Taking an extra step for customer service.
By Pete Mercer
What does customer service look like to you? You could likely poll 100 different people and get 100 different answers based on their varying needs and expectations. The interesting thing with a question like that is that there aren’t really any wrong answers – it’s all about meeting the needs of the customer.
That idea of meeting the customer’s needs is succinctly defined in Wes Anderson’s colorful 2014 film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. The film’s protagonist M. Gustave is speaking to his new concierge, saying, “A lobby boy anticipates the client’s needs before the needs are needed.” While we may never be able to fully nail every need and expectation that the customer has, we can work towards a greater understanding of their potential needs.
Repertoire Magazine recently spoke to customer experience guru Ron Kaufman about what customer service looks like and how we can take an extra step to accommodate our customer’s needs. Backed by his extensive experience in creating strong customer service teams, Kaufman has an innate sensibility for what winning customer service should look like.
What is uplifting service?
Kaufman’s uplifting service is a customer service concept that takes an extra step from what traditional customer service might accomplish. The idea is that through uplifting service, your organization can create deeper emotional connections with your customers.
Kaufman said, “Service is about taking action to create value. That action can be over the phone, it can be in person, it can be online, it can be proactive, it can be reactive – but it’s only service if someone else values it. Uplifting Service is taking the next action to create more value for the person you serve.”
He uses an example in a restaurant setting – if a customer requests extra sugar for their coffee, the act of getting that sugar for them is customer service. What if the waiter offers them options, saying, “White sugar, brown sugar, or honey?” That’s a perfect example of uplifting service, which creates a little more value for the customer.
Uplifting Service has different components that make it successful. Not only does it uplift the service experience for the customer, but it also uplifts the service provider by putting them in a position to really consider what the customer needs and how you can address those needs. These extra steps you take with your customer base can range from asking an extra set of questions to better understand their situation to offering training and workshops designed to help them better utilize the product that your organization is selling.
How has customer service changed?
Part of the challenge with providing consistent excellent service for your customers is that the landscape of customer service looks so different than how it used to. The internet has changed everything, especially when it comes to dealing with customers. The buyer is much more informed than they used to be, which changes the way that sales reps approach customer experiences.
In the healthcare industry, medical sales reps are now thinking not only about their customers (hospitals, doctors and physicians) but about the customer’s customers (patients and their family members). Kaufman said, “Today, patients are walking in better informed than ever before, and that can be challenging for doctors. Customer experience has opened up to a new way of thinking about where, when, and how we can serve our patients and their family members better or differently than we have in the past. How can we enable them to experience what really matters to them?”
In this new setting, it’s vital to provide uplifting service for your healthcare customers. The medical devices and equipment you sell must be understood and used correctly to provide adequate patient care. For Kaufman, customer experience now includes the larger context of a patient’s overall experience, and not just the immediate moments of action.
He said, “Service now lives in a longer horizon including before the moment of action and beyond to after the sale.” Which is where uplifting service comes in for medical sales reps by asking questions like; “Are your staff learning how to use the product? Would you like us to come in and run some workshops for them?”
The difference between compliance and creativity
Another challenge with selling in the healthcare space is navigating areas where compliance and creativity may clash. The medical industry requires compliance and regulations to protect healthcare organizations and individuals practicing medicine, as well as the individuals receiving care. These are designed to benefit everyone involved, but it can be restricting for those trying to take extra steps to provide uplifting service.
“Uplifting service is taking the next action to create more value, which means you need people to think outside of the box and come up with new ideas,” Kaufman said. “But not every idea is going to be a good idea, so you’ve got to teach your team to brainstorm new and creative ideas – then evaluate and let go of the unworkable ideas – and finding a way to make the remaining ideas even better.”
For Kaufman, companies get their approach to customer service right when the culture helps them facilitate and cultivate new ideas for reaching and serving their customers. When your employees are encouraged to take that next action of uplifting service, this inevitably creates more value for customers, and for your organization. That shift in culture starts from the top and trickles down through feedback, communications, training and workshops for your teams.
Traditional metrics for sales look at dollar signs for the data. With uplifting service, the leading metrics are the number of new ideas the team has generated, evaluated, prioritized, improved, and put into action. “Of all our new ideas, how many did we try? How many did we improve, consolidate, and embed into our systems and processes? These metrics are the leading indicators that drive your financial measures. If you want to build a culture of uplifting service, you must be proactive and drive your leading metrics, too,” Kaufman said.