The Unified Group hosted 31 attendees at last week’s Building a Service Mentality Forum in San Antonio, TX on March 15th-17th. The goal of the session was to give attendees new ideas and a great peer network to help continue to improve their customer service skills with both internal and external clients. Weeks prior to the session each attendee was asked to read “Lessons from the Mouse,” a book with ten easy lessons on how to apply the Disney customer service approach to our own businesses.
Building Connections vs. Completing Transactions
The meeting started with guest speaker, Teri Yanovich, former Disney Institute keynote speaker and seminar leader, discussing how to look through the lens of the customer to create a “WOW” experience. “It starts with quality,” Teri said. “Surround it with an experience that makes it easy to business with you and you’ll be unbeatable.” Teri talked about the importance of building connections vs. completing transactions. Attendees were asked to service map an incoming service call to see what their clients were experiencing at each touch point of the process. “During work you see things from your point of view,” said Stacie Martucci (ISS Mechanical). “It’s a great idea to view things from what client sees.” Christina Denogean (Pacific Rim Mechanical) said, “I never thought of what we do as an experience. It made me think about how I can make someone feel pleasant or how I could create an experience when someone walks into my office or when I talk to a customer.”
Stop, Start, Continue
After lunch Unified Group managing partner, Jim Bartolotta continued the theme of looking through the client’s eye by revealing the results the stop/start/continue. Prior to the session, each attendee reached out to a few of their internal and external clients to find out what they wanted each company to stop doing, start doing, and continue doing. “Jim kept it fun and interesting while talking about things that we may be struggling with,” said Danielle Greer (WL Gary). “It showed a larger idea of what internal and external customers would like to see,” said Andrew Ghelfi (Cox Engineering). The attendees agreed that this shouldn’t be a one-time event, but something they want to do on a regular basis.
Recovery Skills
Day two started with a discussion on how to deal with difficult situations like a repeat call on the same unit or being late on a PM inspection. Jim encouraged attendees to use the STARS recovery process of Showing empathy, Taking responsibility, Apologizing for the situation, Resolving the situation, and Seeking the customers satisfaction. “This process definitely helped me think about ways to help not be so stressed and reprioritize, rethink, and put these steps into play,” said Jorel Chavez (Yearout Service).
The Financial Impact of Making a Great First Impression:
Later in the morning the group got into a discussion on how we handle new customers or that person that calls us for the first time. “If we don’t continue to get new business, you won’t maximize your company or team,” said Jim. “We need to continue to grow and one critical way to do that is to wow that customer who is giving us a try.” Jim encouraged members to not focus on the money or getting paid, but to remember what Teri discussed during the first day about making it easy to do business with us. “I never looked at new customers as being a main way to raise profit. Always thought it was keeping the customer,” said Laurie Lewis (Air Controls).
The Hub of Communication:
In the afternoon members met in small roundtables to discuss some of their challenges and stressors. The main concern and stressor for the group revolved around communication, team work, and getting everyone on the same page. The attendees suggested utilizing Day-in-the-Life to help individuals understand what everyone does and how it can positively or negatively affect the common goals, using mistakes as learning opportunities, and picking up the phone instead of emailing when communication was breaking down.
Staying Connected:
As with every Unified Group session, attendees were encouraged to stay connected with each other after the meeting. “When you go back, keep these groups together. You know someone you didn’t have last week that shares a lot of the same challenges and can be a resource,” said Jim.