The Secret of Lousy Service and Why it Happens

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QUESTION: Why does lousy service occur?
ANSWER: Lousy service happens because (big) companies don’t understand people OR training.

I am amazed at how many times someone in a service environment delivers lousy service. And it’s often not just lousy – add rude, offensive, abrasive, defensive, maddening, and most of all disappointing.

GREAT NEWS: It doesn’t have to be like that.

If I take the time to complain, which I rarely do anymore, the manager will always ask, “Did you get the name of the person?” Somehow getting the name of the person is important to the manager. But it is unimportant to me. I never get their name.

The manager is looking to blame someone. I’m looking for someone to accept responsibility. The manager is NEVER the one who takes it.

I have found poor service is a reflection of the company and its leaders, not just the person who delivered it.

MY REALITY: When a manager asks me for the person’s name who delivered lousy service, I reply, “Don’t yell at the person who gave me lousy service. Yell at the person who trained them.” The person delivering poor service is most likely to have been poorly trained or ill trained, or both. They’re doing what they were trained to do, and say what they were trained to say.

Or the employee will ‘modify training’ and make statements based on their ‘at the moment’ feelings:

  • Sorry about that…
  • That’s our policy…
  • I’m just doing my job…
  • They don’t pay me to think…
  • I’m just a peon…

Or worse, they become defensive, even rude, when a customer expresses frustration or anger as a reaction to what happened. Employees do that because someone TAUGHT THEM they don’t have to take gruff from a customer. (REALITY: The customer provides the money for their paycheck).

Ever get poor service at an airline? Of course you have, EVERYONE HAS. It happens because the people who work at the airlines are undertrained, poorly managed, feel put upon by their management and their leadership, underpaid, rarely if ever praised, and are exposed to constant customer complaints. They don’t like their job, they don’t like or respect their leader, they don’t like their company, and they don’t like the people they serve. Not good.

Now granted, this is a generalization, but I’m in the air enough to make the comment based on 20 years of flying experience. I get an occasional nice person. I have an occasional pleasant experience. But they are so rare that I actually go up to the person and thank them for being nice, for being happy, and for being friendly.

So let’s get back to the question at hand. Why does lousy service exist?

Who is responsible to make great service possible?
Who is responsible to make great service happen?

I always ask people in service positions, “How’s it going?” Most people respond in some negative fashion. Statements like, “Well, tomorrow is Friday!” or “I’ll let you know in two hours when I get off.” or “You’re kidding, right?”

These are losing, self-defeating statements. Statements made by people who fail to understand that doing their best, having a great attitude, and having a high sense of personal pride have nothing to do with the job. They have everything to do with who you are as a person.

Most of the front-line servers are in low-paying positions. When you combine that with our “feeling of entitlement” workforce and with training that’s all about the company, with a smattering of, “smile, greet the customer, thank the customer,” you have a perfect setting for mediocre or lousy service to occur most of the time.

About now, you want answers to this dilemma. I have them. They revolve around four words you already know: positive attitude and personal pride. But there is way more to these four words than your known definition.

Positive attitude and personal pride hold the key to your success, and they will be discussed in-depth next week.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Are you passive, aggressive, or assertive? Only one way wins.

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The answer is ‘assertive.’ It’s the best strategy for engaging, establishing control, proving value, creating a buying atmosphere, and forging a relationship.

I define assertiveness as a state of mind and a state of preparation PRIOR to implementation in a sales call.

CAUTION: This writing assumes (a bad thought process in sales) you have both read and mastered last week’s part one. If you haven’t, you can find it here or by entering the words ASSERTIVE SELLING in the GitBit box at www.gitomer.com. You must read, understand, and put those concepts into practice BEFORE part two can take shape.

The two remaining parts of assertiveness are:

  1. The sales presentation itself.
  2. The follow-up to the sales call.

Interesting that the sales call, the actual presentation, does not require the same amount of assertiveness as the sales follow-up. It’s way more difficult to re-engage a prospect and chase down a decision.

However, if you’re a great salesperson, an assertive salesperson, follow-up may not be necessary because you have asserted your way to the sale during the presentation.

THE PRESENTATION: When you get in front of a prospective customer, it is imperative that you look impressive and sound impressive. You know the old saying, “You never have a second chance to make a first impression.” You must start in a positive position in order to create a positive outcome.

Assertiveness begins with your eye contact, smile, and handshake. These actions establish you in the mind of the prospect as a person who is both self-assured and happy.

You take a relaxed seat. You accept anything that is offered to you in the way of water or coffee. You put yourself in the lean-forward position. Any tools or equipment you need to make your presentation are in front of you and ready to go. And you immediately begin by discussing anything other than your business and their business.

You begin the business of making friends. You begin the business of creating mutual smiles. You begin talking about them in a way that lets them know you’ve done your preparation and your homework. At any moment you can begin to discuss their needs, however you prefer to discuss their family or their personal interests first.

The segue from rapport building to business discussion requires an assertive thought process. There’s no formula, but there is a feeling. The salesperson’s responsibility is to feel when it’s right to move forward, and then have the assertive courage to do it.

Assertive presentations start with questions, offer unchallengeable proof in the middle, and end with a customer commitment that you have earned.

BEWARE and BE AWARE: Whoever you’re calling on wants to know what’s new and what the trends are in THEIR business. If you are able to deliver those during your presentation, I guarantee you’ll develop a value-based relationship, and have the full attention of the buyer.

Harnessing the power of ‘assertive’ in a sales presentation:

The assertive presentation challenges you, the salesperson, to bring forth a combination of your knowledge as it relates to their needs as well as a durability to connect both verbally and non-verbally with the person or the group you’re addressing.

You’ll know your assertive strategy is working when the customer or the prospective customer begins asking questions to get a deeper understanding about your product or service. This changes monologue to dialogue but also creates the power of engagement, or should I say assertive engagement.

At some point you have to complete the transaction. This means either asking for the sale (an okay part of the assertive process), or using some secondary means to confirm the sale (like scheduling delivery or installation).

Commitment to the order is where the rubber meets the road. If you get the order, it means you’ve done an assertively great job. If you don’t get it, it means you have to lapse into assertive follow-up mode. Here’s how…

THE FOLLOW UP: Assertive follow-up will become permissible if asked for, and agreed upon, in advance.

Here’s how: “Mr. Jones, what’s the best way for me to stay in touch with you?” “What’s your preferred method of communication?” “Is there anyone else I should ‘cc’ in our communications?” “May I send you an occasional text?”

These are permission-based questions that tell you where you are in the relationship. If you get a cell phone number and you’re permitted to send an occasional text, it means your relationship has reached a solid position.

WHERE’S THE VALUE? If I ask for a ‘follow-up’ appointment, I’ll no doubt get some vague runaround. BUT if I offer to come back with some valuable information about his or her business or job function, I’m certain to be granted that appointment.

The dialogue might go something like this, “Mr. Jones, I visit 30 or 40 businesses a month. During those visits I don’t just sell, I observe. Each month I list two or three ‘best practices.’ In my follow-up with you, I’ll need five minutes to share those practices each month. Is that fair enough?”

Heck yes! That’s fair enough. Your offer to help the customer with his or her business, and his or her job function, will not just endear you, it will also create the basis of a solid relationship. A value-based relationship. One where assertiveness is actually acceptable.

The ultimate goal beyond a sale is a trusted relationship with your customer. The path to secure that relationship begins with mastering the principles of assertiveness and then putting them into practice.

The by-product is more sales.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Pushy, aggressive, obnoxious, assertive, or professional. Which are you?

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Sales reps get a bad rap for trying to sell too hard.

You’ve heard the term “pushy salesman” or “aggressive salesperson” or even “obnoxious salesman.” How do those phrases make you feel?

And salespeople go to great lengths NOT to be perceived as pushy, or aggressive, or obnoxious – so they (maybe you) go to the opposite end of the spectrum and try to be or be known as professional.

BEWARE and BE AWARE: A professional sales call is okay, but boring. Professional meetings typically have no outcome. Or worse, they result in never-ending follow-up, void of sales. Not good. Here’s a good way to think about professionalism: your customer must perceive you as a professional person. It’s more of a look on your part, and a perception on the part of the customer. In today’s world of selling, professionalism is a given. Your words, actions, and deeds take over from there.

Professionalism is not bad, but professionalism alone will not net sales.

MAJOR AHA! Between pushy, aggressive, obnoxious, and professional lies a middle ground – a ground where sales are made. It’s known as assertive.

CAUTION: Assertiveness is not a word – it’s a strategy and a style. It’s not just “a way in which you conduct yourself.” Rather, it’s a full-blown strategy that has elements to master way before assertiveness can begin and be accepted as a style of selling.

BEWARE and BE AWARE: Assertiveness is a GOOD style of selling as long as you understand, and have mastered, the elements that make “assertive” acceptable on the part of the customer.
WHERE DOES ASSERTIVENESS COME FROM?

  • The root of assertiveness is belief. Your belief in what you do, your belief in who you represent, your belief in the products and services that you sell, your belief in yourself, your belief that you can differentiate yourself from your competitor (not compare yourself to), and your firm belief that the customer is better off having purchased from you. These are not things you believe in your head. Rather, these are things you must believe in your heart. Deep belief is the first step in creating an assertive process. Until you believe, mediocrity is the norm. Once you believe in your heart, all else is possible.
  • An Attitude of Positive Anticipation. In order to be assertive, positive attitude or YES! Attitude is not enough. You must possess an “Attitude of Positive Anticipation.” This means walking into any sales call with a degree of certainty that the outcome will be in your favor. It means having a spirit about you that is easily contagious – a spirit that your customer can catch, and buy.
  • Total preparation is the secret sauce of assertiveness. This must include customer-focused, pre-call planning as well as creating the objective, the proposed outcome, for a sales call. Most salespeople make the fatal mistake of preparing in terms of themselves (product knowledge, literature,business cards, blah, blah). The reality of total preparation means preparing in terms of the customer FIRST. Their needs, their desires, and their anticipated positive outcomes – their win. If these elements are not an integral part of your preparation, you will lose to someone who has them.
  • The assertive equation must also contain undeniable value in favor of the customer. This is not just part of preparation, this is also part of the relationships you have built with other customers who are willing to testify on your behalf, and other proof that you have (hopefully in video format) that a prospective customer can relate to, believe in, and purchase as a result of.

REALITY: It’s not about changing your beliefs, it’s about strengthening your beliefs. It’s not about changing your attitude, it’s about building your attitude. It’s not about changing your preparation, it’s about intensifying your preparation. It’s not about adding value, it’s about delivering perceived value.

BIGGER REALITY: When you have mastered belief, attitude, preparation, and value as I have just defined them, then and only then, can assertiveness and assertive selling begin to take place.

BIGGEST REALITY: Incremental growth in belief, attitude, preparation, and value offered will lead to assertive sales calls and an increase in sales.

YOUR STATURE IS THE GLUE: Your professional look, your quiet self-confidence, your surety of knowledge andinformation that can help your customer, your past history of success, your possession of undeniable proof, and your assertive ability to ask your customers to beresponsible to their customers and their employees. (Responsibility is an acceptable (and assertive) form of accountability). No customer wants to be accountable to a sales rep – but EVERY customer has a MISSION to be responsible to his or her customers and co-workers.

When you combine your belief, your attitude, your preparation, your value, and your assertiveness, the outcome is predictable: It’s more sales.

Next week is all about the assertive sales call. Get ready.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

What’s the sincerity level of your message?

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When someone tells me to “Have a nice day,” I don’t think they mean it. I think they’re just saying it as a kind of mundane, almost impolite, form of politeness. Forced nicety. Said out of habit, not sincerity. To me, it’s not just thoughtless, it’s also meaningless. Heck, half the time people don’t even look at you when they say it.

Oh, they don’t mean it as an insult. People say, “Have a nice day,” because they don’t know what else to say. Or don’t care what they say. Or they are trained to say it.

But think about it. Do they only mean THAT day? Do they want me to have a crappy tomorrow? Or they will go so far as to say, “Have a good rest of the week.” What does that mean, I’m going to have a horrible weekend? Or month? Or year? Or life?

If you are going to say something to me, or your customer, make it sincere, make it meaningful, and make it relevant. Otherwise, I mentally check you off – the same way you check people off. And the question here is, are you being checked off?

Consistency of message and expression is important – but NOT ROBOTIC.
Give people leeway to be human.

Boring and insincere typically has a way of permeating everything else in a company. The color of your logo.

  • The politically correctness of your slide show.
  • The stuffiness of your business card.
  • The boringness of your job title.

Who cares? ONLY YOU! (Your marketing people, your ad agency, yada, yada) Anyone preparing “boring” marketing tools in this day and age should be forced to take that crap out on a sales call and see how CUSTOMERS perceive it or care ten cents about it.

The key word is SINCERITY.
The secondary word is DIFFERENTIATION.

Here are some GOLDEN opportunities to be creatively sincere:

  • At the fast food window
  • When customers walk in your store
  • When customers pay for something
  • When customers board the plane
  • When customers are about to order in a restaurant
  • When customers are sent an invoice

These are all opportunities to prove differentiation, be sincere, and even WOW the customer.

  • Marketing and HR people: Get off your corporate hobby horse and saddle up your creative brain!
  • Employees: You’re an individual, not some kind of automated answering device. (Don’t get me started. Reality, if my call is so darn important, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, don’t tell me about it.) Use your friendliness and creativity to craft a message that the customer perceives as real.

FORCED CORPORATE POLITENESS: I love it when service reps or managers candidly you’re your piece, the other person is clearly wrong, won’t admit it, but are under corporate edict to be polite, but you know they hate you, and their life when they tersely ask, “Will there be anything else?” Makes me smile and feel sad all at once.

Southwest Airlines is anything but politically correct. Their people are happy, their customers are happy, their message is clear, and they make a TON of money. Jeez, I wonder if there’s a correlation!

What about you? How sincere are you?

Here are 4 things you can do tomorrow without anyone’s permission:

  • Look me in the eye. Make sure there’s a locked-in moment
  • Say something slightly different. “You’re all set.” vs. “Thanks for your business.”
  • Shake my hand like you mean it. Firm, with eye contact.
  • Smile. When you smile, it makes others smile.

IDEA: Make a goal to create 12 smiles a day through your words, actions or deeds. Creativity and sincerity will automatically materialize.

Have a nice day!

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Recommended Resources – The Welcomer Edge

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The Welcomer Edge: Unlocking the Secrets to Repeat Business
by Richard Shapiro

About the Book

The Welcomer Edge by Richard Shapiro explores the customer experience that converts first time customers into repeat buyers. Richard characterizes four types of sales persons; highlighting the advantage ‘welcomers’ have over others not so personally engaging.

  • Welcomers draw new customers to a business and keep them by establishing a relationship with their clients.
  • Robots go through the motions in their client interactions and do not create a personal connection.
  • Indifferent employees overtly communicate a lack of caring to their customers; rarely saying ‘hello’ and ‘thank you.’
  • Hostiles do not want to be at work and make this sentiment obvious to their customers.

Robert goes on to reveal how those who are not currently welcomers can work to develop the key mindsets and approaches to embody this approach; thereby increasing customer satisfaction and sales.

Benefits of Using this Book

StrategyDriven Contributors like The Welcomers Edge for its highly insightful, example filled examination of the various degrees of one-on-one customer relationship management. We appreciate the detailed personality descriptions that enable managers to identify the approach type of their front-line employees as well as the prescription for developing individual’s welcomer abilities.

If we had one criticism of the book it would be that Richard uses too many examples; going a bit beyond what is needed to effectively make a point. But then again, can one really have too many examples?

The Welcomer Edge provides business leaders with the crucial insight needed to ensure they have the best client facing people, individuals who will convert and retain potential customers. For its actionable, example rich insights driving organizational goal achievement, The Welcomer Edge is a StrategyDriven recommended read.