I’m smart enough, I’m strong enough, and gosh darn it … people like me!

~Stuart Smalley played by Al Franken on Saturday Night Live

Maybe it dates me, but the old Saturday Night Live skits were pretty funny. My little sister makes fun of my positive attitude with this quote all the time. I know it was a skit that mocked  people’s addiction to 12 Step classes, but is it possible he actually had the right idea? Do you psych yourself up in the morning with positive affirmations in the bathroom mirror? Do you talk yourself up in the car on the way to a sale? I have definitely told my discouraged teenagers to take some time to encourage themselves before they face a difficult time. It’s really not bad advice. Even in business, we need to be keenly aware of what is going well.

Change Your Thinking, And Success Will Follow
Everyone who runs a business is marketing and selling something. If you’re not, you’re not going to get too far. When everyone around you is concerned about sales, you would do well to realize that if you’re business has slowed down, it’s because other businesses have slowed down. The right attitude to use with your customer is to share what you can do for their company that will in turn pick up business for them. If you go in commiserating about the down economy and fewer spenders, you aren’t going to have much success. You need to become better at language that recognizes the ‘upside’ of things. Have you thought about what can be done?

It won’t take you 30 minutes to jot down ways that you can incorporate more positive language into your communication. Find out what has gone right with your products or services lately. Many times conversations will surround needs for improvement, and while that is extremely important, you need to be an aggressive finder-outer of what has gone terrific and make sure your team realizes what’s at stake if they don’t do the same. When something goes well, expound upon why and how it went well, and do not forget to ask your client for written positive feedback in the form of an email or business review on Yelp.com, MerchantCircle or Google Local.

When you practice positive speak, people notice. Maybe not immediately, but sooner or later, the glass is half full approach will win the favor of your clients while the glass half empty approach will always keep them more distant than you realize.

What do you do to encourage yourself? Do you make it a regular practice? Tell us about it.

• they pay the bills
• we need their references on our ‘Happy Customers List’
• we build our portfolios on the work we do for them
• they will talk of our great service and drop our names
• every customer is a link to a new customer, etc.

Those are all very important, familiar reasons we put up with difficult and sometimes unfriendly customers, but even so, no one likes to be treated rudely or unfairly, ourselves included.  When our customers are not-so-easy-to-please, how do we treat them in such  a way that they will come back to us much easier to satisfy?

1. The first thing we do is recognize that they did not have to choose us, but they did.
2. Since they did choose us, they are worthy of the same respect another more reasonable customer would receive.
3. Smile. Smile when you talk on the phone, type on the keyboard, and absolutely when you are speaking face-to-face. A smile will transform how you see them, remind you to be friendly at all times, and will translate through every medium–even the phone line!
4. Make sure every detail is expertly thought out and executed.
5. Do the very best job you are capable of doing.
6. Present your service or product with confidence, ready to meet resistance with understanding and suggest an alternative if one exists.

Some people just won’t be satisfied. When you’ve done all you can, that’s all you can do. No matter what, don’t loose your cool.

Its not easy saying the right thing when you feel you’ve been insulted or when you’ve gotten your feathers ruffled! Having a game plan will help you to speak calmly and resolve the issue while preserving your dignity!

How do you treat your customer?

Photo Credit: chez sugi on flickr

I made an online purchase today via a customer update form on a secure Web page. The URL included “https” and the little yellow padlock icon was definitely there, at the bottom right of my Flock browser.

Imagine my dismay when I discovered that this “secure” form transmitted all of my sensitive data via form mail. My full name, address, phone number, credit card information … the whole works, traveled from a secure web page via a non-encrypted email to the corporate inbox.

How did I learn of this? The thank you page linked back to a free Form Mail script archive. Oh yes, I’m feeling like a valued customer now!

Not only did it make the trip once, but an employee who received my form was also kind enough to answer a question, and replied to me with all of my form data in the body of her email. There were no x’s replacing credit card numbers or expiration date. Nope, it was all there for any reasonably proficient identity thief to see.

Why would any company that offers a good product and otherwise excellent customer service, fail so miserably on basic Internet security? The employee apologized for her error, but this isn’t a little “oops, I screwed up” type of mistake. Because the company didn’t take the time or effort to consider how their foolish shortcut could harm their customers and didn’t bother engaging in the most basic Internet security training, they’ve lost my trust. In my mind, their brand has gone from “quality product, excellent service” to wondering what other shortcuts they’ve taken.

Small Business Takeaway – If you collect ANY sensitive customer data, make sure you either know how to collect and transmit that data securely or hire someone who knows what they’re doing.

It didn’t start well. We waited over 20 minutes in a not-crowded restaurant for a meal that was presented poorly. The 7 oz. sirloin was accompanied by about 1-1/2 sliced mushrooms and a huge gob of garlic mashed potatoes that weren’t all that warm. Ten minutes after we had our meal, our salads arrived … with the wrong dressing.

Anyone can have a bad day, and I’m not usually critical when the waitress or the cook make an honest mistake. But this particular waitress wasn’t interested in getting it right … she wanted us to know that it wasn’t her fault. She actually said it “wasn’t her job” and “I didn’t make the salads.” After which my husband said, “we’d like to talk to the manager.”

Here’s where the story changes. The manager apologized for the poor service and offered to make it right. He made no excuses, thanked us for bringing it to his attention, and credited us for both of our meals. We left the restaurant feeling like we had been listened to and hopeful that our dining experience was just a temporary glitch at an otherwise decent place to eat. We’ll be back.

Now here’s the thing: As my husband and I were waiting for our meals, then waiting for our waitress, we both had the same thought … service this poor deserves to be recognized.

We’re living in what many call a Web 2.0 world. We are more connected now than ever before. Look at the proliferation of business review sites … and how reviews are integrated into search results. Before we ever visit a restaurant, a hair salon, the local mechanic, etc., we can see what others have said about their service. Does the contractor show up on time and get the job done right the first time? We base our buying decisions on what others have said about a product or service.

The quality of your customer service is your brand, especially in today’s interconnected online world. Any business that ignores this fact, does so at its own peril. Excellent customer service is your most important marketing activity.

Talk back to me. Do online reviews impact your buying decisions? Have online reviews helped or hurt your business? Do you review local merchants and service providers? Why or why not?

Times have changed. Nextel has become Sprint and local customer service representatives are a distant memory. Still, that’s not a problem, or at least it wasn’t until they lost their consistency. Two customer service incidents this week have convinced me that the company has lost its edge.

In the first incident, we were overbilled and not by just a little bit. We’re talking over $100 worth of overcharges on my husband’s phone. It didn’t add up. He hadn’t talked more than our plan allowed. So he called customer service and was given totally bogus information … basically that he didn’t know what he was talking about and that he had no recourse … pay up.

Since I had arranged the contracts to begin with, I followed up with a phone call to customer service. My customer service rep apologized for their error, fixed the obvious mistake in our plan, credited us for the amount we should never have been charged and explained everything clearly. Same company … but this time we had reached someone who cared.

She also explained that we’d qualify for a substantial discount when we renewed our plans, plus a discount for each phone upgrade – even checked to be sure we’d really qualify for their “best” discount. Make sure you request the renewal first, she cautioned, because if we upgraded our phone before requesting the renewal discount, it would no longer be available.

So today I called back, with every intention of renewing our service contracts for another two years and planning to purchase two new phones.

But today’s rep was a guy with a thick foreign accent who countered the information I was provided yesterday. That plan renewal thing is handled separately by another department, but he could get them on the other line to “ease my mind.”

And that “best” discount we qualified for was the exact same discount available to everyone else ordering by phone or online.

I said “no, thank you.” Apparently I’m on an authenticity kick, but I’m tired of dealing with different people from the same company who give out entirely different answers. And don’t tell me that we qualify for a special deal when it doesn’t really exist! Just lay it on the line … show me the real value … tell me the real cost, and allow me the dignity of a real decision.

They’ve probably just lost a customer and it wasn’t because of a poor quality product or poor reception. Rather, it’s because they’ve forgotten that they’re not the only company on my radar. My contract is up. I was ready to sign on the dotted line … right up until I stopped and asked myself if I wanted to do business with a company who can’t give me a straight answer from one phone call to the next. Not likely … goodbye, Sprint!

Photo Credit: ninjapoodles on Flickr (Creative Commons)