by Elizabeth Frederick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by Charles Bernard

This week, CFS is conducting a Customer Service training for one of our clients, which is right on track for our blog theme of the month…

The training is not only for customer service personnel, but for everyone in the NY/NJ offices.  Somewhere around 50 people will attend.  Support staff, senior level executives, and even finance personnel are participating.  We will not only be focusing on external customers, but on internal customers within the firm as well.

In typical CFS style, we will drive the workshop through a workbook that participants complete and use for future reference, as well as provide a handout with customer service tips. 

This curriculum will be used for other clients, and we will post the handout as a white paper that can be downloaded from our website.  Until it is posted, feel free to contact us if you would like to receive a copy. 

We thought our readers would also be interested in the videos that we will be showing at the event.  Here are the links:

Examples of poor Customer Service:
Seinfeld – rent a car
Gas Station Attendant
This is Kelly

Examples of outstanding Customer Service:
Starbucks
Johnny the Bagger

An inspirational video that we will play at the end of the workshop:
Nick Vujicic

I would love your feedback, including what you thought of the videos, as well as any suggestions on how to improve Customer Service.

by: Wyeth Killip

This blog includes the following topics: Heat wave 2010, walking 4 miles in Manhattan, sweat soaked wool suit, heat exhaustion, being held hostage on the subway, and an express train to Jamaica.

***Warning ***Read only if you too have had a bizarre sales experience or are seeking pure entertainment.

It all began yesterday morning as I stepped out of my apartment on my way to a networking meeting.  As many of you know we are experiencing the Heat Wave of 2010, with record-breaking triple digit temperatures. I am welcomed to the day of sales calls with a brisk 93 degree blast of refreshing air. I immediately begin sweating uncontrollably as I begin my 15 block walk to the meeting. With only two blocks to go, I nearly pass out from heat exhaustion but I pull it together and make it to the meeting.

The meeting ended up running late and I frantically make my way cross-town to our office. I manage to have just enough time to print materials for my lunch meeting and I am out the door again to catch the subway. I was supposed to meet my prospect in the financial district only to find out once I arrived at our predetermined location that she had accidentally missed the stop and was now in Brooklyn. Half an hour goes by and the next thing I know she is at the canal street station and we have decided to meet each other half way in between on Broadway.  At this point I have already walked two miles in the heat in a wool suit so what’s another mile tossed on. We finally have a great lunch meeting and I am on my way back to the office.

I board the train and the doors begin to shut. The next thing I know there is a man standing in the door way holding the doors open with a peculiar look on his face.  The doors attempt to close several times and he continues to stand in the way. People start yelling for him to either get on or off the train. He refuses to listen to anyone except for “the girl in the green shirt” who has never met him before and has no idea what is going on. Over the intercom the conductor asks everyone to stand clear of the doors so we can depart but the man won’t budge.  The conductor arrives to inspect the situation and tries to negotiate with the man. Nothing works so the conductor announces that the train is suspended and shuts down the train. Hundreds of people pour out onto the platform as the air conditioners shut off. At this point people are going crazy, yelling, and pushing to see what is going on. Chaos ensues as the man takes our train hostage and won’t let anyone on or off the train. Meanwhile the conductor calls the cops. 20 minutes go by and several people attempt to reason with him, but he is only yelling to an imaginary figure “John Nash, John Nash, John Nash!” Clearly something wasn’t right with this picture.  Finally the cops show up and haul him away and everyone boards the train and we are on our way.

I arrive back at the office to regroup and get ready for my last appointment of the day. I catch the uptown train to 59th and Lex and have a great meeting with a prospect. The meeting lasts till about 5:30 and I decide I’ll take the subway back to the office. I jump on the train and confirm from the sign above that I am on the right train, doors shut and I sit down only to realize that the train is now moving in the wrong direction. Great…I am now on the express train to Queens. I ride 15 minutes to the next stop, board the train across the platform only to realize I am now on the express train to Jamaica. Another 15 minutes rolls by and I switch trains to ride another half hour back to Manhattan.  I finally arrive home at 7:00 and call it a day. Needless to say it was a crazy day but it wouldn’t be “Sales” without a little excitement and a bizarre twist along the way.

If you too have had crazy days in “Sales” feel free to share your story.

by Charles Bernard

Our blog theme this month is “Summer of Service,” which is dedicated to making a difference. 

I have said for many years that at the core of most people; after you peel away all the layers, is the fundamental desire to “contribute.”  Think about how great it feels when you have made an impact on others. 

I remember working on a client engagement in 2005 that lasted about one year.  I would face close to a three hour drive each way, on a monthly basis, sometimes twice a month.  The drives went by in a flash!

I was always excited to work with them.  It felt like a privilege to be granted the trust to lead critical planning and brainstorming meetings that really impacted the business.  Driving on my way there, my mind was focused on the communication barriers between the executives that needed to be removed.  On my way home, I often found myself fist-pumping the air as the goals got accomplished, one by one.  More importantly, I celebrated how people who had spent years involved in political wrangling; rarely reaching consensus, gave up personal positions and began working as a unified team.  Many days, I thought about taking “before” and “after” pictures, just so they could see the progress written on their faces!  More importantly, the firm’s revenue numbers started to track in a positive direction, reversing years of stagnant growth and losses.

I knew in my heart that I had contributed in a big way, but never needed nor wanted to take credit.  That might well have extinguished my inner glow!