before deciding what content can best help you.

You'll be far better equipped to search for content that can help you continue your learning journey once you've gone through these four steps:

1. Set a goal

2. Start small

3. Gain experience

4. Find a guide

What Indeed can teach us about brand promises

The job search site, Indeed, ran baseball-themed commercials during the recent World Series broadcast. In this one featuring Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher, Max Scherzer, Scherzer uses baseball analogies to coach an applicant looking for a sales management position.

What's struck me about these commercials is the strength of Indeed's brand promise: "We help people get jobs."

This simplicity and focus has helped Indeed become the #1 job site in terms of total site visits and rank at the top of many "best of" lists, such as this one from The Balance Careers.

A great brand promise is a core element from my book, The Guaranteed Customer Customer Experience. For many businesses, it can be an essential part of a strategy to win and retain customers.

Here's a look at how Indeed does it so well. Let's start by looking at the connection between a brand promise and customer experience.

How brand promises influence customer experience

A brand promise influences customer experience in two ways. First, it tells the brand’s ideal customers what type of experience to expect, and assures them that this brand is the solution to a problem they’re trying to solve. Second, it gets all employees on the same page when it comes to crafting a consistent experience.

In the case of Indeed, the ideal customer is looking for a job. "We help people get jobs" could not address that need more clearly. An informal poll on LinkedIn showed that's exactly how many people view Indeed.

"I've found pretty much all my past jobs through Indeed," wrote James. "I personally like the simplicity of the website."

Devon added, "Indeed has been an excellent way to research what jobs are out there."

A great brand promise also provides clarity on how the company should operate. It focuses all of its employees on the type of experience it must deliver.

The brand promise influences advertising, such as this commercial showing hall of fame pitcher, Mariano Rivera, helping someone search for a senior accountant job.

You can also see it on the Indeed website. The home page is hyper-focused on people searching for a job.

Katie Molloy, President of the career consulting firm, Leo & Loy, is a big fan.

"I love Indeed for so many reasons," wrote Molloy. It has many standout features, including the ability to easily refine job searches and set alerts for certain types of jobs. Molloy says these features makes it easier for her clients who are searching for jobs. "Basically it does the work every night while you’re sleeping and you wake up to a new list of jobs you can apply to."

What makes a great brand promise?

The best brand promises have three characteristics that enable them to help attract customers and provide clarity for employees.

#1: Specific

A great brand promise should focus on something specific, so customers clearly understand what the brand stands for.

The Indeed brand promise is very specific. "We help people get jobs" tells you exactly you can expect from Indeed. Yes, it's very broad in the sense that there are a number of ways Indeed can deliver on this promise, but you aren't confused about what Indeed does.

#2 Valuable

A great brand promise should offer something of value to the company's ideal customer. 

You can understand what your customer finds valuable by listening to their "I need to" statements. Customers often use the words "I need to" when they are searching for a particular product or solution.

• "I need to wash my car."

• "I need to get a healthy meal on my lunch break."

• "I need to store my Halloween decorations until next year."

All of these statements bring to mind specific products or services that would satisfy a particular need, whether it's a car wash that offers incredible convenience, a fast food restaurant that offers healthy food, or company that makes storage containers.

Indeed's ideal customer is saying, "I need to find a job." The Indeed brand promise speaks to that need very directly.

#3 Realistic

Great brand promises must also be realistic. A brand has to keep its promise to customers if it wants to earn their trust and loyalty.

My friend Paul is a small business owner. Whenever he needs to hire employees, he goes to Indeed.

Paul explained that he doesn't have a lot of time to search for resumes. He found Indeed to be a simple and effective way to quickly find great candidates. Perhaps too effective, since Paul told me that if he posts a job on Indeed, he'd better be ready to hire someone right away!

Conclusion

A great brand promise should speak to your ideal customers with absolute clarity. This is the power of Indeed's deceptively simple promise, "We help people get jobs."

You can learn more about using a brand promise to attract and retain customers from The Guaranteed Customer Experience. Download the first chapter to read about a chain of convenience stores that outsells the competition by simply promising clean restrooms. You can also get a free toolkit to help you implement your own brand promises.

Lessons from The Overlook: Investigate small problems

Note: Lessons from The Overlook is a periodic update on lessons learned from owning a vacation rental property in the Southern California mountain town of Idyllwild. It's a hands-on opportunity to apply some of the techniques I advise my clients to use. You can find past updates here.

Small problems are easy to dismiss with a shrug.

When a few more customers call, confused about how to use the latest software update, it's easy to shrug it off. "Yeah, there are always some customers who are confused."

A growing line of customers in a coffee shop seems like a regular busy morning. "We're busy today," says one barista with a shrug.

I felt the same urge when I had to replace three wine glasses at The Overlook after a recent inspection. My shoulders instinctively started twitching in a shrugging motion until I stopped to think about it.

Was this the sign of a bigger problem? (Spoiler alert: It was.)

Why shrugging off small problems is a bad idea

Small problems have a way of growing if left alone. Some become chronic issues, where the occasional small problem becomes an annoying and costly routine. Others are warning signs of a much larger issue, like an iceberg poking above the surface of the water.

Leaders at the software company dismissed a few complaints from confused customers, without realizing those customers were the vanguard of a giant issue. Shortly afterwards, the support team became so overwhelmed with calls that customers had to wait on hold for an hour.

The coffee shop manager dismissed long lines as routine busyness, without realizing that the line was costing them customers. People turned and walked out the door when the line got too long.

So at The Overlook, I fought the urge to dismiss a few broken wine glasses.

It's usually no big deal. We keep a supply of replacements on hand because it's part of doing business. But three is unusual, and it seemed like we've gone through a lot of wine glasses lately.

How to investigate small problems

Investigating small problems doesn't have to be overly difficult or time-consuming. It often requires you to simply stop and pay attention.

Start by listening. What are customers telling you?

The software company's customers told support agents they were confused. A recent update had completely changed the way they used the software and it wasn't intuitive. Those first few callers shared specific feedback about the features they found difficult to use.

Next, spend time watching. Go to the source of the problem and see what's happening. What are you observing?

At the coffee shop, customers were generally patient when they entered the store and saw a short line, but became noticeably agitated as the line grew longer. Once the line reached eight people, a significant number of customers walked in, saw the line, and walked back out.

At The Overlook, I tried to re-create the journey of a wine glass from pulling it out of the cupboard, using it, and then placing it in the dishwasher. That’s when I noticed the dishwasher wasn't working.

A fresh dish detergent pod was still in the dispenser, which signaled that our last guests had evidently tried to use the dishwasher but discovered it wasn't working. (Unfortunately, they did not report this issue.)

They had probably hand-washed the wine glasses, which can easily lead to more breakage with an unpracticed hand scrubbing and drying the thin glass.

Finally, it helps to look at the data.

While it seemed like we'd had a lot of recent breakage, we've had to replace just four wine glasses this year. That's below average. There were the three I had just discovered, when the dishwasher wasn't working, and one that I discovered on the last inspection.

So the recency effect of replacing one wine glass a month ago combined with three this month led me to feel it's happening a lot, when the reality was breakage is rare when the dishwasher is working.

Prevent small problems from exploding

Taking time to quickly investigate small problems often reveals opportunities to eliminate chronic issues or prevent small problems from becoming big ones.

The key is to act quickly to address the root cause before it gets worse. At the software company, the support team compiled a report showing the impact of the confusing new update:

• The increase in call volume over normal levels

• The percentage of calls about the new update

• Verbatim feedback from customers describing their confusion

This objective data helped the support team develop more robust self-help resources for customers. It also made the case for the product team to prioritize making the new software more intuitive.

At the coffee shop, a new employee was the sole cashier. She rang up orders more slowly than a seasoned cashier would have and frequently had to stop to ask her coworkers questions. Scheduling the new cashier to learn the job at a slower time or adding a second cashier to help keep the line moving would have solved this issue.

Fortunately, the dishwasher problem at The Overlook turned out to be a small one. We had new countertops installed in the kitchen just before our last guests had arrived. The dishwasher was set too far back under the new counter so the door couldn't fully close. Resetting the dishwasher to the proper position allowed the door to close and the dishwasher to work perfectly.

Conclusion

Some small problems are just that: small. Others are a warning sign of impending doom. Resist the urge to shrug off small issues until you know for sure.

1. Investigate issues to find the root cause

2. Fix small problems before they get worse

Leadership secrets from The Service Culture Handbook

"How do you define leadership?"

That's the question I posed to the self-described leadership expert. I had just met him at a conference. He told me he had spent the past 20 years delivering keynote speeches on leadership and had written several books, so I thought this would be an easy question for him to answer.

It wasn’t.

He stopped and started, struggling to find the right words. He tried a few metaphors that didn't quite land. Finally, he just shrugged and admitted defeat—he didn't have an answer to give.

The speaker wasn't alone. A lot of people struggle to find a clear and consistent definition.

You could ask a 100 leaders to define leadership and you'll likely get 100 answers, but they'd all be different. It's hard to become a "leader" when everyone defines leadership differently.

That’s why, when I wrote The Service Culture Handbook, I initially avoided marketing it as a book about leadership. I thought it would be better received if I focused on the context: getting employees obsessed with service. But leadership is what the book is really about.

It contains a proven, step-by-step process that leaders can follow to build a customer-focused culture in their organization. Here's how the process can help you become a better leader.

What is leadership?

Sometimes, we try too hard to be fancy when a simple answer is right in front of us. The Merriam-Webster dictionary has a definition of leadership that works just fine.

the power or ability to lead other people

Just to be safe, let's look at how Merriam-Webster defines lead:

to guide on a way especially by going in advance

When it comes to leadership, context is essential. “To guide on a way” implies leadership requires a specific task or mission. The Service Culture Handbook helps people build leadership skills in the context of guiding a customer-focused organization.

The book outlines three major skills that every leader needs to have.

Skill #1: Articulate a vision

The first skill in leadership is getting clear about your vision. You can't lead anyone anywhere, or expect people to follow you, if you don't know exactly where you are going.

In the book, I shared the story of an executive who wanted his team to be more like the Apple Store. When pressed for details, the best he could explain was the Apple Store had a reputation for outstanding customer service and he wanted to earn that same reputation.

The executive failed to get his team to embrace his vision, because the vision wasn't clear. He couldn't described what outcomes he wanted the team to pursue or what behaviors were essential to get there.

Without a vision to follow, the team lacked clarity.

In The Service Culture Handbook, I describe a number of customer-focused organizations. All had leaders who articulated a clear vision for employees to follow.

• REI wants to help you enjoy the outdoors.

• JetBlue wants to inspire humanity in air travel.

• The Center for Sustainable Energy wants to make it easy to join the green vehicle movement.

In each organization, the vision is a shared definition of outstanding customer experience that gets everyone on the same page. It acts as a compass to constantly point everyone in the same direction.

As a leader, it's your responsibility to craft a vision, but that doesn't mean you should create it by yourself. Getting input and buy-in from key stakeholders is an essential leadership skill.

That’s why I created this guide to help you engage stakeholders and create your vision.

Skill #2: Engage employees

The second skill in leadership is to make sure everyone understands the vision. Part of guiding others is making sure they know where to go.

This is the true essence of employee engagement.

Employee engagement, like leadership, suffers from having too many definitions. One of the greatest challenges in the employee engagement movement is finding a way to make the concept operational so it’s impact on an organization can be plainly seen.

In my research, I've found on a definition that makes it easy to observe whether an employee is engaged.

An engaged employee is deliberately contributing to organizational success.

According to this definition, an engaged employee should know the answer to three questions:

1. What is the vision?

2. What does it mean? (In other words, can they explain it.)

3. How do I personally contribute?

It's a leader's responsibility to ensure employees are engaged. They should know the vision statement and have a clear understanding of what it means. Employees should also know exactly what's expected of them.

Skill #3: Navigation

The third skill is navigating the team to keep everyone working in the right direction. There are unforeseen obstacles and challenges along any path, and it's a leader's responsibility to keep everyone moving forward.

Every decision a leader makes can either keep the team on course or derail the journey. In The Service Culture Handbook, I call this concept alignment. The decisions a leader makes must be aligned with the vision.

Conflicts happen without alignment. For example, if a CEO proclaims that quality is important, but then authorizes a new product to ship before a design flaw can be fixed, employees aren’t sure whether to focus on quality or meeting deadlines. But if the CEO proclaims quality is important, and insists that new products go through a rigorous design and testing process to prevent defects, then employees will understand that quality is truly valued.

My research shows there are five major areas where a leader should focus on alignment:

1. Goals: The metrics that define success should propel people towards the vision.

2. Hiring: Getting the right people on the team.

3. Training: Giving employees the knowledge and skills to do their part.

4. Empowerment: Enabling employees to do a great job.

5. Modeling: Acting as a role model for employees to follow.

Additional Resources

You can get detailed instructions on each of these leadership skills from The Service Culture Handbook.

There's also a free, downloadable workbook you can use the implement the concepts.

Finally, if you have access to LinkedIn Learning, you can view my Leading a Customer-Centric Culture course. It's just surpassed 70,000 learners globally.

A 30-day trial is available if you're not already a LinkedIn Learning subscriber.

Get employees obsessed with service from Leading a Customer-Centric Culture by Jeff Toister

How customer service leaders can make it easier to do good work

"Be more managerial, or you're fired!"

The director issued this ultimatum to his two managers. There had been some customer service issues within the department. The director wanted to see change, now.

The managers stared at their boss in disbelief.

I stared, too. The director had brought me in to meet with his leadership team and help create a strategy to improve the service culture. This was our first meeting, and it felt like a set-up.

The director looked to me for validation. What I said flummoxed him instead. "What exactly does 'be more managerial' look like?”

He didn't have an answer.

Leaders try all sorts of approaches to get their employees to do good work. Some try to be tough, like that director. Some try to be compassionate and let employees do what they want. Others offer incentives or try to make it fun with games.

Yet one strategy consistently works better than them all. The best customer service leaders make it easy. Here are three ways you can do that.

Step 1: Provide clarity

Think of a company well-known for legendary customer service. Whichever one you pick, you can bet that employees know exactly what they're supposed to do to make your experience so exceptional.

Many employees don't have that.

A Customer Service Tip of the Week subscriber recently wrote to describe her struggles understanding what was expected of her. She sent me one of her performance goals so I could see for myself.

That single "goal" was multiple pages of nonsense and corporate-speak about productivity and efficiency. It was one of four similar goals she had to meet.

Like the director's two managers, this employee lacked clarity.

1. What exactly is the goal?

2. What behaviors are most likely to achieve the goal?

These employees are not alone. A recent poll on LinkedIn showed just 57 percent of respondents knew what they had to do to achieve the goals on their performance review.

Employees need clarity if you want them to do great work.

This starts by creating a customer experience vision—a shared definition of outstanding service that gets everyone on the same page.

Employees also need to know how they personally contribute to the overall vision. You can test this by asking any employees these three questions:

1. What is the vision?

2. What does it mean?

3. How do you personally contribute?

You don't have clarity until employees can consistently and confidently answer those questions.

The director struggled to define what "be more managerial" meant. He couldn't explain it to his managers, no more than he could explain exactly what great service should look like.

Step #2: Empower employees

Think about a time when you had an unusual request or encountered a small problem with a customer-focused company. Chances are, a friendly and helpful employee was empowered to help you immediately.

It's not enough to give employees clarity by defining great service. Employees need to be empowered to actually deliver it.

Most people think of empowerment as giving employees free rein. The true definition of customer service empowerment is a bit more sophisticated:

A process of enabling employees to deliver outstanding service to their customers.

Empowered employees generally have three things:

1. Resources: the right tools to do the job.

2. Procedures: best practices to follow.

3. Authority: the ability to do what's right when needed.

If you hire right, your employees naturally want to provide great service. That's exactly what they'll do if you empower them to do it.

The director didn't empower his employees or his managers to do a good job. Instead, he micromanaged, shot from the hip, and frequently contradicted himself.

Eventually, doing nothing became less risky than getting reprimanded for doing something.

Step #3: Be a role model

Think of a company you admire for great service, and you'll probably think of a leader who embodied what that company stood for.

You don't have to be a famous CEO to be a role model. Employees watch their manager carefully to see what behaviors are encouraged and what behaviors to avoid.

If you want your employees to do great work, you need to show them how to do it. (I can think of at least seven ways.)

This where the director really struggled.

He was a jerk to his employees, yet somehow he expected them to be kind to customers. And how could he expect his managers to "be more managerial" if he couldn't demonstrate the qualities of an effective leader himself?

Conclusion

Your job as a customer service leader is to make it easy for employees to do good work.

Employees need three things from you:

1. Clarity: what does good work look like?

2. Empowerment: are they able to do good work?

3. Model: do you provide a good example to follow?

The director did none of these things. The best he could think to do was hire a consultant, which can be a surprisingly bad idea.

I felt fortunate when I left the meeting after pulling the director aside and making it clear we wouldn't be working together. I didn’t have to come back, but the two managers and their teams had fewer options.

Why training is a bad way to recognize good employees

My first job was in a clothing store.

It was a great place for a high school kid like me to learn new skills. I started in the men's department, but was eager to learn everything I could.

Fortunately, my boss noticed my initiative and quickly trained me on a variety of functions:

• Women's department

• Shoe department

• Stock department

• Cashier

• New hire trainer

All this training made me feel recognized for my hard work. It was only later that I realized my boss saw it differently.

My manager didn't train me for recognition. She was investing in my development because it made me a more valuable employee. Budgets were tight, and my boss didn’t have the luxury of frivolous training.

Read this post before you recognize your good employees with a training class, seminar, or conference. You might save a lot of hassle.

Why training is not good recognition

Years after working in retail, I found myself managing a department that trained thousands of employees.

When I arrived, we had a recognition program in place. Employees could attend various training programs if they did a good job. There was even special recognition for the employees who completed the most training classes each quarter.

None of it worked.

The program cost a lot of money, but there was nothing to show for it. The employees who were recognized with training weren't any more loyal or more productive than the employees who didn’t attend.

The model was broken.

Training is fundamentally about problem solving. It works best when someone needs to do a particular task, but lacks the knowledge, skills, or ability to do it.

There's no problem to be solved when training is used purely for recognition. The employee doesn't learn anything that they can implement, so that training often ends up wasted.

My boss at the clothing store understood this.

She offered me the chance to learn new skills because I could work a wider variety of shifts, which gave her more flexibility when creating schedules. She had to hire fewer employees for each department because I could fill in anywhere. I became more productive and helped increase sales.

How to use training effectively

The best employee development occurs at the intersection of two things.

1. There's a clear business need.

2. The employee is eager to learn.

That's what happened at the clothing store.

Learning new skills made me feel good about the work I did. I felt recognized not by the training itself, but by the new assignments and responsibilities that came as a result. The training was a means to an end.

I also received tangible benefits from learning new skills:

• I was able to pick up more shifts.

• My skills allowed me to work more desirable hours.

• The job was more interesting because I worked in a variety of departments.

Those lessons from my first boss stayed in my head when I managed a training department that used training for recognition. I was under pressure from senior leaders to cut costs and generate more results.

We quickly altered the recognition model and focused on creating more individual development plans. Some got training to solve a specific challenge in their current role. Others were trained to prepare them for a promotion.

Employees loved it.

The targeted training helped improve their performance at work. They got bigger raises and earned faster promotions.

There was one more surprising result.

Some employees were happy to never attend any training beyond what was absolutely required. These employees typically had worked competently in the same job for years. They were content exactly where they were and had no further ambitions.

The recognition model made them look like bad employees if they weren't going to training, but that wasn't the case at all. They were good employees who didn't often need to learn new skills.

These employees loved the new model, too, because it dramatically cut down on the amount of training classes their bosses expected them to take.

Finally, senior leaders loved the new model. Productivity increased, we had more promotion-ready employees, and they could see exactly what their training investment was producing.

Conclusion

Imagine sending an employee to a conference or seminar that's related to their job or industry. What if you knew in advance they would implement absolutely nothing of value as a result of the training?

You might hesitate to send them, even if they really wanted to go.

The fix is easy. Whenever you plan for employee development, look for the intersection between what the employee wants and the business needs.

That's where the magic happens. The employee might enjoy going to training, but they’ll feel even better when they come back to work and can use that training to solve a problem.

Once you identify a clear training need and an eager employee, you can use this guide to prepare them for success.

Three reasons not to hire a customer service consultant

A few years ago, I stopped most of my consulting.

The decision wasn't made lightly. My latest book, The Service Culture Handbook, was taking off and I was receiving more inquiries than ever before.

But something gnawed at me.

Most clients weren't getting the results they wanted. Not just my clients. Companies that hired any customer service consultant were struggling to see any gains.

Only a few saw truly breakthrough results.

I analyzed the successful engagements and saw those clients had a few things in common. They were:

1. Focused on a specific goal.

2. Open to change.

3. Willing to spend the time.

Read on to learn three reasons why you shouldn't hire me or anyone else to help you grow your service culture. And I'll share the one time when a consultant probably is the right choice.

#1 You are not focused on a specific goal

A good consulting engagement requires a client to know exactly what they want to achieve. This sets the scope of work for the engagement.

Money gets wasted without a clear goal. It's a recipe for excess billable hours without anything to show for it.

"Reduce complaints," “train the team,” or "become world-class" aren't clear enough. You need a much more specific goal than that.

My last consulting client hired me to help them write a new mission statement that could also be used as the company's customer service vision. It was a sharp, focused assignment with a clear end-point.

#2 You are not open to change

Many leaders hire consultants for validation. They secretly hope the consultant will tell them they're doing everything right and share one magic secret that can change everything.

It doesn't work that way.

A big part of hiring an external consultant is helping you find blindspots. Once those blindspots are revealed, change is inevitable.

It takes a strong leader who can keep their ego in check and accept that some of the things they've been doing are not optimal. That's not always comfortable.

A leadership team recently contacted me about a service culture consulting project. Looking at it with a fresh perspective allowed me to immediately spot a flaw in their plan.

Fortunately, the leaders were strong. They took my feedback for what it was—advice intended to help them succeed. And once the blindspot was revealed, they understood the flaw as well.

The leaders made the wise, but difficult decision to put the consulting project on hold until they could make the necessary changes. That openness to tough feedback tells me they might be a great client at some point in the future.

#3 You aren't willing to spend the time

Consultants can take up a lot of your time. One of the fastest ways to sink a consulting project is to not have the time to give.

Here's just a partial list of things you'll be asked to spend time on:

• Meetings. Lots of meetings.

• Research. Consultants need access to lots of data.

• Decisions. You'll need to weigh big decisions.

• Implementation. You’ll need to implement the consultant’s recommendations.

• Monitoring. Things change, so you’ll need to keep track of the results.

A client I worked with several years ago is still implementing recommendations that came from a service culture assessment.

They're not slow and they're certainly not behind. In fact, they've made tremendous progress and achieved extraordinary results.

My client understands that implementing culture change takes hard work and concerted effort over time. This company is succeeding because they're willing to do just that.

What are the alternatives to hiring a consultant?

A big part of hiring a consultant is to gain access to new ideas. Yet many consultants, including me, already share those ideas via books, blogs, and other resources.

I've packaged all the work I used to do as a consultant into my books. And those books come with free support:

• Increase market share with The Guaranteed Customer Experience

• Get customer-focused with The Service Culture Handbook

• Discover hidden service obstacles with Getting Service Right

• Keep your team's skills sharp with Customer Service Tip of the Week

You'll find my phone number and email address inside each book. Feel free to contact me with any questions about implementing any of the ideas, no strings attached.

I've also created training videos, a free weekly email, and a blog to help guide you.

When does it make sense to hire a consultant?

I still consult on occasion, but only when it will clearly benefit my client and my client is ready. That means three conditions must be met:

• Focus: the scope of work is clearly defined.

• Open: new ideas are welcomed.

• Time: you are willing to spend the necessary time.

Not sure if you're ready? Feel free to contact me. I'll probably try to talk you out of it.

What's the difference between knowledge, skills, and abilities?

Many trainers are familiar with the acronym KSA.

It stands for the three things that training can develop:

• Knowledge

• Skills

• Abilities

Training can help improve performance if someone lacks one of those three things. Knowledge is generally understood as information, such as the steps in a procedure or different product attributes.

But what about skills and abilities?

Those two are frequently confused, but the distinction is important. This post breaks it down for you and explains why ability is the ultimate goal.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities defined

Let’s start with some basic definitions for each of these key terms. That will allow us to get into the differences, and why these distinctions are important.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines knowledge this way:

the factor or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association

In training, we often think of knowledge as memorized information that helps us do our job. An example is being able to recall the three elements of a heartfelt apology.

Knowledge isn't just one dimensional. Psychologist Benjamin Bloom created a taxonomy that helps explain the various levels we can possess knowledge:

Graphic showing a revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Image shared courtesy of Vanderbilt University.

One challenge for every trainer is deciding what level a learner needs to acquire knowledge so they can effectively do their job. Each subsequent level takes more effort, and more time, to reach.

There's a vast difference between reciting the three elements of a heartfelt apology (remember) and being able to explain the difference between a good and bad example (evaluate).

Knowledge is just one element of KSA. Here's how the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines skills:

the ability to use one's knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance

Skills move toward the practical. There’s often a gap between what we know and what we do.

For example, you might know the three steps to a heartfelt apology, but actually apologizing to a real customer is a skill. You must follow the steps correctly in a potentially difficult situation where a customer is upset and frustrated.

Other common examples of skills include:

• Operating a machine

• Using computer software

• Listening to a customer

• Troubleshooting a faulty product

• Brewing a cup of coffee

So what about ability? Once again, let's start with a definition from Merriam-Webster:

1. competence in doing something: SKILL

2. natural aptitude or acquired proficiency

Admittedly, this is where the distinction between a skill and ability gets confusing. Isn't Merriam-Webster saying ability is a skill?

Yes and no.

How is an ability different than a skill?

Look closely at the definition of ability, and you'll see that it consists of three things:

1. Skill

2. Natural aptitude

3. Acquired proficiency

All of these things combined translate into outcomes.

Going back to the apologizing to customers example, ability is what we need to make the apology actually work. In a customer service context, we want the customer to forgive us. (Us personally, and/or our company.)

As a trainer, I help learners develop KSAs, but I'm most interested in helping people develop their abilities. This is what helps them increase their performance at work.

So let’s break it down.

Skill: we’ve already covered this one.

Natural aptitude: There's not much we can do about natural aptitude. People have natural aptitude in various amounts. Some customer service professionals will be naturally great at apologizing to customers, while some will really struggle at first. A few will never be able to develop the ability.

Acquired proficiency: This is what we get from good practice and feedback.

For instance, think of the very first upset customer you ever served. Mine is indelibly seared into my memory, because the experience launched my career.

Now think about the last upset customer you served.

Chances are, you've learned hard lessons from serving countless upset customers about what works and what doesn't. You’ve probably made mistakes and learned from those lessons. And you likely can deliver a heartfelt apology much more smoothly now than the first time you did it.

That, my friend, is ability.

Why do these distinctions matter?

Trainers need to pay attention to all three KSA elements when developing employees, but each element is developed in a slightly different way.

Knowledge typically comes through content. We deliver information in some way and then engage participants in activities to make sure it sticks.

Skills are developed through practical application. This is when we introduce hands-on exercises so learners can try doing the thing they're learning to do.

Ability is developed through repetition and feedback. It can take a lot of practice to develop new abilities, and it's common to struggle at first.

One of the greatest challenges for trainers is they spend too much time on knowledge, and not enough time on skills or abilities.

Think about most training classes you attended (or facilitated). There's a good chance there was a heavy emphasis on delivering new content (knowledge), but not much time for hands on skill-development and barely any time devoted to practicing those skills so you could build abilities.

Conclusion

Ability is what ultimately matters the most.

It's not enough for a customer service representative to understand the theory behind a good apology or to be able to stumble through the steps. They need the ability to use an apology to get a customer to feel better and be willing to reconcile after a service failure.

Learn more about what training can, and cannot fix from this short video.

Is this a training issue? from How to Design and Deliver Training Programs by Jeff Toister