10 Reasons why Customer Service is a Great Job

A lot of people don't have jobs that gives them so many opportunities to touch another person's life in a positive way.  Customer Service does that.  It doesn't matter what the industry you work in, someone is contacting you because they need help.  Sometimes big help, sometimes trivial, but they need help.
You help.

1. Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing. -Alexander Pope
2. No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.- Amelia Earhart
3. Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever. -Margaret Cho
4. The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.  -Oscar Wilde
5. The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving. -Albert Einstein
6. We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. - Sir Winston Churchill
7. We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. - Mother Teresa
8. You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.  -John Wooden
9. Act as if what you do makes a difference.  It does. -William James
10. In about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy. - Karl Reiland

11 Ways to Control your Call

If a customer service rep does not control a call, the caller is far more likely to be dis-satisfied with the answers they receive.  They are more likely to call back because they don't trust the person who answered the first time.  Controlling the call is fairly easy.  But its  not the norm in our every day lives.  In your personal life the person who calls is generally the controller - they had a purpose in calling and you are responding to it. You are the responder, the reactor.

In Customer Service the caller has a purpose in calling - its to give you their problem.  And if you don't take control of the call they won't think you took away their problem. You cannot be a mere responder.  You need to change the flow of the call to one where you are the director and they are the responder. 

Its easy to do and you probably do many of these things anyway.  Here are the common ways to control the call.

1. Ask the person to identify themselves.  Name, account number etc.  
2. Ask the person what they want.  If already told you before you asked then do a #1 or #3. 
3. Ask the person an additional question about what they just asked.  Even if you already understand it.  Ask anyway.  People want to make sure you understand their issue. 
4. Rephrase their question/concern.  
5. Explain EVERY silence.  Did you know that people assume the worst during a silence.  While you are deeply involved in computer look ups and not talking, they think you are buffing your nails.  It's true.  Tell them why you aren't talking.  "I'm looking up your account"  "Let me find that information."
6. Use their name.  Do NOT over-use it.  Twice is generally enough in one call.
7. Speak with authority. Even if  you are new or just asked someone the answer and its the first time you have said it.  Act like you are the end all be all authority.  But NEVER make up the answer.  If you end up having to back track and explain away your error, you lose ground. 
8. Learn to avoid the "uhs, uhm, yeah, errrr," stutters, hesitant pauses and any personal quirk you use when you are not sure or are nervous.  Every one of those noises makes you less of an authority to the listener.  
9. Speak lower and slower if they seem like they don't trust you or are upset.  
10. Don't speak  until you know exactly what you want to say.  Sometimes we find part of an answer and feel an obligation to say we found something.  Don't.  Don't speak unless you have a complete and organized answer.  But make sure they know why there is silence.  (see #5)
11. Ask the person if they are satisfied with your answer.  Or if they understand it, or if you can do anything else.  In some way make sure they have been given an chance to ask for more help on this subject. 

Practice Makes Better Reps

Some people say that you either have the personality and qualities of a customer service rep or you don't.  And there may be some truth to that.  But I think at least 70% or more of the job is a skill set you can develop and practice.

1. We are what we repeatedly do. - Aristotle.
2. Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a certain way. - Aristotle
3. Studies show that there are no "naturally gifted" people.  In other words all the great pianists and athletes got that way by practicing longer.  Doing it over and over again.  
4. No one gets it right every time.  No one is great in the beginning.  
5. You have to want to do it.  No one can make you better at this but you.
6. You have to choose to act, not react.  You will have to choose to do those things you learned in your training, instead of feeling its not natural, or why bother since you've screwed it up the last two calls,  or that's just not your style. 
7. It's hard.  But its a skill that makes every part of your world better.  If you can manage all your calls well, you may be able to manage any situation anywhere. 
8. It takes 10,000 hours of practice to be a master at anything.  That equals 5 years of full time work in a call center. Don't be feeling like this isn't your gig because you still get pissed off at the idiots 2 years into the deal.  Especially if you haven't been trying to improve in those two years.  
9. #8 only applies if  you actually are making the effort to implement the skills.  If you are answering the phone and reacting emotionally rather than controlling the call - you are mastering the wrong skill.  Sorry.  
10. Its not your boss's fault if you don't get better.  It's not your company's fault.  It's not your parents' fault.  Its your fault.  The good news is - you can't make your boss or your company or your parents do anything, but you can make yourself do anything. 

8 Corporate Ironies

1. Meetings... The practical alternative to work.
2. Multi Tasking: Screwing up several things at once.
3. The more things change, the more they remain... insane. -Michael Fry and T. Lewis
4. The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident.  That is where we come in, were computer professionals.  We cause accidents. - Nathaniel Borenstein
5. To err is human, to forgive is Not Company Policy 
6. You can name your own salary here.  I call mine Fred.
7. Internal consistency is valued more highly than efficiency.
8. Microsoft: You've got questions. They've got dancing paperclips.

8 Ways to re-energize your focus

1. Stand up.  Sitting too long makes your brain fart and then get constipated.  
2. Stretch.  If you  have the courage, do a series of bend overs, moving the arms stretches.
3. Decide to make the next person you speak to happy.  Not happy that you did a good job, or happy with the call.  Happy.  They hang up in a better mood.  Usually all it takes  is a focus of happy energy on your part.  Smile, put energy in your voice.  The energy you use when you are in a good mood and you want someone else to be.  If you do this, you will win back your focus and your mood will improve tremendously. 
4. Organize a corner of your workspace.  When your mind stops working, doing a physically organizing task will bring the brain back from the blank or the chaos.  (This also works after a bad call - if you are feeling emotional.)
5. Walk away from your desk.  If you are allowed the option, go to the rest room, fill your water cup, make a copy, - any activity that will walk you away from your desk for 2 or 3 minutes.  
6. Reboot.  Don't wait for the computer to freeze up, do it when your brain does.  I know, I know - can you think of anything more annoying???  No.  But when it's done don't you feel an overwhelming urge to get on with your job, catch up, make up for all of the time you just wasted?  And think how very happy you are making those Help Desk folks.  
7. Tell a friend about a GOOD call.  Not the bad call.  We always turn to the person next to us when the call was bad, or weird.  But mention to the person that you found out something new, you figured out how to answer this question, or who does this, or that the computer does that.  Find an expression for your small successes and you will feel more energy for doing your job right now. 
8. Close your eyes, and count each part of your body.  Weird right?  Yeah, but it works.  You don't have to close your eyes, but it helps.  When I say parts, be pretty narrow.  Count each toe, count the arch of your foot, the heel, the ankle...  It will probably take 2 to 3 minutes to go through your body.  When you are done, take a big deep breath and focus on your next task.   (also good for after a bad, call.)

These work, but there are lots of others.  If you know one, please share it here!

10 Things to Remember when you are Angry

1. He who angers you conquers you. -Elizabeth Kenny
2. I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. -Booker T Washington
3. When you blame others, you give up your power to change. 
4. The weak can never forgive.  Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. -Ghandi
5. Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. -Benjamin Franklin
6. Power means not having to respond.
7. One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered. 
8. If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?  -Sydney J. Harris
9. You don't have to attend every argument you're invited to.
10. Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom. -Victor Frankl

10 Things to AVOID saying to the customer

1. Did you eat an extra bowl of stupid this morning?
2. I'm ready to listen. . . are you ready to think?
3. Shhhh. . .that's the sound of nobody caring what you think.
4. Well aren't you just the most adorable black hole of need.
5. Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental. 
6. Disappointed? Too bad! 
7. Do they ever shut up on your planet?
8. Everyone is entitled to be stupid; but you are abusing the privilege.
9. I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.
10. I’ve stopped listening.  Why haven’t you stopped talking?

Call Centers and Contact Centers

It used to be just call centers, now with all the new communication tools, we are "Contact Centers".  No matter how many new ways we have to communicate, we still have a hard job.  Communicating a positive message on a topic we don't control to an audience that may be angry, happy, confused or sad.  It is a never ending, and ever intriguing challenge. 

This blog is about how to manage the contact.  Getting the skills right.  Tips for keeping sane, Funny thoughts, and Daily Ideas.

Please feel free to comment.  A thoughtful conversation is always welcome.