If customers are searching for your company’s customer service, they need to find you and not a third party website.

One surprising source of visitors to this site is people who actually think that I am the official representative of the company they want to reach.

For example, I get lots of people searching for “huggies customer service” and they land on a post I wrote about my good experience with Huggies four years ago. Why do they find my site? Because, last I checked, I showed up first when you Google that search phrase.

Shouldn’t Huggies be number one? Absolutely.

I also get questions about DiGiorno pizzas. Why? Because I’ve written about DiGiorno in the past, too.

These examples highlight an area of concern that your business needs to worry about:

Your customers are looking for support and your customer service contacts. Can customers find you by searching for you on Google?

If they can’t, then you are invisible. Not only invisible, but vulnerable to what others are saying in your place.

You will be replaced by someone else, not at your company, that is blogging about you or talking about you in an online forum.

Your customers will not always be able to tell that a third party site they visit isn’t yours.

So today’s action item is to google your company name, and especially “your-company-name customer service.” Are you showing up in the results?

Your business needs to be where people are looking. Additionally, you need to be where customers are talking. Be sure to monitor customer word of mouth and stay on top of any issues that arise.

When your pay depends on customer service, go the extra mile.

Here is a tale of two restaurant servers. One earned a nice tip, the other lost it.

A week ago, my team at work and I went to Macaroni Grill for lunch. The waiter, Luigi (yes, that was his real name, he proudly informed us), was the best waiter I’ve had in a long time. He was very courteous, attentive, and treated each of us with respect.

As we ordered our meal, we told Luigi that we’d all be on separate checks. His sincere response was, “Thank you for telling me, I really appreciate that.”

I thought this was nice but didn’t think much more about it until we had an opposite experience a week later.

To celebrate the upcoming wedding of a co-worker, a large group of us (about 18) went to lunch at the Kona Grill. We made reservations ahead of time so they were very aware that we were coming. Our server took care of our minimum needs but nothing more. When it was time for the check, we asked if she could do separate checks. She indicated that would be too difficult and left the whole check with us to divide up.

Our group spent the next 15 minutes passing the check around, scrounging up cash and writing notes with credit cards of how much to charge on each.

After the check had gone around, we counted up the money to realize that our server was not going to be getting a good tip. Everyone had paid for their lunch and indicated they tipped but the total amount of cash didn’t constitute a nice tip on top of that.

If the server had done separate checks or in some way facilitated our payment, each person would have likely given the appropriate tip that was somehow lost in the anonymity of a group check.

A little extra work from this server would have dramatically improved her earnings for that lunch hour. Instead, she took the easy route and was probably wondering why the stingy tip.

Contrast this with our friend Luigi, who took our needs into account and earned himself a nice tip.

When you are serving your customers, you have a choice: Do the bare minimum or go the extra mile. The extra mile is never easier but it is full of rewards and happy customers.

You may start to see patterns in customer behavior and attributes. This may lull you into feeling like you can start treating customers the same. However, that doesn’t mean that you can treat the next guy in line the same as you treated the customer in front of him, even if their buying behavior is identical.

Be careful if you find yourself falling into this over-generalization trap.

Just because customers look the same, doesn’t mean they are the same.

Customers may look alike because of numerous reasons. For example, different customers may have similar:

• buying patterns
• product preferences
• technical support issues
• product return habits
• purchase methods (credit card, cash, etc.)
• deadlines
• warranty needs

My wife and I have identical twin daughters. (Yes, being a dad of twins is an adventure.) But even though our daughters look alike doesn’t mean they are the same person. Each has her own personality and mannerisms that make her unique.

These differences show up in how each daughter reacts to her environment, her needs, and even how she expresses herself.

Your customers can often be like identical twins. When you serve enough customers, some of them start to look just like the last one you served.

Before you jump to conclusions on the type of customer you have in front of you, make sure you have enough data points to confirm your classification before you proceed. Customers are often annoyed when you jump into a solution or sales pitch for something that doesn’t apply to them!

Identify the basic needs certain classes of customers have. If you can guarantee you’ve got a customer that fits that mold, by all means pull out the standard response as a starting place for servicing their needs.

If you aren’t sure what type of customer you have, ask questions.

A critical part of the customer experience is the moment your customer receives their purchase.

If this is a physical product shipped from your website, take a moment to think about the situation your customer is in when the package arrives.

What will the customer be doing when it arrives?

Is this purchase a secret?

I recently purchased from lego.com and noticed an interesting message on the plain brown box:

Why are LEGO Shop At Home Boxes so plain?

You might have noticed that our shipping boxes are not quite as colorful and exciting as our toys. There’s a good reason for that — many people order gifts for others from LEGO Shop at Home. By keeping our boxes plain, we help gift givers keep their secrets!

Consider how your package will be received. How can you improve your delivery to both reinforce your brand and delight the customer with your thoughtfulness?

Have you ever been to a store and not found what you were looking for?

This happens all the time and it even happens to your customers.

On my last visit to JCPenney the cashier asked me, “Did you find everything you needed today?”

You’ve probably heard this question a few times yourself as you checkout at various retailers.

I answered yes and asked her, “Does any one ever say no to that question?”

She quickly responded, “Yes. Senior Citizens. They’re never happy.”

Yikes. Bad mouthing other customers isn’t a good idea but aside from that, this example highlights a problem your business may be having: different customers are having different levels of success with your business.

Have a plan in place on gathering customer feedback at the point of sale. Answers to the “Did you find everything” question can be extremely valuable in identifying problems customers are having.

Know How to Find Your Stuff

If you ask customers “May I help you?”, they expect that you can help them. You better know where your products are and how to help the customer find them.

At Lowe’s, whenever I ask an employee where I can find a certain product, they stop what they are doing and walk with me across the store to show me where it is. My wife reports the same type of customer care at Hobby Lobby. Every time. Wow!

This is a great example of not just asking if you can be of help but actually being helpful to the customer.

You Can’t Find What You Don’t Sell

Customers will occasionally ask you for a product you don’t sell. These situations give you two great opportunities. First, you can get information on why the customer thought you had that product. Perhaps this will indicate some consumer demand that you can meet.

Second, you can provide great customer service, even if they aren’t going to be your customer. Directing a potential customer to another store that has the product (when you don’t) builds goodwill and leaves a great impression on the person.

Your company policies or procedures mean nothing if your front line employees cut corners or do their own thing.

I paid cash for my last meal at the local Kentucky Fried Chicken. I should have received 17 cents in change.

Instead, the cashier handed me a quarter.

So, you think: so what?

It is just eight extra cents.

What if this cashier did that on every transaction? Every day? What if it happened at dozens of locations across the company?

Pretty soon those pennies start to add up. All of a sudden, the company isn’t quite making its financial goals.

Individual accountability at the employee level can help keep performance inline with expectations. What if that cashier had to zero out her cash drawer at the end of the shift, even down to the penny? Would that change behavior?

Cutting corners hurts your business and tells customers that you are lazy. Lazy companies don’t deserve repeat business. Please don’t be lazy.

When you get lazy, your ability to be consistent in delivering quality customer experiences diminishes. Without those experiences, customers start to chose the competition.

Every day people are talking about you and your company. Sometimes those people have trouble with your service. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could overhear those conversations and jump in and help out?

That is where Twitter.com offers you an opportunity to save the day.

What is Twitter

Think of Twitter as a water cooler where folks gather to talk about what is on their mind. This video covers the basics of Twitter and how it works:

Additionally, a recent Wall Street Journal article explains how Twitter works and its associated lingo.

Once you’re up to speed on the basics, sign up for an account at twitter.com and get started.

Set Up Your Profile

If you are representing your company, your Twitter user name should be that company name. Also include your company name in your profile. It helps to link to your Twitter account from your official website as well so folks know you are authentic.

Listen

You can search all the conversations that are happening on Twitter with the right tools.

I like Monitter.com where you can see real-time updates of tweets that mention keywords you monitor.

Twitter.com has a built-in search function which is also useful for finding relevant messages that pertain to your company or industry. You can even search for people specifically.

Respond

Using Twitter for customer service requires you go beyond just monitoring. You need to take action. When you find a relevant message:

• Acknowledge the problem
• Fix the problem or give instructions on how the customer can correct issue
• It is OK to take the conversation outside of Twitter. You may want to acknowledge publicly what you will do but then jump into more details via a direct message or engage the customer through other channels to resolve the issue completely.

Good Examples

More and more companies are jumping into Twitter everyday. Here are some great lists of companies that have Twitter accounts:
blog.fluentsimplicity.com/twitter-brand-index
buzzmarketingfortech.blogspot.com/2008/12/brands-that-tweet.html
Directory of companies on Twitter

While many companies use Twitter, there are some gems that are excelling in using it for customer service. Check out these profiles and how they interact with customers:

• Comcast cares
• Jetblue
• Southwest air
• Dell

Take Action Today

Your customers are waiting to hear from you. Join the conversation and make a difference.

More Reading

Twitip.com offers a great article on building your company’s community on Twitter.

Chris Brogan shares 50 ideas on using Twitter for business that can help you get started and overcome the naysayers.

You can follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/joerawlinson.

Suppose you are a call center representative. You sit in your cubicle all day answering the phone.

Then a customer calls up and orders a pizza.

Now, mind you, you don’t work for a pizza place. Your company sells widgets or some other product.

What would you do?

Would you hang up on the customer?

Would you laugh hysterically at the customer?

Or would you just order the pizza?

This is what happened at a company called Zappos. I’ve talked about Zappos before and their amazing customer service.

The CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh told an interesting story at a conference I attended. (Ann Krause at World of Usability recounts a similar story on her blog.)

Tony recounts that he and some colleagues were out of town at a conference one night. It was late and they wanted some food. Room service was closed so one of the group suggested they call Zappos since they have great service.

They called up the 24/7 number and said they were hungry and wanted a pizza. The agent put them on hold and came back with a list of pizza places that were still open in their area.

They thanked the Zappos agent for the help and were told “we’re happy to help any way we can.”

Why would Zappos do this? Remember, they sell shoes. Not pizza.

It comes down to their core philosophy and values as a company. They understand if they put the customer first, everything else will naturally follow.

Financial, employee, and company success are all derivatives of customer success.

Zappos first considers themselves a service company. They just happen to sell shoes, handbags, clothes, and a bunch of other stuff to the tune of $1 billion in revenue this year.

That is an amazing number and it is all due to the golden customer experiences that the Zappos employees provide for each and every customer.

Imagine what a stellar, word-of-mouth-generating customer experience would do for your business.

Halloween is a great time of year. The kids get excited to dress up and go trick or treating. I don’t know about you, but I don’t ever remember knocking on a door and saying “trick or treat” only to be told “trick.”

Fortunately, this makes for an enjoyable Halloween for the kids. So what does Halloween have to do with your business? Well, your customers are like those trick or treating kids (minus the costumes).

Is your business giving tricks or treats to your customers?

10 Tricks Your Customers Hate

Here are some tricks you should avoid giving customers:

1. Shrink your products’ packaging while raising prices
2. Hide behind a phone tree
3. Fight with customers
4. Stick it to your customers
5. Sell a shoddy product
6. Tell your customers they are wrong
7. Provide inconsistent information to customers
8. Stand around idle while your customers wait
9. Let your website throw confusing errors at customers
10. Treat current customers as second class citizens to “new” customers

10 Treats Your Customers Love

Here are some treats your customers will love to get:

1. Show the Customer some empathy
2. Share a deal or discount with customers
3. Do something for customers instead of just telling them what to do
4. Do more than the customer expects
5. Be proactive in your customer service
6. Make a personal connection with your customer
7. Remind customers of the benefits you’ve provided
8. Reassure customers when big changes are happening
9. Respect your customers’ time
10. Explain the details to your customers

Regardless of the time of year, customers love to get treats and hate being tricked.

You want your customers to return to do business with you again. If you consistently provide the sweet treats they love, they will come knocking again and again.

Give Control to Customers

My wife and I went to lunch recently at the Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Chao.

Fogo operates on a simple premise: servers wander the restaurant with a wide selection of meats. You have a little round token that sits on the table to indicate when you want meat. If you want more meat, you flip the green side up. When a server passes by with meat, he will stop and offer you some. When you want to take a break or are done, you flip the token over to the red side.

The customer is in complete control of how much and when he eats. Instead of a server constantly asking, “Do you want more?” the customer can indicate preferences without interruption.

How can you let customers tell you what they want without harassing them or asking them endless questions?

Customer Needs Change Over Time

At first, I flipped my token over so that it was green for several minutes. I was barraged by a constant stream of servers bringing all types of delicious meats.

As the lunch progressed, I got more selective and picky with what meats I wanted.

Just as I filled up during my lunch, customers will change over time. What you first sold them may not be the repeat sale. What worked last week may not work this time. You’ll need to be alert to customer’s needs and wants and respond accordingly.

Ask the Follow-up Question

At a time when I had the green side up, a server passed by with a cut of meat I didn’t want. When I said, “No thanks,” he responded with, “Do you have any requests?”

This response immediately forced me to tell him what I wanted. No sooner had I answered him that my sirloin choice was brought to my table.

When you find out the “why” or the “what” behind a customer’s response or request, you can more quickly get to the root issue or preference and serve that need immediately.

Don’t be afraid to ask the follow-up question.