Yesterday I read an article about a man, let’s call him Joe, who was devastated in the floods. His story goes like this… His phone had been disconnected in the floods and he wanted to get it reconnected, so he walked down to the local store to ask that that the phone be reconnected as soon as possible.

A lot of people lost everything in the floods, including Joe, who was dressed in his slippers and the clothes he could save. When told of Joe’s predicament, the customer service operator asked him to leave because the phone company only took repair requests by phone!

When Joe pointed out that they were a billing office and it looked like they took visits from paying customers, the man explained that he was being difficult and reminded him that lots of people lost everything in the floods.

The story ended with Joe being fed up. He wrote to the phone company as well as his local member, the TV stations and newspapers about his story. The phone company called the next day saying the customer service operator had been fired!

The moral of the story? We need to care about our customers all the time, not just when it suits us. And we particularly need to care when they are in their time of need.

If we ask ourselves the question, do we really care about our customers, what answer do we come up with? Yes, no or somewhere in between? The answer should always be ‘yes’, otherwise how can we expect our business to grow? Basically it won’t if the answer is ‘no’ because failing to care about our customers means our business won’t be in existence for long!

If we think about how we can show we care more about our customers, consider these simple ideas.

1)    Give your customers what they want and need.

Customers come to us because we can help them in some way and they are willing to pay for our services. Whether they need a quick cup of coffee, a ride to the city or a new pair of glasses, they come to us because we’re the expert and we have the resources to give them what they need.

So if we want a great day where we feel happy and positive at the end of it, give our customers what they want and what they need. They’ll be smiling from ear to ear if we can satisfy their need and if we make it easy for them in the process.

2)    Get to know your customers, find out what they need, then give it to them every time!

If we have a good product or service and we’ve helped many of our customers to satisfy their needs, we are highly likely to have repeat customers. What an opportunity! By getting to know our customers and what they like and need, such as what radio station they like in our cab, how they like their coffee or what style of glasses they like, we will win ourselves a loyal and dedicated customer. Our care and attention will be noticed and we’ll be rewarded with a tip, a repeat customer or more importantly a recommendation to their friends on our excellent service.

3)    Make it positive, make their day!

We all want to have a good day, don’t we? So make your day a good one and your customers an excellent one by asking after their health when you greet them. Then wish them well when they go.

Show your customers that you care about them as people. Show them that you’re interested in them. Show them that you’re paying attention. They will be pleasantly surprised. They will feel that they are special. They will come back to your taxi company, cafe or retail shop for more positive experiences.

So if you want to show your customers that you do care, get to know them, give them what they want and need, and make it positive. If you’re doing these things, make sure your workers are too and you’ll be on the right track to building a caring, growing and successful business.

Are you still a safe driver? (graur razvan ionut)

We all believe we’re a safe driver and that we always will be, don’t we? Why? Because we are, right? Well, at least most of the time.

During a recent Saturday afternoon shopping trip, I had cause to analyse whether I really was a safe driver. The precursor to the story –

• the night before had been spent dining with girlfriends
• the house was vacated at 8am that morning to take my kids to their Saturday morning soccer match
• during the soccer match I coached my sons under 6 team of four 5 year old boys and,
• after soccer, rushed my 5 year old off to a birthday party being held at Burbank – a good 45-60 minute drive away.

As I’d been so busy thinking about everything else I had to do, I’d misread the map with the directions to the party and instead of being on the Gateway Motorway I was on the Pacific Motorway. At Beenleigh (half way to the Gold Coast) I realised we were on the wrong track! So we turned around and went back only to be 45 minutes late for the party – embarrassed and annoyed with myself for getting it wrong!

So after leaving the party, we enter the shopping centre about 3pm. Normally I’d avoid them like the plague on a Saturday afternoon, but we needed a few bits and were passing by so in we went.

For some reason I chose to be in the left hand lane of the two lane road entering the centre. In my eagerness to get a park (which was on the right hand side) I was concentrating on a car that was going to be turning out of the car park wanting to make sure he had enough room when I turned in next to him. In that moment of focus on the other car, my blind spot and the person in the right hand lane next to me was completely forgotten. That was until I heard a loud honk behind me as I turned right into the car park. As I looked back, there stopped in the right hand lane was the man I’d cut off, looking at me as if my licence was bought from a vending machine!

It was with the sudden realisation and shock that I’d cut him off and nearly crashed into him that I clasped my hand over my mouth while trying to apologise with my hands and mouthing the word ‘sorry’ to him. I couldn’t believe that I’d just had a very close near miss (or rather a near hit!). I thought I was still a safe driver, but after this incident, I wonder.

So are you still a safe driver? This incident made me realise that even though we studied hard for our drivers licence, we’ve been driving for many years (in my case just over 2 decades) that slight lapse in attention can turn us from a safe driver to one that is putting everyone including ourselves, our family and other people at huge risk of getting seriously hurt. And don’t forget the massive damage and disruption that would have occurred had I hit the car.

Since that incident, I now get behind the wheel with a new found respect. Having a drivers licence is a privilege, not a right and putting ourselves behind the wheel of a potentially dangerous machine means we need to always, always focus, pay attention and be alert to all the cars that are around us at all times. There is no room for error or complacency.

So if you’re driving a car or taxi ask yourself if you’re still a safe driver. Ask yourself if you still follow the road rules, do you stick to the speed limits and do you give yourself enough space behind other cars? Or are you going over the speed limit just a little bit, are you nipping in between cars when you should have given more space and are you cutting off other cars?

Whatever our driving style, our car of choice or our years of driving experience, we can all be safer drivers. We may have been safe when we got our licence and when we were a new driver – young, naive and tentative, but now we’re experienced and confident, it’s easy to get complacent. We often think, “I’ve done it many times before and it’s been OK.”

Consider this – the next time you’re complacent behind the wheel, when you’re not focussing, you’re distracted or just plain exhausted, it might not be OK. The next time you’re complacent you could spend weeks in hospital, you could spend lots of time and money repairing or replacing your vehicle and you could be dragged through the courts for years if you hurt another person or worse still end up in jail.

Would it be worth it? Absolutely not. So remember, always stay focussed, always pay attention and don’t ever, ever think you’re still a safer driver – because next time you get complacent, it might not be OK.

Customers as people - train your workers, thank your customers

How many times have we been so busy ‘doing’ things in our business, being active, running from this job to that job that we forget what we’re in business for? It’s not about the money, the satisfaction, the lifestyle, it’s to help the customer!

It is difficult sometimes to remember that your customers are not just customers, but they are people. Accordingly, they should be treated well and like people who need our help, people who deserve our attention and deserve the best when it comes to buying a product or service.

So how can we remember that our customers are people who without which we wouldn’t have a business? Try these simple ideas:

1)    Make it your business mantra – Without the customer we aren’t a business!

Put this mantra on the wall in your workers’ break room or on your noticeboard so it’s there for all to see. This should also be reinforced during team meetings or breaks by the owner repeating this idea during their discussions with the workers.

It’s important that owners are seen to be committed to the idea that customers are people and deserve to be treated as such. The repeated exposure of this concept to workers will get them thinking about improving customer service levels and will help them adjust their attitude to customers.

The expectation of making the customer an important part of your business needs to be regularly reinforced so that a culture of excellent customer service develops in your business. The levels of productivity and accordingly, profit will automatically follow!

2)    Ensure your workers know how to give good customer service – Give them customer service training

It’s expected that those who work in the customer service industry automatically know how to give good customer service, otherwise why are they there in the first place?

Providing good customer service is not something that comes naturally to everyone but it is something that can be learned. If this is the case, why aren’t there better levels of customer service out there? Likely because it’s expected that customer service operators already know how to give good service but isn’t your business different to the next one? Don’t you want to stand out from the rest?

To ensure your customer service operators have a clear understanding of what’s expected of them, they need to receive information and training about how to be a good customer service operator. Any information and training they receive should explain exactly how they are to give good customer service. It should explain how to deal with customers when they don’t receive the customer service they expect and how to maintain their enthusiasm for serving the customer.

Any guidance you can give your workers in this area will highlight your commitment to your business and your customers. Your workers will also likely be glad that they fully understand your expectations and they know how to meet them.

3)    Tell your customers

If you pride yourself on your customer service standards, tell your customers! They love to know that they will receive great customer service and will make a point of buying your product or service if you demonstrate you are committed to helping them and giving them the service they deserve.

Inform your customers of your mantra by including it in your marketing material, put it on your invoices, thank them for their custom and reward them.

Try these simple steps to improve your customer service levels and have your workers treat your customers as people. You and your business will be rewarded in the end with happy customers coming through your door time and time again!

Smile and genuinely ask them how they are?

In the taxi industry, we’re all customer service operators whether we work as a driver, owner/operator or call centre operator. Even though we may already have good relationships with our customers, we can always improve on what we have so that those relationships continue to be positive and productive.

 And why? Because we want our customers to keep coming back, we want them to be kept happy which makes for a more pleasant interaction with them and it makes our workplace a happier and healthier place to be for everyone.

To improve relations with our customers we first need to understand who our customers are. For drivers’ their customers are passengers, for owners/operators they’re drivers and for call centre operators they’re passengers and drivers. There are many ways to improve relations with your customers in the taxi industry and here are a few ideas:

1)    Smile, look them in the eye and genuinely ask how they are?

Drivers have the benefit of face to face contact with customers making it easier to communicate and develop a positive relationship with them. The simplest way to start off the ‘relationship’ with the customer that will last the length of their journey is to smile to put them at ease.

Looking a customer in the eye means they will be more likely to trust you and hence relax in the back of the cab minimising the chances of them getting upset about traffic, the heat or the fare.

By genuinely asking how they are, you can show that you really care about their well-being, adding to their positive experience in your cab resulting in a great customer service.

2)    Make yourself available and be supportive

Owners and operators are in a perfect position to improve their relations with drivers by making themselves available. Just being there to touch base and say ‘hello’ at change over and making drivers aware that you’re available to discuss issues of concern can go a long way towards developing trust and hence a more positive relationship with drivers.

Using encouraging and understanding words, such as “I hear you” or “I understand” or “I’m listening” demonstrates you’re supportive of their situation.

3)    Use a positive, upbeat but yet gentle tone when required

Call centre operators have the challenge of working only with their voice over the phone which can be a challenge when communicating with a customer. To ensure they give the best possible service, call centre operators need to be aware of how their voice sounds over the phone and to understand the underlying messages that may be given out unknowingly.

To avoid any possible negativity, using a positive, up beat but yet gentle tone when dealing with customers can greatly improve their experience with you.

Drivers, owners and operators and call centre operators can use these simple but yet effective techniques to improve relations with their customers for repeat business, a happier, less stressful workplace and improved customer service levels.

How long has it been since you stopped talking, I mean, really stopped, forgot about your own thoughts and listened intently to your customer or your driver? When I asked myself this question, it was a lot longer than I would have liked.

As people we all want to be listened to, to feel that we are valued and understood. Why? Because this is a basic human need. Feeling valued and understood is important for our health and well being.

When working with customers it’s extremely important that we pay attention to them when they talk to us. We can do this by:

• stopping
• forgetting about own issues
• being silent
• looking at the person; and
• listening intently.

Pay attention to your customer for powerful results

Saying ‘Hmm’, ‘Ahah’ and ‘Yes’ every so often can also demonstrate that we’re listening.

In the case of the taxi industry it’s important that drivers pay attention to the customers every word when they say where they want to go. If you’re not entirely sure where they want to go after they say it, it’s OK to clarify what they mean by repeating back to them what they have said.

The conversation might go something like this:

• Customer – “Can you take me to the RBH, driver?”
• Driver – “I’m sorry. You want to go to the RBH? Can you clarify for me exactly where that is? I haven’t been there recently.”
• Customer – “Sure, you know the Royal Brisbane Hospital in Herston near the Exhibition Grounds, near Victoria Park Golf Course?”
• Driver – “Oh, you mean the Royal Brisbane? Sure, let me take you there right away!”

It’s much better to clarify this small misunderstanding in the beginning of a journey than to take them in the wrong direction! Having this short conversation can greatly improve relations between you and your customer. They might really appreciate you taking the time to pay attention to their needs and you never know, they might even give you a tip!

Customers appreciate good customer service and they’ll reward us for it by using our service again and again. Paying attention to customer’s needs, listening to them and then clarifying what they want using questions can greatly improve a customer’s perception of us and the service we offer.

If you haven’t been paying attention to your customers and the people around you before now, try it. You’ll be surprised at the powerful results you can receive.