The Six Figure Mom

Getting Started in Customer Service with Letti, Lynda & Kristen

October 08, 2019 Erin E Hooley Season 1 Episode 28
The Six Figure Mom
Getting Started in Customer Service with Letti, Lynda & Kristen
Show Notes Transcript

Elevate your business with the 11 key components of an all-star class customer team. Ensure every customer has a 5-star worthy experience and turn customers into raving fans and your greatest brand advocates.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the conquering chaos podcast. I'm your host, Aaron E, Julio president and founder of multimillion dollar e-commerce children's clothing line, Bailey's blossoms. So it turns out I'm pretty good at business, but what really lights my soul on fire is providing other entrepreneurs and mompreneurs with the tools they need to truly succeed. So if you have a business or have one on your heart, you're in good company, pull up a chair or dropping some earbuds and let's conquer some chaos today. Hey guys and welcome back to another episode of the conquering chaos podcast. We have been going deep into different areas of our company behind the scenes here at Bailey's Bostons and Peyton Bree. And today I'm excited to introduce you to the ultimate team. This is our customer service team. We have ms[inaudible], Linda and Chris in here. So if you guys are looking to elevate your business, this is going to be the episode for you because we're going to talk about the 11 key components of an all star customer service team and what we have done here at Bailey's Bostons and Payton breed to ensure that our customers each received a five star worthy experience with us, which then means return customer rates go up. And those same customers then turn into your greatest fans and brand advocates to bring you even more new customers. So I am a firm believer that business success starts with the CSR team and the culture you instilled from the start. So we have identified the 11 core components that set us apart and provide a truly elevated experience. And the first one is patience. It's kind of the one that needs to be at the top of the list. Why is that? Number one patients, Oh my goodness. Because we don't understand what's going on in anyone else's life or what's going on in general. And sometimes an issue could just be a small miscommunication, but to have the patients to really listen to dive into it. And just really resolve it is so important. And so key patients is just not jumping to any conclusions, but really just having the time to go back and forth as much as you need and do whatever you have to do to resolve an issue. I love that. Remembering that the customer does come first and we will always give 100% to make sure that everything is handled correctly and everyone is happy. Absolutely. There's something that that happens when people are behind a screen. I feel like sometimes people will say things that they would never say to your face. It can feel personal and it's really important that we make sure that we keep it not personal and we try to put ourselves in their shoes. We try to empathize with them. And I think that this goes perfectly into point number two, which is service. And I think that having that serving heart is so important. So what does service look like at Bailey's bosses and Peyton? Bri? Oh well I love knowing that I made someone happy cause we have customers reach out and they're just mad right off by receiving a wrong item or something. And when we come back with a response that shows that we really do care and we really are sorry about whatever the issue might be, they come back very thankful you can tell that you've made their day. Our surfacing heart is to make sure that they are happy. That is goal. One of the stories I love the most is the Costco one with a woman of a year or two ago overturn a dead Christmas tree. There are people that caught it online and it kind of went viral for Costco where people were going, Oh my gosh, can you believe this crazy woman who returned this dead Christmas tree after Christmas to Costco? And yet Costco accepted the return. They didn't call her a liar even though they knew that she was clearly out. You know, not within her. Right. But they could have made a very easy case to say this doesn't fall within the realms of our responsibility. And yet they chose serving her even though maybe a lot of people would say she didn't deserve it. They served her anyways and probably a loyal customer. Right. But not even just her. Everybody thought everyone who was in that line and everybody who then heard about it on the internet after the fact as well. And being such a socially driven company, I feel like we always put our best foot forward because it's not worth, it's just not worth it to be right. Being right isn't worth it. Serving people makes the biggest difference. And it brings in that point on shop at Costco. I love her. I love Costco like nobody ever talks about about Costco. No. A lot of people will go, well aren't you afraid that you're then opening up the door for everybody returned dead Christmas trees after Christmas? I personally don't believe so. Cause I think that 99.9% of the world is not that kind of a person just wouldn't do it. That they would because that sense of loyalty and that integrity is, is deeper for them. But the appreciation for who you are, your character and your integrity, that's what they get through a story like that, which I think is the most important thing. Okay. Third point focus. What does focus look like in customer service? We need to focus on the customer, whether it's, you know, we have a new live chat going on right now and sometimes that can get distracting with emails, wiped out, returns, anything that customer service handles, but I think we need to just kind of take a moment and focus on the task at hand, whether it's a live chat focused on that live chat and push everything else to the side. If it's an email focus on that one. Email that one customer. Yeah. Every customer want to have time. Yes, absolutely. It's really easy to get overwhelmed when there's a million things on your plate. Yeah. There are. At any given day, yes. All the time we have, we always have more than one thing going on, but we always try and answer that chat, answer that phone call and not put them off. Yeah. Or make them feel like a number. Think a lot of times, you know when you go to a place and you have to take a ticket number and they even call you by number, you feel like you're in a cattle call, you know, but, but here we try our best to, you guys are calling people out by name. You're referencing their situation, you know, whether it's, they've shared a picture and we're going, Oh my goodness, your daughter is so beautiful. Or there are, or Hey, you know, I didn't get this in time for, I'm not going to get this in time for my daughter's birthday party. And we're saying, Oh, you know, happy birthday to your daughter. Here's what we're going to do to try to help out. Yeah. There's so many different things that you guys are doing to really personalize it and I think that's huge. And no matter how big you get as an organization, there are, there are some people that communicate back and forth with you enough that you do. You start to know who they are, recognize their names. I want everyone to feel like they're our number one fan. I want everyone to feel like they're our number one priority. There's that relationship and you guys are really the ones that are building that from the ground up, so that's awesome. Okay. Number four, goals and KPIs. Gosh, I feel like this is just such a huge part of customer service because this is what sets parameters and standards for our customer service that makes it so great. Um, for example, we want to make sure that, you know, our goal is to respond to you within 24 hours. We don't want people to wait, and that's just a perimeter that we have in place to ensure that we're providing really great customer service. And then we want to track that to make sure that we're keeping at that goal. Because it's important that you know that you're a priority and you're not having to wait for a response. Right? And so that's something so important in customer services, having those standards to make sure in those parameters to make sure that you know your customers know what they're going to get from you. Like they know that they're going to get a response premium. Absolutely. Well, one of the things I love about the goals and the KPIs that you guys have set up is that they're not guaranteed to always be met, but what I love about that is that we're constantly pushing for continuous improvement and we're setting ourselves up to progress over and over. I think it's really easy human nature as to say, give me a goal that I know I can meet and it's easy, so it feels good at the end of the day, but what feels good at the end of the day? If you do that for six months and at the end of six months, you're the same person that you were six months ago. But if you push yourself and you say, okay, this is going to be hard, and I might not be happy that I don't meet it every single day, but maybe at the end of six months for how I can look back and see just how far we've come. I'm true. Yes. Another good thing with the goals is sometimes Letty will make us a checklist and I'm thinking, there's no way. Yeah, I'll do this and you're out of your mind. But it makes us think kind of outside of the box and push that to where we figured out how we are going to get this done. Yes. And then once we figured that out, we can check it off and it feels great. That's awesome. Okay. Fifth thing is communication. We've touched on this because honestly customer service is all about education, understanding the importance of words. And I think that there are so many ways that you can say the same thing, but just your tone alone and when it's not on the phone where people can't hear your tone, that's the challenge. Right? So knowing what words come across as condescending and which words come across as genuine is a huge, a huge element of customer service. Knowing how to use and communicate properly. Yeah. And I think that kind of goes hand in hand with when we receive emails or things on social media, we don't know the tone that they're speaking to us in. We could take it[inaudible] so we have to kind of take a step back sometimes like, okay, let me put my self in her position and how, how would I want to be treated and go from there. Right. And with communication too, it's sometimes when you get an email and you're going through it and someone's upset, it's in how you respond in your communication and response that can really help them understand. They may just not understand or fully, you know, it may be just be something like a confusion and misunderstanding. And sometimes whenever you have the power to really communicate and to explain and to dissect the issue, it really can, you know, build that bridge or mend that bridge. And so communication is just, for me, one of the most important things is how we respond to people can really, really mint anything. On the rare occasion where somebody does get nasty and they intentionally try to kind of hit hard on those rare occasions, making sure that we never respond when our heart is beating fast. Making sure that we don't respond when we're flustered. Taking the time to step back. And to breathe, go for a walk, get some fresh air, clear your head so that by the time you do go back and you start to construct that email or that message or that make that phone call that you are not hot in any way. Yeah, it's very true. And I think that's a great life lesson in that way. In your daily lives with your family, with your friends, with your coworkers, with your customers, with everybody kids, right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Sixth major skill for customer service. And this is a big one. Just people skills and the availability to read. Others being able to take that temperature on where people are at. And this can be challenging too, especially in text because like we were saying, you don't know if someone's upset, if they're being condescending. How do you manage that? We have had a few emails that sound like, Oh no, this customer is so mad. I need to call them. I'm a little scared. Yeah. And then on the phone, they're the nicest people you could ever be on too. Yeah. So I think that is true with text. And, um, even being prepared, answering the phone, you never know. Right. What's going on. And I had a customer the other day that was not happy at all, even using some, some similar language. Right. I kept the conversation as calm as possible and after we hung up, that's when I took my deep breath. The other customer service reps like how did you, how'd you maintain composure at? Right. But um, yeah, we always have to. Yeah. And those are very rare. Very, very rare. But that's a big thing in customer service. You know, when you are working with customers you have to be able to sometimes put your differences aside or if you're frustrated you have to, you know, like you said, take a walk or step back because how do you want to be treated, you know, and we like to have that motto in our, like to treat our customers the same way we would want to get treated if we were having the same issue. Absolutely. You're dealing with that situation. That was really good. Um, because you are reading them, you're, you're sitting there, you're hearing her, you're reading the customer. But in you're responding, you know, with how we need to respond, which is, you know, being calm in, in, you know, communicating the message as possible. And that's just the most important thing is reading our customers and meeting them, you know, where they need to be met when we are understanding where they're at. So absolutely, absolutely. And like you said earlier, we don't know what else is going on in that person's life because sometimes their anger isn't in relation to[inaudible]. Right. So there might just be a tipping point. It just becomes a tipping point. The catalyst of everything else that's going on in the background that you can never know. Yeah. Yeah. I always try and make their day a little bit better. Yeah. Yes. You know, I had somebody one time, this was a teacher back in high school and I remember he said that he and his wife had this game, you know, somebody cuts you off on the freeway and they, instead of getting upset, they'd go back and forth and be like, Oh man, that person, they missed their coffee yet and their dog died. And like, I'm just kind of make up this crazy story. And then they're like, man, I'm so sad for that person. And by the end of it. So they would just never get upset no matter how someone treated them, where they'd be like, Oh my gosh, this could have happened. No, this could have happened. And they just made it into a game where it let me keep things into perspective that I don't actually know what's going on. But the possibilities are endless and I have to believe at the end of the day that people are good. Yes, I that I'm stealing that. That last time[inaudible] and I tried to play along but he doesn't[inaudible] that's awesome. Oh wait, well number seven, this is the next one. Willingness to learn and admit fault. And you kind of already touched on this Linda, because even when you're not wrong, even when you feel like you do have a point that you could argue, realizing it's not worth it, it's not worth it. And at the end of the day, your principle and your integrity has to say, my service mentality has to mean more to me than my need to be. Right. And so it's putting that pride away for the moment when someone's in your checkout line or your returns line with the dead Christmas tree and you could easily dispute it to just say, you know what, it's not worth it. I will admit I'm going to admit fault. I will apologize. I will take it understanding that I'm doing it for the greater good of what we stand for as a company. Right? Not, I mean we're, I'm gonna toot our horn because I feel like it's something we're really good at. Yes, we are always willing to learn and to admit fault and we are good at um, like listening in and being like, okay, we understand even if they're not 100% right, we're going to still try to make them happy. Absolutely. Even our own fault. We try to be transparent because we all make mistakes. We're human and we love to be able to be honest, upfront, transparent, and something we're really good at and that I'm, I'm really proud of our team. They're really good at learning and just and growing and every day is something new and it's pretty awesome. So yeah, we are constantly learning and trying to be better every day. That's a goal that we have here is to come in with a smile and to leave with a smile and some days are harder than others, but we're to be nervous. But you guys pass it around to everybody in the worst and in the entire organization to where you really are. That just of that joy or humorous Linda and always keeping us all we can tell you story. Yeah. Angel lady. Okay. The next one is just a general sense of calm and why is that important and customer service and I feel like sense of calm is trained attorney to learn trait. Yes. After a few years now, I honestly can get the emails where I'm like, you know, it doesn't matter the extent I still can respond. I know you can attest. I can still respond in the same calm fashion, calm manner because it's something that you just, you really learn over time is how to really stay calm in all situations and handle them in a very, you know, polite and calm manner no matter what is it in customer service or with Kristen or Linda. Um, we can feed off of that. You know, like she might have issue that I know she can is perfectly fine at answering that. I know she can do it, but sometimes you just need that little like little push, that little help from your friend and we love conferencing with each other and he has this, does this sound okay? Is this, yeah, what you would, how you would respond. It just shows how much we care about our customers. We want to make sure that we're, we're responding, we care enough to be like, we want to give you the best response possible, the best resolution possible. Absolutely. I love that. And while we get an amazing note from my customer that's just reading about the experience they had and we love that and that gives us a boost. A boost. Yes. We have a board that we like to print out and make them really cute and we like to so that we can see that every day. Celebrate the wins. Yes. Yeah. I love that positivity. That's great. Oh yeah. Let's talk about the ability to compartmentalize. What does that look like with so many hats that you wear throughout any given day? Cause I know there are many times where if somebody needs an order rather than going out and talking to the owner fulfillment team, you guys are going in, you're fulfilling that order or you're helping to make sure that it happens so that you can personally guarantee, Hey, I'm taking care of you from, from step one all the way to step 10, I've got your back. So the ability to compartmentalize and to stay structured and organized, what does that look like? Well, I love that. Um, I think in the many jobs that I've had, one thing that I love about Bailey's blossoms is you have that sense of closeness and Aaron and Brandon had given us the ability to do that, to run out. I'm gonna, I need to go grab this and get this order out or I, I'm going to go help Kristen up in the front, you know, to watch the front desk or I need to whatever that customer is needing. I don't feel like I have to talk to silo into one section if anyone needs help at anytime here, everyone is just willing to step in and help. And on the flip side, I think we've all been to, certain stores were where they were these little vests and they say, how can I help you? And you ask them a question, they're like, that sound my department. Yes. Right. And it's cause then you feel like you're getting bounced around and Oh please hold, Oh please hold, please hold. We don't do that here. It's Hey, you know what? I'm going to take care of you. I will find that out. We do our best to make sure that everybody has a good experience. And that's huge. When people come along, people ask all the time, well why Bailey's Boston's does this work so well? And that's why I say it's really starts with customer service because we get knocked off on the daily, people steal our pictures. They still are our, our designs. They steal our copy and our text on our website. I mean, they steal everything and that can be hurtful. At one point in time, I did allow it to get to me and, and we've had this conversation in law or it's like we have to compartmentalize and say, you know what, that's going to sit over here on the shelf cause I don't have time to expend energy on the negativity over there. All I can do is what's in my wheel house. And I know that customer service and treating people right, that will bring the customer back over and over again. Because that creates that sense of loyalty and those relationships that even at the end of the day, if they know they can save$5 somewhere else, they're still gonna come back to us because they know us and we know them. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about time management. That one's kind of a doozy, right? I mean, we've already kind of discussed this a little bit about focus and really just making sure that we're doing one thing at a time, but what time management tips do you guys have as far as making sure that you get everything done during the day? Cause there's a lot on your plate at any given point. And we also have these standards of wanting to communicate in a timely fashion too. So what, how do you guys manage that? Because you do it so well. We try to have goals. We have a paper and you know, we like to set times for herself. Let's be done with this by this time. Let's do our best. Yeah. You know, and sometimes we have to shut the door and kind of put our focus heads on and yeah, and work on those. Yeah. I think time management too is sometimes can be a mental thing. You know when you come down and you're like, I have all of this to do today, and you first have, you have to break that first. You have to just push aside the mental, write it down, write it down and prioritize it. This is what's most important. That needs to be done first. And then before you know what you realize, Oh, I'm already done with that. I really can't accomplish these things. But sometimes you can get in, you're getting your own head and kind of mess with yourself. And so time management is pushing past that, prioritizing and then just going for it before you know what it's done. Sometimes you're your own worst enemy, so much of your time can go towards, Oh, I can't forget this, so I can't forget that moment when your mind is running so fast. If you write it down, you don't need your mind to remember it. You just reference the list and then you focus on one at a time. So much of our time and energy is expended on trying not to drop the ball and then we ended up dropping the ball. So if we just put it on paper, it makes a huge difference. It's a huge satisfaction to me when I see those checks like yeah, check, check. Yep. I'm a visual person. So when I see that list and I see, Oh we did a good job team. And to be positive with your coworkers, all of that with yourself. Yes, yes. That's hard sometimes, but giving them praise, you know like we have a little group chat and we've had it with Kristen and Jennifer and now Linda and Sydney, you know like, Hey guys, I know today was crazy, but you guys rocked it and you can't wait to see you guys back tomorrow. We get to do it all over again. It's awesome. Okay. Last thing is product and services knowledge. Obviously it's really hard to serve people if you don't know how to answer any questions. So this is kind of a no brainer one, but it's so important to have that continual, I'm gonna learn about this rather than let me pass you off to somebody else so I don't have to learn about it. You know, an example for us too is being a fast fashion company as we're constantly having new products in and for us it's important to know what products are in, know their name, even though they're selling out quickly lately. Um, it's to know that so that whenever that customer is referencing that or talking about that we can definitely assist them and not be like, Oh, are talking about, you know, it's just, it's so important to know every little aspect. And it's funny, I think back to two years ago and I can still remember products, but we've had thousands and if so many, it's funny you, you become a[inaudible]. Others not so much really do you? I think customer service ends up being so much of the brain of the organization where you have the temperature on the customer. You know what people are looking for, what they can't yet find. You know what they want that maybe we no longer have, you know, the feedback that we're getting on the products that we do have. And that's, that's all I love customer service than most is because customer service, if you're listening to the people that are already in your ecosystem, they tell you where to drive next. Every single time. You don't have to have a crystal ball. They're telling you what they want and they're already there. So if you do it right and you invite that feedback and then you listen to it, you of course you're going to grow no matter if you're selling a product or service or anything. That's always gonna work out that way. And that's one thing I think our customers should know too. We do get a lot of ideas and we'll let you know, but we want you to know that we really do. We have a meeting once a month and we discuss your ideas. Yeah, Aaron. Yes. I love feedback. In conclusion, with all this, we've talked about 11 key components of customer service that really helped to elevate and take you to the next level. In your journey as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, to make sure that you are serving people to the best of your ability. And those 11 key components that we utilize here and we have seen the a hundred fold return to us. Number one is patients, number two is service. Three the ability to focus for setting up clear goals and KPIs. Number five, communication and understanding the power of words. Number six, having strong people skills, the ability and also the desire to read others. Number seven, the willingness to learn and even admit fault. Number eight, maintaining a sense of calm. Number nine, having the ability to compartmentalize. Number 10, time management and last product and services knowledge. And I promise you as you've seen here, this is the essence of who we are and who we are and what we have embodied here at Bailey's Boston's and Peyton, Bri and as the true driver and foundational setting for all the success we've had. So thank you guys for your service and our customer service. Yeah, and thank you for serving this community as well and sharing this knowledge with them. Thank you for taking the time to connect with me here on the conquering chaos podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, will you please take a moment to leave a review? It's the fuel to my fire and lets me know that my efforts to enact change and broaden your perspective of what's possible matter. Thank you so much for your support. If you want more content like this, don't forget to subscribe and connect with me on social media at Aaron equally or at Aaron equally. Dot com. Have a fantastic day. Get out there and Congressman, chaos.