|
In the sixteen years I spent as a hotel concierge
in a large San Francisco property, I noticed
six customer attitudes that kept repeating
themselves. These attitudes were interesting not only
because they appeared consistently, but because they
represented the feelings that “push the buttons” of
front-line service providers.
Service positions require a great deal of understanding
on the part of the service provider to get past the
initial, negative emotional triggers that customers
with the following attitudes elicit. Being aware of
these customers’ attitudes is extremely important for
two reasons: (1) Because you must first be aware of
what is occurring, name what the emotion you are
feeling is, and then make a choice, separate from
the occurring emotion, to not react negatively. (2)
Because while only a small percentage of customers
exhibit attitudes that trigger negative emotions,
these customers can have a crossover effect on the
customer base that is perfectly delightful to serve.
Following is a representation of the six attitudes that
seem to appear on a consistent basis.
Disclaimer: Any resemblance to real people in your business
is purely coincidental and unintentional. These attitudes are,
however, so universal, many people in my seminars call out
names and say “they were just here last week!”
The Entitled
“You owe me.”
“I expect you to do this.”
“I deserve this.”
“No one else exists and you have nothing else to
do but to help me.”
The negative emotional trigger that The Entitled can
elicit is resentment. It quickly leads to the thought,
“Just who exactly do you think you are?” It can result
in an unwillingness to give of oneself to help such a
customer, and it inhibits problem-solving.
The Panicked
“What do you mean my order isn’t ready?”
“But you promised!”
“Impossible, the loan has to go through, escrow
closes at four p.m.!”
“Now what am I going to do?”
This attitude screams “ME,” and it is both tense and
intense. The emotional trigger that The Panicked
elicits is protection. It leads to the thought, “Oh
great, now your problem is my problem.” It can cause
service providers to set up rigid boundaries that often
result in a refusal to cross the boundaries necessary
to perform problem-solving and service.
The High & Mighty
“Don’t you know who I am?”
“I know more about this job than you.”
“This better be good because I’m an aficionado!”
This attitude comes with finger snapping. It says,
without saying, “I’m better than you, and I’m not
going to let you forget it.”
The emotional trigger that The High & Mighty
elicits is shame and intimidation. But to be so belittled
quickly causes anger, and it can trigger competition
and/or even sabotage. It may lead to the thought of
“I’ll show you!” In such a scenario, orders seem to
get misplaced, diners end up at tables right by the
kitchen door, and hotel guests get placed in the room
right next to the ice machine.
The Bottom-Liner
“Can you do this for me, yes or no?”
“Tell me exactly when I can expect the answer.”
“What do you mean you’ll do your best” Either
you can or you can’t.”
It is all cut-to-the-chase; no schmoozing here! The
emotional trigger that The Bottom-Liner elicits
is hurt and defensiveness. It often leads to thoughts
such as “Well, if you talk to me like that, then I can
talk right back at you the same way.” It usually results
in a brief but negative response that has very little to
do with quality service delivery.
The Clueless
“Huh?”
“Are you sure you can do this?”
“If I go outside and it is raining, will I get wet?”
(I was actually asked this question.)
The emotional trigger that The Clueless elicits is
irritation. It brings to mind thoughts of “Why should
I even bother explaining anything to this person? He
or she won’t understand it anyway.” It often leads to
outright dismissal of the individual who is supposed
to be served.
The Imprisoned
“Why does something always go wrong here?”
“Nothing ever works out for me!”
“My whole trip has been like this, one disaster
after another.”
The Imprisoned are the people who are so
imprisoned by their own misery that their only purpose
in life seems to be to make other people miserable.
The negative emotion that The Imprisoned elicits
is frustration. It can quickly lead to the thought, “If
you hate doing business here so much, why don’t you
take it elsewhere?” Such an attitude prevents us from
seeing the true agenda, and makes it difficult to really
serve people in a way that meets their needs.
One thing is certain: these attitudes are not going
to go away. They are human nature and are here to
stay. What you can change is how you choose to
respond. As service providers, your power
and your success lies in how you choose
to respond to these attitudes. This is where
the true challenge of service really lies. It’s easy
to be nice to people you enjoy. It is much more
challenging, interesting, and rewarding to give
quality service experiences to that small percentage
of customers that push your buttons and may cause
you to respond in a less than stellar way.
|
The first thing to recognize is that all customers,
especially the six previously described, wear a
sign on them that says ME! Mary Kay Ash
of Mary Kay Cosmetics says all customers wear a
sign that says “make me feel important.” No matter
what their personality or their attitude is, all human
beings are wired the same way. We all want to be
Remembered, Respected, Acknowledged,
and Heard. One reason so many people holler at
service providers is that they feel they haven’t been
heard. Service providers need to stop and notice
the true agenda being put forward, and focus on
the customer’s human need to be Remembered,
Respected, Acknowledged, and Heard.
To choose to do this requires that in each situation
you ask yourself, “What does this customer really
need and how can I provide it?” What is the human
need that can be addressed as opposed to just going
through the motions and providing the business
need? I have a method for achieving this. I call it
putting on the turtle hat of service. A turtle might not
be what many people think of when contemplating
customer service, but the turtle is a wonderful
reminder that service is a verb and requires:
- That we stick our necks out.
- That we learn to have a hard shell, and not
take everything so personally.
- That we have to slow down and not react
as quickly to the negative emotional triggers and traps.
To choose a more positive and service-oriented
response, we must understand the elements involved
in choice. All of this can happen in 10 seconds.
The Elements of Choice
(1) Notice:
- Notice that you are having an emotional reaction.
Clues = changes in breathing, tension, voice.
(2) Name It:
- Name the initial gut reaction that feels bad.
- Track how it may change to feelings of hurt, anger,
or resentment.
- Observe your thoughts that result from the
changed feeling. (i.e., hurt to anger)
- Observe the possible behaviors you might feel the
urge to do out of anger, annoyance, dismissal, etc.
(3) Choose:
- After observing the “low road,” the automatic
tendency where everyone loses, choose differently.
- Choose the “high road” response that leads to
service and satisfied customers. The place where
everyone wins.
When service providers master such a triumph
over their initial negative responses, companies’
service levels escalate, and so does the selfesteem
of service providers.
If service providers would respond by choosing to
provide a quality service experience beyond their own
personal preferences, then.... The Entitled would
be made to feel important and the center of attention.
The Panicked would be helped to feel assured and comfortable. The
Imprisoned would experience empathy, The High and Mighty
would be showered with compliments, The Bottom-Liners would
experience clarity, and The Clueless would be handled with
patience. Instead, most service providers would
rather BE RIGHT! By responding to their immediate
negative emotion, they may get to be right, but being
right is the booby prize. (This goes way beyond the old
adage of the customer is always right. This is about
the human need to be right, which gets in the way of
providing good service.)
Usually, being right is played out in subtle ways.
For the most part, being right is expressed in an
unconscious manner. We don’t even know we are
doing it.
A woman in one of my seminars relayed a story
about a man that insisted on an apology, when she
was obviously very busy and couldn?t help him. In her
mind, she believed she?d apologized when she said
“I’m sorry, sir, that we are so busy.” Try as I might,
I could not get her to see that her response was
most definitely not an apology, it was a way to be
right! Other methods of being right include blame,
complaining to the customer, making the customer
feel demeaned, giving more information than is
necessary, or out and out arguing. This is not an easy
concept to grasp, as being right feels good, plus, it is
extremely difficult to resist the temptation of teaching
people how they should behave. Imagine how good it
would feel if we could give up our need to be right. It
really would have a domino effect.
If we could pay attention to, and be aware of the
customer behaviors that push our buttons and
propel us to be right, we could think of those
buttons as alarm buttons and learn how to avoid
pushing them. We can Notice what is happening,
Name the emotion that is occurring, and Choose.
(This can happen in mere seconds.)
Approaching service from this level of awareness
increases our possibilities of having a much more
interesting and rewarding job.
Holly Stiel is an author of two books, “Ultimate Service” the Complete
Handbook to the World of the Concierge, and “Thank You Very Much” a Book
for Anyone Who Has Ever Said May I Help You. Stiel is a speaker and seminarist in
the area of customer service. You can contact her at 415.383.4220 or by email
at thankyouinc@aol.com.
Reprinted from FocusEd, Fall 2004 edition.
|
