Standing On Service Podcast

In this episode of the podcast, Olga Nesterova joins Troy to talk about company culture. Having the right company culture is key to how customers relate to and perceive your brand. As a leader, your role is to determine what that culture will look like and how to get there. Olga also has tips on how to scale a company and the role that social media can play in getting new customers.

Key Takeaways:

• Olga shares about her background. She describes how she started as a professional athlete, then moved to New York to work for the UN as a political advisor, and eventually became a marketing advisor for start-ups and small businesses.
• Smaller companies can change more quickly than larger companies and don't have as complex a process for decision-making.
• If you have a small company that's just starting and you want to create the right kind of culture right from the very start, it is important to know what you want. For a medium-sized company that wants to shift to a better culture of relating with customers, you have to start with communicating the need for change in the company.
• In a situation that calls for change, it can feel almost impossible to get rid of all the detractors at once. However, sometimes taking a step back in order to take two steps forward is a wise decision.
• As a business owner, you have to trust your intuition.
• People don't like change, but in some situations, that is what's best for the company.
• It is critical that as a business owner and as a leader, you remind your employees about the main intention of the company. This is especially important now that everyone is working from home.
• Troy and Olga discuss the first steps start-ups and mid-sized companies can take to scale and grow the company.
• There are pros and cons to using social media to get new customers. The most stable approach is to use social media as a gateway to get new customers to check out your website.

External Links:

Maintenance-one.com

Olga Nesterova, Onest Business

Onest Conversations Podcast

Onest Conversations Show

In this episode of the podcast, Scott from Mitchell's joins Troy to shine a light on the people who are serving the customer. Rather than talk about customer service, they flip retail on its end to talk about taking care of the people who sell the customer experience. Normally we are pointing the spotlight on the customer, but sometimes you need to look at the person that is serving the customer — to get the view of the people that are serving the customer.

Key Takeaways:

• Scott shares his background growing up in a large family and theater — his education background is in philosophy but he discovered a passion for clothing early on.
• No matter what customer service industry you go into, it's important to understand the fundamentals. There are great books and resources on sales techniques that will impact whichever industry you are in.
• In all customer service industries, you can't judge the customer, and it's also important to remember that you can't feel judged by the customer either.
• There may be instances that arise where there is a difference of perspective of the same situation between the customer and service provider; taking the time to get on the same page can drastically change the working relationship for both the client and the service provider.
• People frequent businesses not only for the product but also for how businesses and companies treat their employees.
• Customers want communication. If there is a problem, their response is going to directly correlate to how the problem is communicated.
• Being a part of the right organization, surrounded by the right people, and feeling passionate about the product you sell can greatly enhance the work experience in the retail space.
• You can teach people the customer service industry, but you have to hire great people: people who are service-oriented, pleasant, and energetic can make an impact on your business as you are looking to hire the right people for your business.
• Troy and Scott talk about some of the systems companies use to get to know clients and engage with them. When these systems are combined with the right people, it comes together for a valuable customer experience.

External Links:

Maintenance-one.com

In today's episode, Troy and his guest talk about an example of some sub-standard service Troy witnessed, specifically around different delivery services. We've all experienced a bad exchange at a company, but the effects can stay with us long after our experience.

Key Takeaways:

• Sometimes poor customer service can affect not only the direct consumer but also other parties not directly involved.
• As consumers, our perspectives on local or global brands are really only as good as the experience we had with that brand.
• They talk about some of the quality checks these companies have in place, as well as some of the customer experiences they've had personally with delivery services.
• No matter what line of work you're in, when you're on the clock or at the job, you are a reflection of that brand. This is especially true for jobs that are on location.
• When employees don't follow the systems and procedures in place at their jobs, the consumer will suffer.

External Links:

Maintenance-one.com

In this episode, Troy speaks with John about his own experience working at McDonald's and how systems and quality control helped shape his own future. They talk about the importance of inspections for quality control, and how processes and systems work together to ensure both quality and customer satisfaction.

Key Takeaways:

• Many businesses start from people who worked at McDonald's as a kid because they really understand the importance of systems in ensuring excellent customer service. Troy shares a story of a surprise inspection and what he learned about customer service through that experience.
• The importance of following the process, even if it seems counterintuitive for a certain situation, is to maintain the quality that customers have come to expect from certain businesses.
• People, in general, view inspecting as bad, but routine inspections help employees tune into why it's important to be following processes laid out in any business.
• Quality control is about a bunch of small processes that make one big system to make sure everything gets done and is running smoothly. There are many processes that customers don't see either, but these systems and processes make it easier to make expectations for quality.

External Links:

Maintenance-one.com

Joel Weldon, professional speaker, joins this episode of the podcast to talk about how speaking can help all of us with customer service. He shares his own story of how he got into speaking professionally, and how he has been able to use this to create customer service. For business leaders, they talk about how you can create standards across several businesses, and how you can help foster excellent speaking and customer service in your own companies.

Key Takeaways:

• Joel's exposure to the business world was as a customer. Speaking wasn't something that was natural for him, but after his first sales presentation, he got life-changing feedback that shaped the course of his professional speaking career of over 46 years.
• No matter what business you're in, you are a speaker. There are three keys that tie speaking to customer service: 1. Speaking is a learned skill 2. Being an excellent communicator is being yourself 3. It's always about what's going to be best for the customer; they are the lifeblood of your business.
• Joel and Troy talk about how to standardize communication across different branches or locations. The words that you teach the people on your team are important for creating consistent customer service, not only to foster positive experiences but also to mitigate situations where customers may be upset.
• If you don't have the right people, you aren't going to get the right results. An employee's attitude is going to determine the results you get out of them. When you find the right fit, amazing customer service can happen.
• One of the best customer service models is Walt Disney — his philosophy is shaped around doing what you do so well that people will want you to do it again, and will bring other people with them to experience it.
• As a leader or owner of a business, it is your ability and responsibility to spot potential in your employees. Creating good customer service is about finding good people and making them great, by teaching them the right words and procedures, and rewarding them for their effort.

External Links:

Maintenance-one.com

Joel's Website

Email Joel at [email protected]

In this episode of the podcast, Ari Meisel is on to talk about making work more efficient. He helps companies work faster, cheaper, and easier by optimizing, automating, and outsourcing. Ari talks about the benefits of automation and how it can help enhance the human connection, as well as the importance of managing expectations to ensure a quality customer experience.

Key Takeaways:

• In trying to identify his own overwhelm, Ari learned to help himself by focusing on making processes work better. In trying to fix his own problems, he found that the resources available to him weren't enough.
• He had to learn how to fit a normal day's work into only an hour, and this is where his strategy OAO was born: optimize, automate, outsource. This has been the genesis of his career: helping get businesses to a place where they can run and grow without too much intervention.
• There is often not enough attention given to the space between a customer wanting something, and that being fulfilled. Exceptional customer service is about the quality of that space; the customer journey can still be fulfilling even that space is large, and vice versa.
• Automation can and should be used to enhance the human connection. Automation can save you money, help you expand and scale, and help to reduce errors. This gives companies more time to focus on a direct connection with their customers.
• Automation needs to be the second step after optimization — looking at the how and why we do processes the way that we do will help identify inefficiencies that need to be improved before they are automated.
• One of the big keys to customer service is managing expectations proactively, if possible. Be realistic with your customers and your employees about timelines, product, etc.
• Getting consistency across multiple branches of a company can be challenging. Creating core values, especially those around the customer experience, is a great way to start this. A company's mission needs to be realistic and something that makes sense to customers and employees. With a consistent mission, new employees can learn and be trained from day one on how to be an ambassador of that mission.
• Ari teaches four mindsets of employees: inventor, engineer, engine, and cog. An individual employee can be any one of those.
• When it comes down to it, customer service is about making your customers feel understood where they are, in whatever situation they are.

External Links:

Maintenance-one.com

Ari's Website

In this episode of the podcast, Mike Astorino joins the show to talk about how they have built a culture of "Fab Service" at Fabricare. As we look at customer service, it becomes less about a set of rules and more about a culture at the company. Mike talks about addressing customer service issues through systems, as well as the importance of developing and defining core values to help all employees succeed in customer service.

Key Takeaways:

• Mike actually started his career in advertising, and he ended up taking over the Fabricare business after his father-in-law retired. In a low-tech, low-profile business, he saw an opportunity to really maximize customer service.
• Over the years, they have made changes to their machinery to ensure they can limit the number of cracks to buttons or other dry cleaning hazards. Their business model and goal is to return the garment as new; the attention to detail when they need to fix them is one of the things that sets them apart.
• One of the most valuable lessons he's learned since taking over Fabricare is to measure customer service by recording the issues and getting to the root of what's behind the problem — oftentimes, it is a system issue that needs to be addressed rather than a personnel issue. "It starts with recording those things and then turning them into systems, or improving on a system that's already out there."
• At Fabricare, customer service is more about building the culture than a set of rules. This gives their employees some autonomy in how they handle customer requests. Part of this culture is Code Red/Code Green, where they learn from bad interactions and are rewarded for good customer feedback. This has increased employee satisfaction as well.
• Fabricare has incorporated new technology to help its service become stronger by expanding its reach into storing and cleaning patio furniture.
• One of the biggest things that drive their systems and culture is core values. Having a distinct set of core values helps to set the same standard of service across all employees, and gives companies something to fall back on when they have to have tough conversations.

External Links:

Maintenance-one.com

Fabricare Cleaners

In this episode, Joe Cox and Jack Mitchell from Mitchell Stores join the show to talk about their business model: hugging your customers. They use this metaphor to describe the feeling of family they have with their customers and clients. Jack talks about the values that have shaped the business since it began and shares some wonderful success stories of their employees' dedication to the highest level of service for their customers.

Key Takeaways:

• "Hugging" your customers started with their parents back in 1958. The idea grew out of their desire to treat their customers like their friends; it is about not only the service but the atmosphere of being welcomed into their home as well.
• The values they've built their philosophy on are: customers, relationships, data, and excellence. The customers should be the center of the universe; their business is built on personalizing the relationship with every customer that comes into their stores.
• Jack shares some of the ways they are raising service standards, including keeping track of personal events they may need clothing for, keeping a record of items they've purchased previously, and being honest about how something looks, rather than just taking the sale.
• Part of their unparalleled service is having a standard of customer care across all of their stores. Joe Cox provides seminars to sales representatives, and Jack is always looking for ways to highlight these personal success stories.
• One of their values is to actually have fun, and helping someone out in these service situations is fun for the employees.
• To get in touch with Jack for speaking or to get copies of his books, you can email him [email protected] or give him a call: (203) 984-7894.
• The hug culture is a genuine approach because they love their customers. If all businesses could do this, the world might be a better place to shop. If we could do this with everything we do, the world would be a better place to live.

External Links:

Maintenance-one.com

Mitchell Stores

Hug Your Customers

Hug Your People

Selling the Hug Your Customer Way

Listen to business owners, leaders, professionals, and people on the front line of service talk about their experiences, and strategies to give excellent service. A show that enables listeners to learn and grow their business with insight and knowledge.