1. The Art of Intentional
Customer Service
SUBBU SAYS...

2. You can’t promise your
customers sunny weather,
but you can promise to hold
an umbrella over them
when it rains.
Anonymous

3. Who is your Customer?

4. Customer Service
 Answering questions
 Solving problems
 Untangling Corporate Logjams
 Fixing what’s expected and finding what’s missed.
 Soothing the irate and reassuring the timid
 Pulling a rabbit out of your hat – Give the smile
 With your best of content and services

5. To the Customer
YOU are the Company.
Customer relations is an integral part of your
job – not an extension of it.

6. What Customers Expect
Start with asking yourself these questions.
1. What do my customers want from me and
from my company?
2. How do support areas work to serve my
customers?
3. What are the details – little things – that make
a big difference in my customer’s satisfaction.

7. If you don’t have customers,
you don’t have a job!

8. Key Service Skills
Customer’s evaluate service
quality on 5 factors.

9. The RATER Factors
 Reliability
 Assurance
 Tangibles
 Empathy
 Responsiveness

10. The RELIABILITY Factor
The ability to provide what was promised, dependably and
accurately.

11. The Service Promise
1. Organizational Commitments
2. Common Expectations
3. Personal Promises

12. The ASSURANCE Factor
 The knowledge and courtesy you show to customers, and your
ability to convey trust, competence and confidence.
Consistent, high quality service boils
down to two equally important
things – caring and competence.
Service Wisdom

13. How do we reassure our
Customers?
• Product Knowledge
• Company Knowledge
• Listening Skills
• Problem Solving Skills
• Extra Points for Style

14. The TANGIBLE Factor
 The physical demonstrations
and samples, and your own (and
other’s) appearance  Dressing

15. From the customer’s point of view, if they can see
it, walk on it, hold it, hear it, step in it, smell it, carry
it, step over it, touch it, use it, even taste it, if they
can feel it or sense it, it’s customer service.

16. First impressions
are the most lasting

17. The EMPATHY Factor
 The degree of caring and individual
attention you show your customers.

18. Empathy vs Sympathy

19. Sympathy
Identifying with and even taking on
another person’s emotions.
Empathy
Acknowledging and affirming another’s
emotional state.

20. The RESPONSIVENESS Factor
The willingness to help customers promptly.

21. Customer expectations of service organizations
are loud and clear; look good, be responsive, be
reassuring through courtesy and competence, be
empathetic but most of all, be reliable. Do what
you said you would do. Keep the service promise.

22. Research shows that the
most frustrating aspect of
waiting is not knowing
how long the wait will be.

23. Managing Customer
Expectations
 Failing to meet a customer expectation has the same impact as
breaking any other promise.

24. Don’t fix the blame.
Fix the problem.
- Japanese
saying

25. Getting Results
The Satisfaction Equation
Show that you
CARE
and
Mean it!

26. What is Your
MISSION?

27. 6 STEPS to delivering Superior
Customer Service
is through
CARING

28. COURTEOUS
- courtesy and gracious good manners. Webster’s
Dictionary
“If a man be gracious
and courteous to
strangers it shows he is
a citizen of the world"-
Francis Bacon

29. Perhaps the best reason to be
honest with your customers is
that it allows you to be honest
with yourself.
LOVING
POLITE HONEST
KIND
CIVIL
CONSIDERATE MANNERLY
POLISHED THOUGHTFUL

30. Ways to be Courteous
♥ Smile ♥ Eye Contact
♥ Listen & Watch ♥ Empathetic
♥ Be Aware ♥ Appropriate
♥ Language ♥ Body Language
♥ Clarify ♥ Stay Calm
♥ Validate
♥ Restate

31. Handling Customer
Complaints
WAYS TO MAKE
the CUSTOMER RIGHT
1. Clarify the problem
2. Validate their feelings.
3. Look for teaching opportunities.
4. Believe your customers.

32. Handling Customer
Complaints
 Customers respect HONESTY
 Instead of saying NO – ask questions.
 Give TRUST and you will get it double in return.

33. COURTEOUS
ATTENTIVE

34. What are you noticing?
……. And what are you missing?
In face to face situations at
least 70 percent of what is
communicated is done
without speaking a word.

36. How you feel about yourself in your job
is as important to your personal
self-esteem as the way you feel about
yourself as a parent, a spouse or a
friend.

37. Dealing with Irate Customers
Stay Calm
Safety first
Validate feelings
Vent and Release
Collaborate on the Solution

38. COURTEOUS
ATTITUDE
RELIABLE

39. Building TRUST
 Practice frequent communication
 Stick with the truth
 Develop Openness
 Show warmth
 Show confidence
 KEEP YOUR PROMISES

40. Service Recovery and
Building Trust
 Apologize – Acknowledge the problem.
 Listen, Empathize and ask Open Questions
 Fix the problem, quickly and fairly
 Offer Atonement “I want to make it up to you”
 Follow-up
 Remember : Keep your promises

41. Loyalty Builders
Listening is a Skill – Use it!
Barriers to Good Listening
► Noise ► Interruptions
► Daydreaming ► Technology
► Stereotypes
► Attitude
► Trigger Words and phrases

42. Loyalty Builders
 Background Questions
 Probing Questions
 Confirmation Questions
Ask Intelligent Questions

43. COURTEOUS
ATTENTIVE
RELIABLE
INTENTIONAL

44. How can you involve your customer
in solving their problem?
When the customer feels vulnerable, trust is imperative.
Service Expert

45. Leveraging Your Service
 Understand the rules of your organization
 Manage your stress

46. Loyalty Opportunities
 Make the Commitment to
CARE
 Be a FANTASTIC Fixer
 Work in a spirit of
PARTNERSHIP
 Politeness goes far and
costs nothing.

47. Superior Customer Service
is in the DETAILS.
 Everything counts
 Never stop learning
 Ask your customers
 Ask your co-workers

48. Consumers are statistics. Customers are people.

49. COURTEOUS
ATTENTIVE
RELIABLE
INTENTIONAL
NEGATIVE-FREE

50. 10 Stress Reducers
1. Breathe
2. Smile
3. Laugh
4. Let it Out
5. Take a one minute
vacation
6. Relax
7. Do desk aerobics
8. Organize
9. Talk Positive
10. Take a health break
11. Work/Life Balance

51. COURTEOUS
ATTENTIVE
RELIABLE
INTENTIONAL
NEGATIVE-FREE
GRATITUDE

52. Thank you…Thank you…
Thank you….and
Thank-You!!!! Fozzie
Bear
Three ways to say Thank-You
1.Verbally
2. In Writing
3. With a gift

53. The Five Forgotten Thank You’s
Thank your Co-workers
Thank your boss
Thank people in other
departments
Thank your vendors or
outside customers
Thank Yourself.
Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue but the
mother of all the rest.

54. Putting It All Together
Return to your Mission
Commit to CARING
Collaboration and Partnership
Stay Calm