I’ve been doing a lot of training recently, through my company Market Viewpoint, for the membership organization world, for-profit and non-profit, and as I was thinking of those of you who make up this podcast audience, I realized that many of you are board members, committee chairs, and volunteers for organizations that are membership-driven.

So what I wanted to do on this podcast was share some of the customer service (or in this case, member service) best practices from across industry lines, in the hope that the organization that you lead or for which you volunteer, can attract and retain more members.

Consider some of these best member practices:

Practice Confidentiality – Keeping the private business of your members under wraps is always a good practice. Should any member suspect they are being gossiped about by staff or other members, it won’t be long before they disappear from your membership rolls.

Encourage a Culture of Respect – Create a team of staff members that care and respect each other and members will follow suit. Be a solid team.

Practice Professionalism – This includes how you run all aspects of your organization.

Member Recognition – Consider ways to reward your most active and supportive members. People like being recognized with rewards, plaques, and gift certificates. Member recognition can also take the form of public praise at meetings. This approach is inexpensive and effective and definitely one to consider.

Give Members Visibility – This is a best practice that is related to member recognition in that it calls the member into the spotlight, but it’s slightly different in that the member in this case is in the spotlight for a longer period of time.

Tap Skills and Talents – When people join organizations, they usually want to contribute in some way. Most recognize that simply belonging isn’t as fulfilling as belonging and contributing. I know that’s definitely the case for me. Find ways to tap the skills and talents of your members.

Arrange Discounts and Deals – We all like saving money from time to time and one of the things that membership organizations can do to demonstrate value for its members is to negotiate deals with related organizations, suppliers, vendors, and companies on their behalf.

Providing value and being conscious of serving your members is going to go a long way to helping you keep your members happy and isn’t it going to be nice to not have to replace members who leave?

Apologizing is hard for people. In a sense, having to apologize is having to admit that we’re not perfect and for some, that is a harsh reality. But to ensure strong ties to our customers, sometimes an apology is important if we want to retain the loyalty of those we serve.

Perhaps a part of the difficulty in apologizing is not knowing exactly how to do it while still saving face. This podcast is designed to provide you, the business owner, department manager or supervisor, the front-line employee who works directly with the customer, or just the person out there who wants to create better and more trusting relationships, with the ingredients to making your next apology genuine and meaningful.

Consider this simple recipe:

* Begin with the words, “I’m sorry.”

* Empathize with your customer by stating how what you did may have been offensive or hurtful.

* Share how you too have been affected (personal shame, loss of customers, brand damage, etc.)

* Accept the blame and the responsibility.

* Change the offending behavior, policies, procedures, or actions to regain your customers’ trust. Do the right thing and fix the problem, otherwise the apology is hollow.

During the course of our days, there are many times when offering an apology is appropriate and necessary. Be aware of this fact and look for the opportunities you may be missing.

This is podcast episode number 29 where we’ll be talking about customer satisfaction for your business and how the way you communicate with your customers can add to the positive experience they have with you.

Customer satisfaction starts long before a customer pulls into your parking lot, steps into your waiting room, queues up in your teller line, or steps through your front door to do business with you.

Customer satisfaction starts with the way you market your business. It starts with your advertising and branding and the vehicles you use to deliver your message.

Think about your customers in these terms. We all have a preferred way that we like to have information delivered to us. Some consumers are visual, others are auditory, and some are kinesthetic. Each population is about a third of your customer database. Thinking of the ways that you will reach each of these populations is important. What’s even more important, and what will help create that satisfying experience with you, is that you include a variety of message delivery vehicles in your marketing plan.

The visual consumer is the one who prefers to learn and navigate the landscape visually. Pictures, graphs, videos, charts, diagrams, reading materials, and anything that has a picture associated with it is going to help the visual customer learn about you and retain that learned information for a longer period of time. For the visual consumer, there is a strong connection between the brain and the eyes.

The audio consumer is going to be drawn to your brand by the use of sound to promote your brand. Things like podcasts that are well done are going to be important to your marketing plan and to the auditory audience.

Think about how you can insert the use of any audio recordings or sound into your marketing efforts to break things up a bit from the blogging, postings, and other written messaging you are doing. This lets the audio consumer know that you recognize their learning style too. Remember that for the audio consumer, there is a strong connection between the brain and the ears.

The kinesthetic consumer is the one who will choose you and your business based on how they feel about you. The quicker and more effectively you can convey the core values and culture of your business and prove your value, the quicker you’ll win over this type of consumer.

In your marketing plan, be sure to include ways for the kinesthetic consumer to get to know and like you. Anything that you can incorporate into your marketing plan that will help the kinesthetic consumer connect with you.

But keep in mind that the best way to make the connection with the kinesthetic consumer is to meet them in person. Getting out there to network at community events, at business group functions, trade shows, and other events is important. Meeting the kinesthetic prospect and customer one-on-one will provide a level of connection that no LinkedIn group can match. For the kinesthetic consumer, there is a strong connection between the brain and the heart.

Giving the customer a memorable and pleasant experience at the point of first introduction, will pave the way for a pleasant experience throughout the transaction. Incorporating visuals, sound, and emotion in your marketing plan will address the needs of all three consumer groups in your database.

Happy employees result in happy customers and no matter what your size as an organization, we all want happy customers.

When I think of unhappy employees, I think of the individuals I’ve overheard on the sales floors of the stores I frequent. It makes me uncomfortable to hear them talking about management in unflattering terms. These conversations may take the form of employees complaining about work schedules, other employees they consider to be slackers that management seems to do nothing about, or lack of communication from management regarding operational or policy changes.

Whatever the complaint, it is obvious to me as a customer that these employees are not happy and, in turn, they make me feel uncomfortable and anxious to leave the store.

Unhappy employees can do a lot of damage to your business and your brand so it’s important to find ways to make sure your employees know you value and appreciate them.

Consider some of these ideas to help you express deeper gratification for your employees. The next steps you take in your organization to create happier employees may just save you from losing your largest customer.

* Create a more flexible work environment. By doing this you reduce the amount of stress your employees experience when it comes to deadlines and their commute. Now, while this approach may not work in all environments, I challenge you to be creative to see how it might work for you and your employees, then try it.

* Provide ways for your employees to stretch and grow. No matter how small or large you are, your employees will appreciate the opportunity to build their skills and learn new things. This is especially true of the younger generations you have on your payroll. Growing can take the form of formal educational classes and workshops or it can take the form of having the opportunity to work on project teams that forces them out of their comfort zone to stretch a bit.

* Be the employer who is the master of surprises. Create fun opportunities throughout the year for your employees to socialize, experience a different side of their coworkers, or experience a different side of you as the employer or manager. These surprises may take the form of company lunches where everyone brings a dish to share, holiday parties where you celebrate offbeat holidays like World Nutella Day, Ferris Wheel Day, or National Margarita Day (sans the alcohol, of course). Maybe the surprise takes the form of you buying ice cream for the company every time the temperature goes above 95 degrees in the summer. Be creative. Your staff will love you for it.

Happy employees mean happy customers. The employee who feels valued, appreciated, important, and instrumental to the organization’s success will go out of their way to make sure that your customers are having the same wow experience they are in doing business with you. Give employees a little more control over their environment, surprise them occasionally, and encourage them to grow along with you, and you will be amazed at what you get back.

This is podcast episode number 26 with some thoughts about the winter holidays, and how our interactions with friends, family, and even strangers can have a direct impact on how future generations communicate and behave in business.

‘Tis the season for frantically paced shopping, wild package wrapping sessions, bountiful baking marathons, holiday parties, and fabulous family meals. Besides being consumed with the year-end and regular work activities at our jobs, we have many tasks on our to-do lists for the holidays. The added pressure we place on ourselves to create the perfect holiday for our families and friends can make for some pretty testy customers and clients at this time of year. It can also make for some stressed-out service providers, retailers and vendors. When this happens, it’s a customer experience nightmare waiting to happen.

As I’ve been standing in line at the cash registers in my favorite stores or navigating my way around the various websites I frequent at this time of year, I’ve been observing how we are treating each other. As the owner of a mystery shopping company, it’s just natural for me to move into evaluation mode when I am out there. Some of the experiences are fantastic, while others could definitely use improvement. I know you are experiencing this, too.

The thought occurred to me that we have an opportunity as we gather together as family and friends for our holiday parties and meals, and as we connect to share our traditions.

As adults, we have the ability to influence the future generations of shoppers, store clerks, delivery personnel, call center and help desk representatives, cashiers, and anyone else who becomes a part of our future workforce and the consuming public.

You see, the children in our families are listening and watching, especially at this time of year. Here is where the opportunity lies. You may think they’re distracted with the fancy wrapping paper or the latest electronic gadget they made be playing with, but children have this marvelous ability to absorb everything that is happening in their environment, and sometimes even the things that are going on beyond their immediate environment.

The words you use, your tone of voice, body language, how you respect the homes of your friends and relatives when you visit, the things you say about others, in their presence and after their backs are turned – all of these behaviors and habits are creating the foundation for our children as they learn how to communicate and treat others. Our children need strong communication and behavioral skills to navigate in a world that can be challenging.

As you shop, visit, feast, and celebrate, consider setting a good example for the children in your life, and provide them with the tools and skills they will need to be better business professionals and better consumers. If a world full of peace and compassion is your wish for this holiday season, let’s begin with how we behave in the presence of our children.

This podcast episode is all about the many ways a consumer can contact you in the digital age and how having brand consistency across all these communication channels can impact your profitability.

Training your staff on how to create valuable customer experiences with all of the means of communication a customer may use to reach out to you these days is more important than ever. The multiple point of contact option for consumers even has a marketing buzzword and that word is omni-channel.

If you are an omni-channel organization, you are a company that is using an approach to communication that seeks to provide the customer with a variety of ways to make contact with you, regardless of the reason for that contact.

Think of it as meeting the consumer “where they live”. Let’s face it, we are working with a multi-generational marketplace, with each generation having its preference for the way they reach out. Millennials text and instant message, Boomers use the phone and email, and the Traditionalists prefer to “walk in” to your store or business to make contact. You need to have a plan and be prepared to communicate with and serve today’s consumers regardless of their preferences.

Before the digital revolution, employees needed to know how to manage the customer experience by phone and in-person. Employee training usually consisted of telephone etiquette skills and on-site selling and customer service skills. But today, my company, Market Viewpoint, is evaluating a variety of communication portals for our clients to be sure that the customer feels that they are getting the attention they need and deserve no matter how they choose to connect with you.

Portals of entry to a business have multiplied and with this expansion, so has the need to not only manage the brand consistency across these communication channels, but the experience the customer ultimately has as well. It’s no easy task and that is why mystery shopping and training are so critical.

Some of the ways customers have to make contact with you are:

* The contact page or contact form on your website

* Email

* Text messaging

* Social media posts

* Instant messaging

* Online live chats

* Fax

* Phone (company land lines and cell phones)

* Voice mail

* In-person visits

I highly recommend a thorough review of these channels to check for complete and accurate company contact information, data on how soon a consumer can expect a response from you, accurate messaging, and perhaps a list of other options for consumer contact, if their need is more immediate.

Brand consistency across communication channels is critical. Having a plan and clearly communicating it to your employees through the training process is necessary in today’s complicated environment.

A resource for you to use to check the communication experiences your customers are having with you is to mystery shop on a regular basis.

Stay ahead of the curve, correct communication issues before they get out of hand, and be sure that you put a communication plan in place that will signal to your customers that they are an important part of your organization.

This podcast episode is about compassion and how having it for your customers can impact your profitability.

I was reading something the other day and in it was a quote from the Greek philosopher and mathematician, Plato. The quote said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” It struck me that if more customer service call center representatives, more sales associates, more senior level executives, and more business people in general kept Plato’s words in mind, then perhaps the business world would be an easier place to navigate.

I am often pained when I witness a business transaction that has escalated out of hand. These often go like this:

* Customer has an unmet need or problem.

* Customer reaches out for help but may be emotional. They may be angry or annoyed for example.

* Sales associate or customer service representative feels threatened or disrespected and reacts – not always in a good way.

* Situation spirals out of control. Voices become raised. Words are said that cannot be taken back.

* Customer goes elsewhere for their products or services and that loss will have an impact on the business’s profitability.

As I witness the scenario, sometimes as a bystander, sometimes as the customer, and sometimes as the owner of my company who needs to respond to a customer with an unmet need, I know it doesn’t have to be this way. I know that by creating an environment of compassion, customer satisfaction can be achieved. Not only can it be achieved, but it can create unprecedented customer loyalty.

To create the environment of compassion in business is to become aware of Plato’s words in every transaction, not just those that are out of control. Remember that everyone is fighting a harder battle.

Especially with those situations that are spiraling out of control, it’s important to think about what might be causing this emotion in the customer. Now we’ll never really know why a customer may be reacting emotionally, unless they choose to tell us, but it’s important for me to have a few scenarios handy that I can come up with as I am working with a customer who may be upset.

The first thing I recognize is that the person who is upset is in pain.

The second thing I try to do is come up with possible reasons for that pain. This is what Plato meant as the “harder battle”. For example, did the customer just lose their job? Did they recently get an upsetting medical diagnosis? Are they having problems in their relationships? Are they caring for aging parents and being crushed under the pressure of providing this care? There are a ton of reasons why a customer may have become unhinged with the way you or your company is doing business with them and that’s the important thing to keep in mind.

For that customer who has just approached you with a need or problem who is unhappy or even angry, consider taking the following action:

* Slow down and recognize that pain is present in this customer’s life. They are fighting the harder battle.

* Take a moment to imagine what form that pain may be taking. For example, it may be financial problems, job loss, illness, etc.

* Let the customer fully express themselves and truly listen while this is happening. It’s going to be hard but don’t react at this point. Try to keep your own emotions in check.

* After the customer has communicated their problem, tell them that you want to help and that you are on their side in finding an answer to the problem. This lets them know that you want to help them fight at least this battle in their life.

Whether in business, in our communities, or in our families, we are all here to help each other fight these battles that Plato warned us about. In business, if you can offer words of encouragement, kindness, understanding, a compassionate environment, and an honest interest to help,

This podcast episode is about the business of taking a vacation and the importance of vacation taking to your business, career, customers, employees, your family, and your health. We’ll be talking about the ways that taking a well-deserved break from time to time, scheduled into your calendar, can impact your bottom line, improve your creativity, help you retain more customers, and make you a better overall manager, business owner, and a better employee (if the first two career tracks don’t necessarily apply to you).

I have several friends in the field of academics. These friends are teaching at various levels and over the years a few of them have taken sabbaticals. It has always fascinated me that there are actually some career paths where backing away from the intensity of the work is tolerated and even encouraged. 

I did a little research and found that the word “sabbatical” has roots in the Greek language coming from the word sabbatikos which means “of the sabbath”. Many may recognize the word sabbath as coming from the Hebrew word shabbat or “joyful day of rest”. After looking up the word sabbatical and understanding its roots, it made me really happy for my teaching friends that they were taking joyful periods of rest away from their work. But it made me a little sad that I couldn’t do this with the career path I had chosen. Or could I? So while I couldn’t take a year or more off of work, what I started to do was create little pockets of time on my schedule to decompress.

A while back, I attended a really fantastic yoga and meditation retreat. It was held in the dead of winter at a time when all of the insanity of daily life during the warmer months was at a slower pace. Like a lot of people, I felt selfish for having taken an entire weekend all to myself, leaving behind family and friends. I also felt guilty for spending money on my own personal quest for spiritual growth and nourishment. And as a business owner, I felt as if I was slacking off knowing that I could have been working on a few big projects that weekend.

But during the retreat, the facilitator talked about one of his favorite books. He referenced a book by the author Wayne Muller. The title of the book is “Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives”. I wrote down the title of the book in my notes, but didn’t download the book to my e-reader until weeks later. One of the quotes that particularly struck me was where Muller says, “Our lack of rest and reflection is not just a personal affliction. It colors the way we build and sustain community, it dictates the way we respond to suffering, and it shapes the ways in which we seek peace and healing in the world.”  So to those of you listening to this podcast, know that this aspect of vacation, rest and renewal is not just about hitting the beach or the mountains for the week or enjoying a week at home sleeping in with nothing to do. This idea of taking a break is big, because it has the potential to affect the world.

I finished reading it the other day and now understand the importance of taking a break, a vacation, a rest, a respite, or creating time in my schedule to renew myself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so I can continue to serve the communities of which I am a part.

So as managers and business owners, it is our responsibility to encourage our employees to take time off to rest and renew. We need to create cultures in our organizations where we honor the need for the human body, spirit, and mind to rest. To deny someone the vacation time they’ve earned, to make someone feel as if his or her taking time off will hurt the organization, or to create roadblocks for vacation time to be taken, is wrong. I’ve worked for organizations where these conditions have existed.

This podcast episode is about helping you to establish trust in your business. We’ll be talking about the trust that needs to exist between you and your customers, you and your employees, and you and your vendors. As a customer, it’s essential that I trust the organization or professional I am doing business with. Whether it’s my hair stylist, my family doctor, the local Best Buy where I get my electronic equipment, or the local sports bar and grille in town where I grab a Friday night pizza after a long week, if I don’t trust the establishment, I won’t be doing business with them.

Gaining my trust and yours is relatively simple. There are so many ways a company can do this.

You can stock the items you say you have on sale. How many times have you heard or read about a sale, gone to the store only to find that they are “out of stock” the morning the sale starts? It kind of makes you wonder if you have been lured into the store under false pretenses. We’ve all heard of bait and switch. Another way to gain my trust is to be open during the hours that are posted on your front door or at your website and to uphold what you promise in your marketing literature. As a consumer, another way for me to trust you is to ensure that your marketing message is consistent from your website to the check-out experience. It’s important to always be thinking about how what you are saying and writing about your business converts to all of the procedures, marketing activities, and policies that should be driving customers through your front door, regardless of whether you have an actual front door or a home page. Finally, as a consumer, I want you to promise that when you say that customer service matters to you, make sure your employees actually behave that way and when you see them responding to customers in ways that are inconsistent with your message, call them out on it. Ultimately, it’s going to make their lives simpler. When I am working in the capacity as a vendor, I want to trust you too. I want you to honor our contract if we have one. I want you to communicate with me so I can serve you the way I know you want me to. I want you to pay your invoice on time so I don’t have to track you down and beg you for the money you owe me for a job that was well done. I want you to occasionally give me feedback or thank me to let me know that I am on track with how you want to be served. And employees need to trust the organizations they work for too. Put yourself in the employee’s shoes and know that for them to trust you, you need to focus on them when you are interacting with them. This is especially important when it comes time for performance reviews or when you are coaching a subordinate on a new skill. Employees also need to see that human resource rules are applied consistently across the board. They need to see that the organization honors fairness. It’s hard for employees to see colleagues arriving late to work and not being reprimanded about it when others are at their workstations on time or even early to start their work at the beginning of their shift. In order for employees to trust you, they also want to hear words of praise for a job well done or a thank you if I, as an employee, have done above and beyond on a project. The feedback helps me know that you care and are watching. What I would love for you to keep in mind is that trust is earned and can only be earned over time. The good news is, if you play your cards right trust can build quickly. The bad news is, trust can be lost as quickly as it can be earned. Each encounter and transaction matters and that is why it is so important to monitor what’s happening in your organization with mystery shopping programs, customer surveys, focus groups, and other forms of market feedback. When interacting with your customers, vendors and employees in even the simplest of exchanges, keep these three things in mind:

* Be present.