Do You Have Negative Cues That You Are Not Aware Of

1.    Customer Service Feature Story

Do You Have Negative Cues That You Are Not Aware Of?

By Jess Pischel

There is always an opportunity for improvement. Identifying the negative cues in the office, store, or business location and correcting them to become more positive will enhance the environment that the employees and customers experience. A negative cue is anything that could be perceived as negative from a customer’s point of view.

Breaking down the negative cues into categories to nail down where improvements can be made is a great team-building exercise. Have your team members evaluate your business in these categories. Here are some questions to consider as you look at each category.

Website:

• Do you use any negative language on the website?
• Are the addresses, contact information and phone numbers all correct?
• Are you making it easy to be a customer and/or for the customer to find the information they are looking for?

Verbiage:

• When are you saying “no” when you don’t have to?
• What negative lingo are you using? ex: policy, restrictions

  

Terminology:

• Are you using terms the customer understands?
• Do you use acronyms and industry lingo/jargon that you assume they know?

Signage:

• Are the signs in your building clear? Are they old and dated?
• Do you have too many?
• Do you have enough?
• Do they have negative language on them? ex: no smoking, no cell phones

What Customers See:

• Is the environment clean?
• Do the customers see chaos?
• Are there burnt out light bulbs?
• Employees in uniform?

*Related – Mistakes Your Employees Make Every Day

Agreements:

• Many times our agreements sound negative because they are legal documents that protect us because we have been burned in the past
• This category takes a bit longer to look through and to make changes to (you may choose not to workshop this, but to do it with a smaller committee)

Employee Actions:

• Eye-rolling, back facing the counter, cell phones out, looking at the computer instead of engaging with the customer, frowning, arms crossed, bad body language, late for meetings, no follow up

Now that you have identified negative cues in the workplace, spend time coming up with positive solutions. How can you make the experience that you are providing to your employees and customers more delightful?

2.    Article You Need To Read

Digital Assistant Coaching

The Relationship Economy is about reinventing your business model marrying the digital and human experiences. Beyond Verbal, a Tel Aviv-based startup has built an AI customer service coach. By listening and analyzing customer voice intonation in real time, this digital virtual coach can recognize and alert the customer service agent if the customer they are speaking to is becoming frustrated, in a hurry, or genuinely excited about the interaction. Beyond Verbal’s app can detect 400 different markers of human moods, attitudes, and personality traits. Read more about the role AI is playing in today’s business world in this article AI & Shopping – A New Retail Era.

 3.    Short Video You Need To Watch & Share With Your Team

If you had to pick just one, which is more important to building a world-class customer service organization: How well you hire, or the training and culture you bring your new employees into?

4.    Quote Of The Week 

“We are not going for incremental improvements. We are here to create a radical,

disruptive, revolutionary customer experience never previously imagined.”

5.    Resource To Help Take Your Customer Experience To The Next Level

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