It’s All About Attitude When It Comes to Excellent Customer Service!

Attitude. An interaction can hang in the balance of this one word, this powerful word. Having the right attitude can make an unpleasant situation, at the very least, bearable and can, at the most, turn it into the best experience ever.

There is a lot of buzz in the corporate world surrounding customer service and companies often break it down into steps of action. Greet, smile, ask if the customer needs help, and thank them. Somewhere along those lines is the formula, and somewhere in that script, the experience is lost. Those are action steps, very robotic. Of course, all of those things are important to successful customer service experiences for consumers, however, it takes the interaction, and more importantly, the attitude of the associate out.

Would you rather have an employee, in a robotic and rehearsed way, thanking customers, as if they are not individually important but just a part in a scripted transaction — or an employee engaging and interacting in a genuine and caring way? I would take the later every time because that is how you create a lasting impression on customers and clients and how you create long term success. Because we remember how people made us feel, not necessarily what they did.

So, the very first thing I look for when I am hiring, is attitude. A lot of things can be taught, processes and procedures, etc. but attitude is harder. How they present themselves in the interview and their attitude tells me how they will treat customers. Do they look me in the eye? How are they answering certain questions about handling customers? I pay attention to that more than I do credentials or experience when I am hiring for customer service positions, those positions that are on the front lines of business. After all they are the face of the business, so I make sure that they are prepared to give the best impression and the best customer service possible.

You may not always find those shining stars that seem to engage well and have that personality. That’s okay. In some cases you need to hire because you need staff and have to get someone hired and what you are left with is picking the lesser of two evils. I get that. With those people and personalities, it is going to take some extra push from you as a leader. You have to use your skills to find out what inspires them, what motivates them, and how you can get them to perform. Most people can be coached and find themselves coming out of their shell with some support and motivation from their manager. Then there are some who maybe being the face of a company isn’t a good idea, maybe later after training and developing, but not just yet.

If you are in the customer service industry or in charge of hiring in that department, I encourage you to look for people who have the right attitude. I call it the “can-do” attitude. These people are problem solvers and go getters. They are the soldiers you want on the front lines of business. They are engaging and genuine and they are naturally good at customer service. Once you have the right people, you can then train on the formula or company specific policies on excellent customer service, and actually it won’t take much training at all for them, because they are naturals and are ready.

Some things to look for in the interview:

• How they present themselves. Do they look confident? Are they making eye contact? Are they smiling?
• - How they are responding to customer service related questions. Are they giving specific examples of situations where they helped customers or when they have given excellent customer service?

Hire the right people, train and develop to deliver excellent customer service every time and you generate an atmosphere where people want to be, where people want to shop. Think long term and you will have repeat business and long term success. It all starts with that “can-do” attitude.

Joshua Kangley

www.hellomynameisjosh.com