The Blah Effect
Keeping the blah blah blah out of your Customer Service interactions with guests.
We’ve all been there. Your phone bill isn’t right, and you need to speak with a human, not a robot, to get it resolved. You’re sitting on hold, seemingly forever, and then suddenly, a magic voice comes on the line! Your heart skips a beat, and you enthusiastically grab the invoice with your account number ready to resolve your issue…only to hear a monotone voice, without spark, without personality, without any care in the world. They ultimately fix whatever the problem was, but you leave that phone call with a sense of BLAH, wondering why this customer service rep hates her job, or why she even bothered showing up to work that day. Do you leave a review online? Do you send a message to someone in management? Or do you just feel bad for them and their lack of care?
Customer Service is so much more than answering a phone call. Customer Service starts with the right people, the right training, the right environment and leaves out the blah. Blah is a sentiment left behind when you accomplish a goal, but you’re still not fully satisfied. It is a feeling you get when it could’ve been better, but it could’ve been worse too. How do we remove the BLAH out of every interaction?
Environment is so much more than just a physical location. It is a cumulative collection of a place, a culture and the people that are in it. In a customer service environment, it is crucial to foster a comfortable place with minimal distraction that focuses on collaboration and personal growth. You need a culture that encourages fun and excitement and a place that allows employees to grow, both personally and professionally. Give employees a place to feel at home away from home and encourage personal touches that remind them of why they do what they do!
To grow in a professional environment, you cannot expect someone to just know things. You need world-class training and tools. Knowledge is great, but at the end of the day, if you have no process documentation or tools outlining key topics, even the smartest, most motivated employee will fail. Working hard to develop training tools that cater to all learning and personality traits is key. For example, visual learners require different tools than an auditory learner to be successful in their career endeavors.
Hiring the right talent, although not a perfect science, isn’t rocket science. A college degree isn’t everything. A long resume of relevant experience isn’t everything. A willingness and wanting to succeed IS EVERYTHING. If you have the proper training and tools, you can teach an eager mind anything. Hiring should be methodical. Do they fit your core values, which should include things like integrity, positivity and the desire to succeed?
You call back into another call center. The menu options are clear and concise and easy to navigate. Someone picks up with a friendly and upbeat tone… they even use your name! They assure you that they’ve got your back, and a resolution is imminent. They ask you about yourself, how your day has been or where you are planning a trip to. You feel like they CARE. Instead of the typical BLAH feeling you have after a phone call, you feel relieved and ready to take on your day. You think that maybe not all phone calls have to suck. Maybe, just maybe, the blah cycle is broken.