Customer communication managers
If you were able to put most managers on a lie-detector and asked them if they believe that ‘the customer is always right’ and ‘the customer is King’ you would discover that, not only do they not believe it, they aren’t even sure what it actually means … in fact, it’s doubtful that anyone truly knows what those phrases and others like ‘giving the customer a WOW experience’ ever really means.
As a manager, however, you are the context that your people will operate out of, for good or bad and whether you like it or not. Your approach to customer communication, indeed your whole approach to communication, is going to drive the outcomes and be the style and standards that your team ultimately mirrors.
Your inherent attitude towards ‘customers’ (possibly towards humanity itself!) is what the team will pick up on and run with, regardless of the countless customer care training programmes you have sent them on and regardless of the ‘principles’ you may cite daily.
As a manager of a communications team, you have to be super-conscious of what you embody in your own personal expression. This may seem unfair but it’s just something that comes with the territory – much like a finance manager has to make sure his / her own ‘housekeeping’ is in order; it’s been shown time and time again that a financial or accounts person will generate corporate debt if their own affairs are poorly managed.
How does communication get managed, in essence?
In communication, you can pretty much view its general ‘anatomy’ as comprising of;
- 35% attitude (perception)
- 15% content (words)
- 50% non-verbal (impact)
These percentages are ‘notional’ obviously but the key principle being illustrated here is that the most minor issue in communication is ‘what you say’ and the most major issue is ‘how you say it’ … and that is inevitably determined by the attitude and perception of the person making the communication.
For you to improve customer communications as a manager, you should avoid techniques and methodologies as much as possible initially and work to draw out the underlying views, beliefs, frustrations and cynicism about your company’s customers.
To do this, declare an up-front ‘amnesty’ and give people permission to be as negative as possible about your customers, in a ‘fun discussion’ or forum that you facilitate. Once you have done this (and only when you have exhausted the subject) you can start to draw out some positives BUT do not go to this first or too quickly because to the degree people are hiding / suppressing their negative attitudes about customers, so they are disconnected from their natural and authentically positive approach and communication skills.
You will notice, if you do this, that the people who are up-front about the negatives will be the biggest ‘transformers’ when it comes to changing their impact and communication to be more positive. If people come up with “But I don’t think anything negative about our customers”, it is generally because they do not feel that it is truly safe to let go and ‘play’ and deep down believe that they may suffer from what they reveal, even if they are unaware of this themselves.
Of course, you may have a real life Saint on your team but you can be pretty confident that it’s a rare occurrence!
This process changes the conditions that your team operates within and it allows genuine change to happen. Once the ‘attitudes’ side has had a good, shared ‘airing’ then you can move onto actual communications development.
How does communication get developed?
Remembering that the biggest aspect of communication is around 'how people come across' as opposed to 'what people say', try to resist using too many techniques and methods even in this area of communications development. In other words, do not go to new ‘scripts’, ‘verbal hooks’ or ‘conversational skills and techniques’ too soon (as this is the last thing to address).
Once again, the main requirement is around ‘raising the consciousness’ of the individual and collective ‘mind set’ so that a greater level of self-awareness can be used to take on new and improved ways of communicating.
The best way to do this is to talk about the difference between ‘intention’ and ‘impact’ or the difference between what you actually mean to say and how you actually come across.
People need to understand that they communicate as an action rather than as a default of their inherent brilliance, skills and talents. If a person thinks they are their communication-impact (the impression they make) they will be very defensive about changing it and your guidance will be taken as a point of excessive control and a danger to the individual’s identity.
As an exercise, this can be achieved by asking people to define their ideal ‘impact’. For example, “I would like to come across as an intelligent responsive, caring and capable person” and then ask them to record themselves and note what they do that distorts that intention and creates a contradictory impact.
You may need to guide this process at first and it’s always best to have each individual’s assessment shared as a group discussion, as it takes a while for people to stand back from themselves and objectively see what they are doing to dilute / mitigate their own impact and self expression.
The ‘guidelines’ you can use to run this session are covered in the section ’what makes a great communicator?’ in this Byte further below.
How do you manage customer communication for ongoing improvement?
In addition to the points covered above and below in this Byte, customer communication is radically improved through a management behaviour that actually has very little to do with ‘communication’ as such.
It is around giving people enough ‘autonomy’ to do their job. As a customer yourself, you will know that the most offensive aspect of customer communication is around being ‘processed’. In other words, no matter how pleasant the customer service communication is, when you are told “I’m sorry, that’s not anything I can deal with” or when you feel that you have to work to fit in with the internal procedures and ‘politics’ of a supplier company, you get frustrated.
This is not a pitch to give people an ‘open mandate’ or ‘free license’ to say whatever they need but it is about creating a dimension where the communicator can ‘make a call’ in certain areas when dealing with customer requests or complaints.
People are not machines and yet we try to control the unpredictable nature of human beings by determining exactly what they say and do, minute by minute. Not only does this de-motivate the service suppliers, it also has the effect of treating the customer as a ‘punter’ and so it’s managements’ job to define the boundaries and encourage people to generate real customer relationships, even if that relationship lasts for five minutes in total.
What makes a great communicator?
A great communicator is measured by the ‘impact’ they have and ultimately by the outcome that is achieved. Put aside preconceptions and notions about ‘great speakers’ and understand that some people are able to create mutual satisfaction in communication time and time again and yet they break all the so-called ‘rules’ of best practice communication because their impact works.
The closest set of principles around communications-impact relates to the underlying dynamics or anatomy of communication and they are;
IDEA
Make sure people understand that communication is not a continuous stream of ‘noise’ but is actually comprised of individual and complete ‘ideas’ going between individuals, in exchange. If someone is nervous or identifies their ‘personality’ with the ideas, they will hold back, communicate partially or be defensive about looking foolish before they even begin; all of which will come through ‘loud and clear’ in their impact.
INTENTION
Intention is the purpose and clarity that fuels the ideas and drives the communication overall. Too often, people confuse their intention (wanting to please rather than wanting the result, for example) and this distorts the process. Equally, individuals will use learned ‘reflexive’ behaviour based on surviving potential criticism or rejection of their ideas and will ‘doctor’ their communication accordingly; making it patronising or aggressive, according to which model they have learned. The best place to spot this is in the vocal tone that is used and in the ‘directness’ of the communication, overall. Avoid the singsong “Good morning, Company X, Can I help you?” approach that became popular with the advent of receptionists and call centres, at all costs.
ATTENTION
Communication is two-way and they say you have around 25 words in total to catch or lose someone’s interest and to establish a good or bad rapport. After that, the majority of communication should be spent ‘listening’ rather than talking. In this context, attention relates to 'their' attention and, if you haven’t got it, you will spend the rest of the conversation talking ‘at' them rather than ‘to' them.
DUPLICATION AND UNDERSTANDING
Everyone was taught to ‘read between the lines’ at school and whole industries (like Consultancy) began somewhat with the misconception that individual intelligence is based on analysis and guesswork about what the person the other end is ‘really trying to say’. This is nonsense. All people want is 'to be heard' and that means being heard for what they are actually saying. The simple process of duplicating in your head what is being said and then responding will change the impact dramatically for the better. Customers feel understood if they are heard, which does not even mean necessarily ‘agreed with’.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Again, given communication is circular, there is a natural beginning, middle and end to the ideas. Acknowledgement is also about response rather than agreement and it indicates that the customer service communicator has heard and received the idea so that the next cycle can happen. Too often, people are left ‘hanging in the air’ as they have nothing coming back to them against their communication, except when the person listening wants to make their point (how much do you hate calling and asking to speak with someone and nothing is said? How much do you hate the feeling that you are just shoved into the ‘ethers’ with only musak if you are lucky, to help you know that the company didn’t just explode?)
CHOICE
No matter how rigorous your customer communication scripts and rules are, start off by knowing that this person has a choice; A choice about speaking with you and about doing business with the company overall. This simple mark of respect will come through even the most hostile of communications and will create a ‘space’ between you that allows the other person to come towards you and to respond to you, even in instances of outraged complaints.