LL - Customer Happiness Lesson 2

Lesson 2: Personal Emotional Connection (PEC) & WOW

Watch the videos below:

One part of the secret recipe for HeroCo customer happiness is creating personal emotional connections with our customers (also referred to as “PEC”).

PEC is being able to quickly form a bond with the customer by focusing on them.

Discussion: How many businesses do you interact with on a daily basis?

These businesses can be anything from your cell phone provider to the person who works behind the counter at the gas station to the employee in the cubicle next to you.

Take a moment now and think of how many interactions you have with people who provide you with a service. Now think of how many of those interactions leave you feeling happy.

Group Discussion: What makes these happy interactions special?

Usually, if you have had a happy customer service experience, it can be traced back to one thing… a strong personal connection.

This is why at the HeroCo Family making a personal connection is a top priority.

How is PEC created?

It’s easier than you think. The HeroCo team members create PECs with customers simply by talking with them. You may be thinking that customer service agents at all companies talk to their customers, so why is HeroCo different?

HeroCo is different because we talk to our customers, we don’t talk at them. Seldom will you call any 1-800 number and have a conversation that’s unrelated to the reason that you called. At HeroCo this happens all the time and in fact, it's encouraged. This is how we WOW our customers.

Through these lessons, you will recognize a trend which is why we like to use the word “tools” to describe what we do when it comes to customer service. If you want to build anything, you need tools to get the job done. Some of the WOW tools we use to create connections with our customers are:

Listen for cues from the customer to start a friendly conversation or engage in small talk.
If a customer is calling in to order BBT to slim down for her wedding we would ask her when she is getting married, if is it a big wedding, and how excited is she.
These questions will start a conversation that is totally unrelated to the reason she called but will WOW her and make it a memorable experience for her.
Addressing the customer by their first and/or last name is a great way to assist in establishing rapport.
Addressing a customer by their first name creates a more personal feel on the call.
Asking questions to engage in a conversation like "What are your health goals?"

By asking questions about the reason a customer chose a product, you are showing you care.

If you think about how excited you are when you buy something and realize that your customers are equally excited when they are purchasing from you, it is a great way to engage in conversation.

Watch out for dead air during your call.
Team members can combat dead air by asking probing questions, or engaging in conversation. “Have you heard about our VIP Insider Program?”

It is important to remember that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to provide a great customer service experience. Some of the simplest tricks like putting a smile on your voice, offering sincere and timely apologies, being eager to assist the customer, and having solutions ready are actually a huge WOW to customers.

Getting back to the basics is also a good tactic since often there has been so much added as required because of policy changes at representatives get into a rut of making sure they’ve read every last policy to the customers and the call becomes just another droning robot voice. Another thing to help boost the service level is keeping the tone of the call upbeat while providing assistance and asking effective probing questions. This will help the representative get to the bottom of the situation so that the right solution will become more obvious.

Value and Appreciate your customer

Besides making PEC we also like to let our customers know just how much we VALUE and APPRECIATE them. Making sure to tell them this verbally is a wonderful way to WOW them and make a personal connection. Saying something like, “I APPRECIATE you allowing us to help you meet your goals.“ or “ I just want to let you know how much we VALUE your business… is there anything else you need from me today?” is something that should be added to EVERY customer interaction.

From the start of the call being friendly and conversational to the end of the call that has an offer of further assistance (giving the customer the call center operating hours or helping them locate the nearest UPS store to drop off their return, etc…) the customer will feel valued and appreciated, very well taken care of and not just “talked at.”

What are three ways to implement PEC within the Customer Happiness department?

1. ___________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________

What are 3 value/appreciation statements?

1. ___________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________

Training PEC

While we can certainly give tips and tricks on how to create PEC, it all starts with hiring the right people. If we hire people that have a friendly personality and are easy to talk with then we are setting our company up for success.

We also want your employees to be comfortable engaging in conversation, especially if this is something they are not used to.

The HeroCo Family 5-week new hire training program is the first step to training employees in PEC both internally and externally.

After employees are on-boarded, constant and consistent feedback with a focus on WOW'ing our customers is a key factor to the long-term success of the employee and our organization.

In the HeroCo Family, we continue to train our employees on the job through call review feedback (QA). During the QA coaching session, we focus on providing a unique quality experience that focuses on customer service, connection, and maintaining the HeroCo Family culture.

Tips for developing PEC

Some of the ways we do this are by setting the right tone and building rapport quickly in the call. This is the key to humanizing interactions with customers to be more fun, positive, friendly, conversational, and helpful while keeping the language professional.

Listen Up!

HeroCo team members look for cues from the customer for opportunities to connect (i.e. “It’s so hard to find quality products nowadays,” “I bought a regular Omega, but I just noticed you sell the supercritical version,” etc.). This can be an opportunity to engage in conversation about the products that the customer is looking for.

Lead-in statements

Lead-in statements are a good tool to use for a few reasons. It sounds much friendlier to say, “I’d be happy to help you with that,” or “I’d be happy to take a look; let's see what we can do,” versus “What’s the shipment id ?” or “what’s your order number?”…etc.

Empathy

Another component of PEC training is the use of empathy when needed, as well as offering apologies for any inconvenience or perceived loss of service (whether it was our fault or not). It is a good idea to make the apology sincere and as specific as possible. Show the customer you understand their concern through words and tone (i.e., “Oh, that’s horrible,” “I know what you mean,” etc.).

Thank you Follow-ups

One tool that HeroCo uses to build a connection with our customers is Follow Ups. Team members should email the customer a phone call follow-up email with a personalized thank you to every customer. Create connections to build a lasting impression.

What the HeroCo Family Looks for in CH Team Agents

We look for a culture fit first to make sure that an employee’s values are aligned with the company’s values, below is a sample job description for what we look for when hiring an agent.

HeroCo is looking for CH team members who are passionate about natural health, super cool, and highly enthusiastic people, that love to help people!

And… we’re hiring right now, and looking for smart, forward-thinking problem solvers to join our world-class, healthy team.

Oh, and one more thing! Cover letters are cool but do you know what’s even cooler?! Show us who you are with a cover letter VIDEO! You will be able to upload one when applying for this position. (Video cover letters are not required but if you wanna do one, we wanna see it!)

The Low Down:

CH agents are the first point of contact for our amazing customers. They help our customers with any and all inquiries and as our number one company Core Value is “Surprise and delight customers by consistently over-delivering,” it’s one of THE most important jobs at HeroCo!

Customers call in needing help with many things like placing new orders, returns, exchanges, searching our website for an item (think personal shopper extraordinaire), and general product info. As it is 2013 and we are a .com, you will not just interact with customers on the phone but also via emails, live chat, and Facebook. Woohoo!

What your average day might look like:

Answer incoming phone calls (I know, I know, this one is a shocker!)
Place outgoing calls and follow up on customers’ questions.
Participate in fun culture & creative events like creating a personal contact video, participating in a contest, or taking in an interesting webinar for continued education.
Use our in-house system to place customers' internet orders. *Assist customers with their return orders or shipping inquiries.
Provide above and beyond - WOW - service, while helping customers with their health needs.
Check social media sites and respond to feedback, reviews, or comments.

What you bring to the table:

A rubber glove fits with our culture and core values. If you haven’t checked them out yet, check ‘em out! (We live and run our business by our core values. Make sure they fit with who YOU are.)
Stupendous communication skills, both verbal and written.
Ninja-like skills on the internet, ability to leap to multiple sites with lightning speed. Love online surfing! It’s ok if you aren’t a shopaholic but you gotta know how to do it.
Ability to run circles around the computer, yo! MS Outlook, MS Word, and MS Excel are a must. MS PowerPoint is a plus.
Your type, type, type, typing skills… are at least 25 wpm.
A self-motivated, self-starter, self-assured, selfless attitude
A high sense of urgency and multitasking skills Flexibility of a circus contortionist… well when it comes to your availability to work that is. We are open M-F 7 am – 9 pm and 9 am - 5 pm on weekends -yee-haw!
And you know, it’s all in the details – bring a keen eye to the game A joy of creating fun and being creative!

HeroCo. is an equal opportunity employer.

Team members are expected to provide a WOW experience in each call. When you put all of these pieces of the call in place what you get is an experience that a customer is going to tell their friends and family members about.
What can your organization do to improve your customer service training in personal emotional connection (PEC)?
What are you doing really well when it comes to customer service and how can you expand that?
Rewarding based on PEC
What are some recognition tools that you can use to showcase team members' outstanding work?
How do you follow up with customers who had a great experience with your company?