No matter your actual role, if visitors can see you – you are part of the customer service team. And since visitors won’t care how much they can learn until they know how much you care, you may as well totally rock your customer service to the point that you become part of the reason that visitors come back and bring friends!
There are two sides to customer service that are like the two sides of a coin. Proactive Customer Service is how you build relationships, encourage trust and good will, and put people at their ease. Reactive Service Recovery is when things have already gone wrong and now you are trying to correct the problem and get your visitors experience back on course. Here are five simple strategies for each side of the customer service coin.
Proactive Customer Service
SMILE – People who come to sites and take tours anticipate having a good time. If they have a simple question, your warm smile helps keep their good time rolling. If they are feeling uncomfortable, your smile reassures them that you are there for them. If you work a phone line do you still need to smile? YES! It changes the tone of your voice instantly and makes you sound warmer.
FOCUS – Eliminate distractions and focus entirely on them for the duration of the interaction. Put your cell phone in your pocket, in a drawer, out of your hand and out of sight. Close your notebook. Stand up if appropriate.
RESPOND WITH COMPASSION – Are you having to answer the same question for the millionth time? Answer it as if it’s the first time. People who didn’t hear your explanation or are experiencing an urgent need for a bathroom just want the question answered so they can enjoy the experience. Some phrases to avoid: “As I said earlier…” “If you look in today’s program…” or similar.
SEE POSSIBILITIES – The old adage claims the customer is always right, but the reality is that some requests simply cannot be accomodated. Instead of leaving things at a hard ‘no’, probe a little and see if you can identify an alternate way to delight the visitor. For example, someone wants to climb up to a medieval lookout that is closed for repairs. Ask them what about the experience of climbing up most sparks their interest and then suggest another possibility that meets the same need. Are they looking for a photo vantage point? Perhaps there is another one nearly as good. Just to see what the inside looks like? Show them previously prepared photos that highlight some of the same aspects of the experience.
FOSTER TRUST – Trust can be hard to win, easy to lose, and nearly impossible to get back. To foster trust and good will don’t make up answers if you don’t know. All it takes is to be caught in one fib, exaggeration, or misrepresentation for trust to be eroded if not lost. Then, find the answer. It’s ok not to know everything about everything. And it’s ok to say so. Then, assuming you can, find out the answer and circle back to the visitor with the actual answer they were looking for. Finally, treat your organization, your visitors, and your subject with dignity. People who try and score points with visitors by mocking something about the subject, the site or organization, or other visitors, ultimately lose credibility.
Reactive Service Recovery
When people are upset and looking to you to solve problems, some solve quickly. Others require you to remain calm, remember that everyone has a day where they are not their best, and hang with the encounter until you can identify the core of the issue. Some tips when you are now facing reactive, and often uncomfortable, “Service Recovery” situations.
PERSON FIRST PROBLEM SOLVING – Sometimes, well intentioned people can jump too quickly to a ‘teachable moment’. For example, a zoo visitor is upset that the bees are swarming the lunch area. The staff member jumps in and starts trying to educate the visitor about the important role of pollinators. Too soon! If you have a distressed person in front of you the first thing you need to do is deal with the distress. Remember – you may not know if the person is allergic, had a horrible stinking incident as a kid, or is just terrified of bees. Sometimes a moment of genuine empathy is all that is needed. If the zoo staffer can help the visitor find a way to get back to enjoying their lunch somewhere without so many bees, then maybe the visitor will be interested in learning about your organization’s great work trying to help bee colonies recover.
STAY LOW AND SLOW - Is someone having a moment of distress and not serving up kindness to you? Take a breath, talk in low tones and a slightly slower than normal pace and lower the temperature of the conversation. As you do this there is a good chance that a neurological process called ‘mirroring’ will kick in and even subconsciously your upset visitor will begin to mirror your own behavior, calming themselves in the process.
DRAW THEM OUT – Sometimes you need to let someone talk a moment to get to the heart of an issue. Pay attention not just to their point, but to the words they are using. Sometimes they will reveal what has actually sparked the upset just in how they describe it. Or, they may insert a ‘blurt’ in the midst of their explanation. For example – a very upset guest was yelling at our staff for ruining his trip. As I listened to him, he listed every thing he thought we should have done to ensure that his experience met his demands (in this case – a river cruise had to be cancelled because heavy rains had raised the river level to the point that the boat couldn’t fit under a medieval bridge.). Suddenly he ‘blurted’ that his wife had a terminal illness and this was likely their last vacation. To this day I’m not sure he was even aware he said it because he moved right back to his previous complaints. But because we’d been listening and caught the blurt, my team started trying create comfort for the couple knowing that the real problem was out of our control.
ASK OPEN QUESTIONS – this goes hand in hand with the above. When you ask question trying to get people to open up about something that may be uncomfortable or upsetting, keep the questions gently and very, very open ended. “Can you tell me more about that”, “Is there anything else you’d like to share?”
MAKE IT RIGHT – If something has gone wrong for your visitor and their distress was caused by something or someone at your organization, make it right. To begin, acknowledge the wrong. Sometimes an honest acknowledgement and apology for the mishap is all that an upset visitor requires. If some sort of gesture is needed, often very simple, considerate things are just the ticket to get an experience back on track. Exactly what this looks like varies by organization so familiarize yourself with the latitude you have to offer some sort of gesture to the visitor.
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