Lessons
Class Introduction
02:56 2How Customer Service Impacts your Brand and Business
16:47 3Consistency and the Bottom Line
15:56 4Customer Service vs. Customer Experience
15:14 53 Pillars of Great Service: Hello
06:04 63 Pillars of Great Service: Trust
06:42 73 Pillars of Great Service: Communication
12:28Lesson Info
3 Pillars of Great Service: Hello
The three pillars of great service. Number one: hello. Hello is your greeting, hello is a moment of differentiation, hello asks for nothing in return. Hello is a wonderful way to start with your clients. I said before, I loved it so much, I named my book after it, but this is so true. Hello. Now, it doesn't have to be that word. We have lots of words, lots of ways to connect with our clients. But it is that first moment of contact, and you have to be aware of what is the first moment of contact with your business. So, it could be in person, where you might say "Hello," or "Hi," or "Welcome," or "Come on in," right? It could be online. So, what is that landing page? What is that doing for you? It could be a PDF. So, what is the language that you're using, how are you welcoming people into your business? Even being in here in the Creative Live studios, these folks welcomed me in very nicely. I felt welcomed from the first interaction I had, I felt welcomed in some of the spaces that I've...
been in. They've made the welcome very, very clear to me. So, it's very, very easy to do, but it's something that's forgotten a lot. How many of you have walked into a restaurant and been greeted with "How many? "What time is your reservation? "Are you here alone?" That is not a greeting. Greetings cost nothing. Hello, hi, welcome, nice to see you, come on in. Costs nothing, and yet people leave it out all the time. What if I walked into a restaurant and they said, "Good evening, welcome. "Nice to see you, may I take your coat? "May I take your bag?" And then we launch into all the details. Otherwise, it's "Who are you, why are you here?" It's like, you know, a deposition, right? No, it should be a little more warm and welcoming. And that's not just in restaurants, that can be in any business. Any business can bring us in, very simply, with hello. Now, it's important that we understand that the greeting might happen a number of times. So, for instance, in a business, you might walk in and meet with someone at the reception desk, then somebody might come and grab you from the reception desk, and then take you down to the person you're supposed to meet. So there's the first time, the receptionist, the second time, the person who's meeting you, and now maybe they're meeting you. So, they've interacted with your company three times. Maybe they've called, so there's a fourth time. Maybe there was a sign that said "Pull here," right? That's another time. So you have to think about this hello, 'cause it's the first time we're gonna interact and connect with our guests. So, it could be on your website, it might be on the phone, depending, it very often is in person, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes we have a purely digital product, so we might never even need that. I bought, you know, my business cards on Moo.com. I've never met them. It's all purely digital, but then I get a product. And then, each person that they encounter, so, each time somebody encounters another person or goes on another step in their journey, they are gonna have another moment to connect. So, hello is the way to do that. Now, it can be a great differentiator. So, it doesn't have to be hello. Now, I've worked in a lot of fine dining, I've worked in a lot of high end hotels, and of course, in these environments, it's much more formal. So, it has to be a "good evening," or a "good afternoon." It might even be a "good afternoon, sir," or a "good afternoon madam or ma'am," right? Now, do we all work in these kind of places? Not so much, right? So, think about the words that are gonna be emblematic of your company, and also be warm and welcoming in the tone that you want. So, it doesn't have to be hello, it could be "hey there," "howdy." It could be "come on in, right?" Think about the ways that you want people to feel welcomed into your business, and that could be, again, online, on your collateral, or in person. Your greeting is a big part of your brand identity. It can verbally represent your brand personality and embody your mission, vision, and core values. Now, I know that's true. Do you feel that that's true? Have you been to companies or been to business where you're feeling that? Okay, do you have an example of that? I do, I can't think of it at the moment. (laughing) One of my favorite moments is with my, one of the favorite institutions I work with is my credit union, and one thing that's really interesting is that, you've called the credit union often, and if you wait for more than five minutes, somebody comes on the line, a recording, and says "We value your time, "and when somebody actually picks up the phone, "we're gonna credit your account $ "for making you wait." And I've probably made 50 bucks over the years waiting, but to me, that really represents valuing my time, and just that, there's so many other things I could talk about with that credit union, but to me, just that is a great example of, and I spread the word far and wide, and it's really interesting, when I take out my credit card sometimes, the impact that this credit union has had on all of their customers, and it feels like a cult almost, 'cause I'll go to swipe my card and people are like, "I love San Francisco Fire Credit Union!" And so, it's this thing, and to me, it really, one of their values is making sure that they don't waste the time of their members. Right, but it's implicit in that greeting, that moment, that you're not gonna waste time with us today, right? We value you. Ooh, I love that. They literally put their money where their mouth is. Okay, another reason to move to San Francisco. Nice, I love it.
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Ratings and Reviews
Sylvie Leroy
The courses were so interesting with great and concrete advices. Thank you! We feel privileged to learn from a true expert.
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