Adamen, Inc. - Vol. 11 No. 06 Professionalism and Customer Service

You are at a local department store. You can’t seem to find the type of pants you want. You look for a sales

associate. You look high and you look low. You look over in the next department. And the next. Finally you find that lone sales person. As you walk up, you just know this 19 year-old with a ring in her nose madly texting behind the counter is not going to be able to help you. And you’re right. In fact, she doesn’t even look up and see you for a full 30 seconds. You say to yourself: “&%**$%#@@!”

This experience leaves you, the customer/client, angry and disgusted and vowing never to purchase from that retailer again. This scenario speaks of poor communication skills, which result in poor customer service.

Why talk about customer service? Customers, or clients, are our life blood. No clients = no business. Happy clients mean continued business and can be more understanding and forgiving when we make inevitable mistakes. So in light of the above situations, have you ever thought about how you are communicating and providing customer (client) service?

In our industry, almost all we provide is customer service This customer care takes on many forms. Much of good customer service is directly connected to good communication between provider and client. This crucial communication connection should be the cornerstone in which we build our business and by what our industry is and should be measured. For our purpose in this article, we will discuss the limited topics of First Contact (reception), Middle and Continual Contact (the manager) and Last Contact (when we lose an account).

Reception is the most vital component in good First Contact and first communication, yet those providing reception are mostly overlooked and underpaid. Here are a few observations that can be said not just of our companies, but maddeningly, of many businesses and organizations:

In a rush. “HelloXYZmanagemnetcanyouholdon?” And before you can get a “yes” or “no” or “What?” out of your mouth, there you are, on hold. A deep, dark, cold hold.

Uninformed. Reception: “How many I direct your call?” Caller: “I’d like to speak to Joe Smith, please.” Reception: “Uhhh, uh… there is no one here who goes by that name…” Caller: “There must be as he left me a message about an hour ago…” Then you listen to the ensuing silence, and the inevitable scramble to find a Joe Smith. Most of the time, Joe is found. Other times, he’s MIA. Other times, the receptionist simply denies that Joe is a employee, leaving you to call back after some time has passed so another receptionist who knows Joe can direct your call. When this happens to me, I think: If I had been a Board member, I would have some serious doubts about the management of that office.

Inappropriate business language. It seems that many of our young people leave school with little knowledge of the English language, and even less knowledge of what to say on the telephone to a client (maybe if they could text message the client it would be better). Unfortunately, many of these younger folks populate our reception desks as entry-level positions. Executives – you should periodically listen to what these folks are saying to your customers. Sometimes the grammar is poor, sometimes it is simply too informal in a business setting (“Thanks, dude!”) According the Mark Bauerlein, author of “The Dumbest Generation, [1] ” “The verbal values of adulthood and adolescence clash, and to enter adult conditions, individuals must leave the verbal mores of high school behind.” My advice – give them a script if they can’t improvise in a way that reflects positively on your firm. This is a common practice in the business world, and once the script is learned it becomes very natural and easy for the speaker and much better for the client.

The auto-answering system: Sometimes better, sometimes not. If you have an auto-answering system and it’s user-friendly, that’s well and good and probably saves your firm money, and is often better than the live alternative. But here’s where the auto-answer goes off the track for your clients: Auto reception: “Spell the first or last name of the individual you are trying to reach.” There are some inherent problems with this method of robotic communication that maybe we haven’t thought about, such as a) The client may have to find her glasses (numbers are way too small on the dial pad); B) She may not know how to spell the person’s name; c) She may not know the person’s last name; d) She spells the name right, but that person isn’t in the system, seemingly having joined the Witness Protection Program. So, without option, the client goes to voicemail hell, The General Mailbox, also known as The Great Void Where all Messages Go to Die. Not a good method of communication nor of customer service.

Nothing is it more important than a first impression and the abilities of the reception staff directing the overall company communication are those persons who impart that impression. Have an auto-answering system? It has a programmable solution, the problem being that someone at the executive level periodically needs to walk through the system exactly as if they were a client before that solution is implemented. Until then, it’s a first impression that you may not want to be making. Make no mistake: Poor communication = poor customer service = poor professionalism.

The manager has the most consistent contact with the client so the tenets of good customer service and communication on the manager’s part are very, very important. Most all require good communication skills which impart good customer service and promote the professionalism of the organization. For the manager here are some very basic Do’s and Don’ts:

Do return calls and email. You don’t have to do it immediately, but generally you need to return calls within 24 business hours, and the same with email. Ah, but you say with email, everyone expects a faster response, right? Use auto-reply, and get to it when it’s appropriate. [2]

Do write well. A poorly written email or letter may not communicate what you want, and more importantly, what your client wants. If you don’t write well, take a composition class, read more, acquire “form” letters from someone in your office who does write well, and continue to write. Each of these things will, over time, make you better at written communication. You may think how well you write has nothing to do with good customer service. You’re wrong. Remember, if you are not communicating in the manner wanted and needed by the client, that is poor service to your customers. Again: Poor communication = Poor customer service = poor professionalism.

Do what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it. Nothing communicates poor customer service and a lack of professionalism faster than saying you are going to do something, and then not doing it, or, doing it but at a much later time than you indicated.

Do look the part. How you present yourself in person communicates volumes to the client. Dress appropriately. How you dress can put a client at ease or on edge by indicating an air of confidence, insecurity or indifference. Think: You’d have more confidence an attorney if s/he is wearing suit, as opposed to a T shirt, jeans and flip-flops.

Don’t give an answer you aren’t sure about. You aren’t omnipotent or omniscient, you are a human being. If you don’t know something, say so, research the issue, develop a response and impart the information to the appropriate party. How many times have you been told by a “help desk” or “order desk” something that was totally inaccurate? Maddening, isn’t it? Don’t you fall in to that trap. As I always say, you don’t have to know everything, all the time, right now.

Don’t blame others. It may be the fault of the accounting department, but you’re the manager, and the buck stops with you. Nothing communicates more loudly than the blame game, and it communicates volumes about you, indicating your serious lack of understanding of basic customer service skills. Instead of passing the buck, acknowledge the problem, take responsibility for rectifying, not causing, the problem (unless you did) and move on to doing fixing it. Everyone makes mistakes eventually. Usually, it’s not the mistake (or who’s fault it was), but how you handle it, is what is important to the client

I’ve written and spoken about communication many times over the years in relation to managers. Good communication skills are one of the Top Traits of Great Managers (see http://www.adamen-inc.com/Vol.-09-No.-02-Top-Traits-of-Great-Managers~77437~12525.htm) and are everything in this business. But communication goes beyond how we speak and write letters. It’s in how well we perform and present every hour, every day. Good communication = good customer service = more professionalism.

No one likes to lose an account, but it’s a fact of any business. In our business, an account can be lost for a real reason (5 managers in two years) or for no reason at all. So, now armed with that knowledge and the mind of a grown-up, why on earth so many of us still choose to take the low road when it comes to turning that account over to another management company is beyond me because our clients talk to potential and existing clients. What’s the low road? I’m sure some of you have heard about it, but here are just a few examples that have come to my attention over the years:

What you do when you lose an account communicates volumes about your and your firm’s professionalism to the former client, to potential clients, to other staff members, to the new management company and to the local industry as a whole. So in addition to the obvious admonition to management companies who still partake in these types of activities, here are some suggestions for handling account turnover with a tad more dignity and a lot more professionalism. Poor account turnover = very poor customer service = a professional vacuum = loss of future revenue.

Do. Maintain professional detachment throughout the life of the contract. What drives management companies or individuals to perform any act of sabotage when an account is lost? They want revenge, and revenge is motivated by emotion. The only one who really suffers from this behavior is the departing management company by ensuring that account will never return to their portfolio. Detach, folks, and maintain a professional distance at all times and with all clients. It may well keep you from giving in to emotion that may be satisfying in the short-term but is only to your detriment in the long-term. Executives, you may wish to impart this “detachment” thought process to your managers who may be inclined to be emotional about account loss.

Do manage until the bitter end. Even if you lost and account to a terrible management firm, even if the account has made your life less comfortable than you would wish, even if the account left for no reason, even if you are in a dispute over payment, manage until the last day. Why? Aside from it being the right thing to do, it establishes and maintains your and your firm’s reputation for customer service. If you are professional, anything less should be beneath you.

Do keep lines of communication open. Be available to answer questions form the new management firm (within reason, of course) for their first 30 days, and beyond that if it is of dire importance. Be available to the Board President as well, under the same conditions. Make sure that staff is informed on who the new management firm is, and as owners call in (and they invariably will) to express a complaint or concern, direct them to the new management firm and its phone number. It only makes good long-term business sense to do so.

Don’t Sabotage. Access codes changed, keys broken off in locks, pool filters & sprinkler heads damaged, files corrupted, etc. Frankly, I can’t believe anyone would waste their time with this juvenile and sometimes criminal behavior. I can barely bring myself to talk about it, but to make your last contact with an association an act of sabotage is beyond the pale and will come back to haunt you in one way or another. You reap what you sow. Grow up.

Executives: Do take the high road. Have a standard checklist and timeframe of turnover items. What items are turned over, to whom they are turned over, the timeframe in which they are turned over, and the manner in which they are turned over should all be in a company checklist, and be Standard Operating Procedure within your management firm. In addition, these procedures should be outlined within your management contracts, because it indicates your professionalism by committing to, in writing, how your firm will handle this last contact with the client. Somehow I doubt “Files will be placed in the dumpster behind Rite Aid for retrieval by the new management firm” will be outlined in your contract.

*Sigh.* I would argue that the “customer service mindset” has changed considerably in the past 20 years, and though good service can be found (think Nordstroms, or Zappos.com) there is plenty of that poor service out there. And while we in the community management business can become hyper-aware of poor customer service, we sometimes, oddly, can be unaware of it in our own companies in the service we provide to our clients. Why do we ignore certain aspects of customer service? My guess would be that it’s not intentional, but more along the lines of benign neglect: After all, the walls aren’t caving in, are they? Well, no, but poor customer service doesn’t usually have that all or nothing effect, it usually takes its toll bit by bit until an account is lost and we may not even realize it was a poorly handled call or letter that finally broke the camel’s back.

Much of poor customer service – be it in a grocery store, a doctor’s office or a community management office, has to do with a lack of understanding of what constitutes good customer service. In our industry it is basically good communication. Good communication = good customer service = continued professionalism = continued revenue. Put on a smile on your face, develop a good attitude, do what you say you are going to do and communicate often and well. Let’s strive to provide good, even great, customer service from First Contact to Last.

[1]Tarcher/Penguin, 264 pages, $24.95 www.dumbestgeneration.com Also this book was reviewed in The Wall Street Journal Online May 13, 2008 by David Robinson through the following link: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB121063808679386853-lMyQjAxMDI4MTEwMzYxMzM4Wj.html

[2]For more on managing incoming communication, go to http://www.adamen-inc.com/Vol.-08-No.-09-Managing-Incoming-Communication~78951~12525.htm