Is Customer Service Dead?

Every morning after I drop my daughter off, I tune my car radio into the local news 1130 station.  On top of all the information they provide me with, they often also have a web poll.

Today’s poll is “Is Customer Service Dead”.  The poll was inspired by a story that made the news about a clerk at a store, who handed an unpleasant customer her receipt with the word “Bitch” written on it.

I decided upon hearing this, that today’s blog post would be inspired by this poll.   It’s 12:46pm and I just voted (I voted “no” in case you are wondering) on the website and see that 77% of the voters replied with a bit fat YES.  YES CUSTOMER SERVICE IS DEAD. 

If this 77% reflects the masses then that means if you have a business that provides a service to the public, 77% of your customers could be dissatisfied with the service or at the very least ASSUME they’ll receive bad service and be looking for it.

I’m going to assume the 77% are talking about the kind of service they received from the cashier at a large discount store; the teenage clerk at a clothing store or perhaps a waitress at the local diner.

Many companies cannot afford significant wages for their clerks and front line staff.  Many of these positions are minimum wage jobs that attract young people or those who have not been successful in securing other, better paying employment.  Sadly some of the people they hire prove to be unreliable or do not provide quality service because:

-          They don’t like their job

-          They don’t feel they are paid enough to do much of anything

-          They don’t feel empowered

-          They don’t understand the expectations of their job

-          They have not been taught proper work ethic

The fundamental reason why most people do not provide quality service is due to disconnection.  Disconnection from their job, the company they work for and the products and services it provides.  

Connected people are excited about their work and the products and services they provide.  Connected people are present; eager to help and KNOW how to help!

At Inspire Sales, my mission is to get people motivated and connected; to help companies implement the fundamentals for quality service and discover the benefits of increased sales. 

Is customer service dead?  No.  Could it use improvement?  Definitely.

Maybe this is a wake up call to companies who provide services, to change the minds of the 77% of people who voted on News 1130 this morning and pursue ways to improve the service they provide.

Check me out at www.inspiresales.ca or email me at Johanne.cannon@inspiresales for more information about a free discovery session to help get your people providing better service!

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Exercise Your Vulnerability - Engage A Stranger!

Even though as humans we, by nature, need connection and feel better when we are connected to our families and friends, it requires a certain kind of vulnerability.  We have to open ourselves up and give love with uncertainty that it could be returned. 

When you are in a position where your work requires you to sell, specifically ‘unsolicited’ sales it requires that you put yourself out there and be vulnerable to rejection on an ongoing basis.  For the number of times a sales person attempts connection, rejection is returned 10 or often 100 fold.

When you are dealing with a sales person, you may find it annoying when they call too often.  Part of the reason they do that is, the obvious, it’s their job.  The other part, I believe for many, is to calm the anxiety of the unknown. 

Think of it this way:  Imagine you just met someone you really like and you gave them your number.  Now imagine five days have passed and they have not called.   As each day passes you become more uncertain as to whether or not they are interested.  By day five you want them to just call and either ask you out or just tell you they aren’t interested so you can move on.  After about two weeks the lack of response is indicative of disinterest, but you wish they could have just let you know rather than have led you on and created unnecessary anxiety.

Not getting back to a salesperson creates anxiety.  When people are anxious they often over think things and assume the worst.  To calm their anxiety they’ll keep calling so you can make them feel better by letting them know what’s going on or where you are at.  More often than not you aren’t calling them back because you have other things on the go, you’re busy; it has absolutely NOTHING to do with them.  It’s hard as a person who has put themselves out there to remember that. 

This stretches in all aspects of our daily lives.  I feel it’s important for a person to exercise their vulnerability and find ways to adjust to a lack of response.  To train yourself to perceive another person’s indifference or unresponsiveness as their issue and to understand that it has nothing to do with you.  Learn to not build walls and assume the worst.  Rather, accept that everyone has things going that are beyond you.  Assume that is the situation and move on to what you can control – your perceptions and your reactions.

A great exercise in vulnerability is to say hello or smile and make eye contact with a stranger.  Engage other people in the elevator.  Say hello to the person behind you in the Starbucks line.  Specifically engage those you perceive as different from you.

It’s easy enough to smile at a child, engage a fellow parent or say hello to a fellow jogger on the trail, because you will more often than not naturally feel a connection.  However, it’s more difficult to say hello to the handsome man or attractive woman without a wedding ring behind you at the check out.  

Try it.  Set a goal for yourself that you will keep your head up when you walk, and you will say hello to 10 strangers a day and not be concerned about whether or not they say hello back.   Every day try more and more people.  Enjoy the reward when the person responds and work to shake off the times when they don’t.

A simple hello and a smile from you could actually CHANGE a person’s mood.  By connecting to them, you could help them feel noticed or validated.  So many people in our society suffer from depression and dissociative disorders that are often coupled with feelings of being misunderstood, disliked or alone.  One smile or one hello can make a person’s day; can encourage them to look up and say hello to another stranger.  One surprised hello and smile back can improve your mood and make you eager to try it again.

Try it.  Spread the virus.  It will help you on so many levels in your personal life as well as professional life. 

If someone hits on you in the process because they misread your friendliness don’t be surprised, or irritated by it, simply thank them for the compliment and that you apologize if your friendliness was mistaken for something else and wish them a nice day.  Getting hit on, is not the worst thing that can happen to you and neither is unresponsiveness. 

I’ll bet half the people who were unresponsive spent 10 seconds or longer feeling guilty for ignoring you.

Enjoy this bonus leap day and engage a stranger!

Cooperation and Connection Versus Competition

The core of Inspire Sales is connection.  At times it feels as though I’m selling a new age way to do business that seems uncertain and intangible.  It’s a difficult thing to sell, however for me a fundamental part of our lives personally and professionally.  To me connection sits side by side with cooperation and sees competition as an unhealthy way to manage life AND business.  If the fundamental way a person runs their business or life is through competition then they risk seeing not seeing themselves or their business as they are, but in comparison to something or someone else.  Rather than develop our unique identity and develop our strengths, we look next door and either try to beat other people at their lives or their businesses or put our heads down, fold our cards and walk away.

Since I have chosen to venture on my own, countless people have suggested books for me to read about what other people are doing.  People have offered to give me training material and told me about all sorts of competition I might have and suggested I visit their websites.  On occasion I do… but most of the time I say ‘thank you that’s a great suggestion.  I may do that.'  I don’t.  Why?  Because when I do, I see their success and something that’s already been done.  It’s not motivating it’s debilitating.  If I spend my precious time looking at what everyone else is doing then I’m not spending time doing what I want to be doing, and filling the gap that, regardless of all my competition, I continue to see.

People are not meant to live or work in silos.  Even the biggest loners in the world need some human or animal connection to thrive.  Scientists have proven that our DNA is ‘alive’ when we are happy and connected, and shrivels when we are depressed or anxious. 

Are our work lives any different REALLY than our personal lives?  The ‘chores’ we do at work ultimately affect the success of the company.  How we get along with the people we work with ultimately affects the moral of the company.  How we interact with our ‘guests’ or ‘clients’ affects how we are viewed by others.

Cooperation and connection are the fundamental inspiration for promotion or selling.  If a person feels connected to the company they work for they generally feel appreciated, taken care of and enjoy the people around them – including their clients.  They ‘invite’ their guests in, ensure their needs are taken care of and ensure they want to come back or tell their friends how great their experience was.

If people in a home or workplace are competing with one another; are not sharing; are being rude, or deprecating, or just looking out for themselves then the system falls apart.  It’s each person’s choice professionally or personally to choose to be kind and cooperative versus to compete.  If a company sets up it’s people to compete with eachother then they set themselves up to fail.  

My goal when I work with a company is to inspire, from the top down and the bottom up, each person, so that they make the effort to work cooperatively and supportively.   When people find that mental place, something happens, the virus spreads.  Happy cooperative people inspire others to be happy and cooperative.  People cheer each other’s successes as a team not as individuals.  People stop bad mouthing each other and if someone does, others do not encourage it.  It’s an amazing drug and it yields success.

You might ask what this has to do with sales and my reply is everything.  Picking up the phone to ask someone for their business is nerve racking.  I have done it more times than I can count, and every time I do it I have to breathe… my voice often shakes I still more often than not regret something I said, but I do it.   What makes it easier is feeling good.  Loving the people and the products I represent.  Feeling supported by my peers and managers.  Feeling connected and on a team.  Feeling accountable to EVERYONE because if I sell, people stay employed; if I don’t, they lose their jobs.  I lose my job.  If I’m selling by myself with no one cheering me on, helping me through the rough patches or supporting my efforts, I procrastinate.  I take on the rejection personally and resent having to pick up the phone.  If I have people around me I can talk to about my challenges, who can help and motivate me to pick up the phone again with a smile on my face, success comes.

If I can come into a company and inspire just a few people to see themselves and their work as important; if I can help them feel connected and cooperative, they can help spread the virus. If I can help companies create systems of accountability, clear lines/territories, and healthy supportive interactions then my work will be done.

My goal is to have every Inspire Sales client have a team of people who help and motivate one another;  who want to educate and help their clients in an environment that fuels positive energy and reinforcement.

Gaining Loyalty in a Virtual World

Things are moving along at Inspire Sales! I've completed the overview of the customer service and sales training program and am hoping to beta it in the next month or so.   The website is under construction and hopefully will be up soon.

I'm very excited about getting up in front of a group of people and helping them realize the potential of what they do and how important each member of a team really is.

It's very hard for many companies with customer facing team members, because inasmuch as they would love to pay them a lot, oftentimes frontline positions aren't the money makers. For any company the people who are in front of customers ARE the company and if they don't 'represent' then that could mean the beginning of the end of a company.

Because frontline positions tend to pay less, the turnover is greater. By the time a person is fully trained and comfortable doing what they are doing, they've either landed a better paying position elsewhere or been promoted.

In today's world where so much more of our shopping or banking is done online, the opportunities to get in front of customers lessen every day. Where some businesses may claim that people are just not loyal anymore, I say they are just not 'invested' anymore.

I believe that if employees are connected and invested, they’ll stay longer and ensure customers are invested.  If employees aren’t connected to what they are doing, or do not feel significant, valued or important, they won’t care if a customer comes or goes. More so if they like the customers because they feel the customer deserves better!

In a world where online services have drastically reduced the opportunities for product promotion or cross selling, employees need to be sharp and engaged when they are dealing with customers.

In the case of financial institutions, 20 years ago people used ATMs but did not rely on them. Most banks or credit unions had line ups out the door on payday Fridays and Welfare Wednesdays. Now most people use the ATM or have electronic deposits to manage their every day debits and credits.

In 1992 the web was something a spider weaved so we did not have online banking to search rates, create a GIC, deposit to our retirement funds, open an account or pay our bills. For the majority of those services we visited a branch. There were so many more opportunities for a bank or credit union to advise, cross sell or just connect with their customers or members.

Coincidentally 20 years ago, people were much more educated on how to manage their financial well-being than they are today. Not having your customers come and see you could be impacting them in ways they don't even realize! Most people won't think to phone their branch to make an appointment to see someone unless they are in trouble or need a loan or mortgage (even then they can generally apply online).

The financial services industry pretty much kicked their customers out the door with the all the convenience of ATMs, debit cards and online banking and now are faced with a real concern about customer loyalty because they don’t know them anymore.

More and more financial services organizations are moving toward the personal banker or financial advisor because it’s the only way to connect with their clients.  I think this is a fantastic way for bank branches to evolve.  To be successful with this, financial institutions need to be 90% proactive and sales focused.  Picking up the phone not answering it.  Asking people to come in, not serving them if they stop by.

I believe people are just as loyal, if not more than they were 50 years ago - when they feel taken care of. The millennium generation is a prime example of that - they generally won't deal with companies that have miserable employees or who don't seem to care about them.   People think they are not loyal and that they don’t care however the majority of people from this generation live with their parents longer than any other generation - why? Because they like to be taken care of.  If they are being taken care of they aren’t going anywhere!  This is a huge misconception because they absolutely are loyal and most certainly do care!  The difference is they aren’t blindly loyal – you have to earn it and that takes work.   Just because you give them a paycheque doesn’t mean you automatically get their loyalty.  Just because your title says CEO doesn’t mean you automatically get their respect either.

They are a fickle bunch.  They will not complain however will quietly take their business elsewhere and slam you on Twitter or anywhere else they can….  “Ouch”.

In 2012 in order to have loyalty from our customers we have to earn it and maintain it.  It's just far more challenging because we don't see our customers as much. This means our salary expenses need to be for people reaching out to clients/customers/members and making them profitable, rather than waiting for the clients to come in the door and provide them with the service they requested.

In 2012 sales and service skills need to be sharp. Your people need to fully understand your products and services. They absolutely need to be engaged and care about the financial well being of the company they work for. They need to feel that the company they work for is in fact, the best company for its clients to deal with. If they don't feel that way they'll let business walk out the door with no attempt to save it.

This is why I started Inspire Sales.  Everyday I see people yearning to be connected yet finding themselves more and more disconnected.  I observe, on a regular basis, people attempting to educate me on products and services or sell me something and give up too easily -either because they are afraid of selling or because they don’t really care if I buy.

I know there are ways to sell to people without making them feel uncomfortable or backed into a corner and I also know there are ways to make people feel more comfortable reaching out and selling and I am very excited to share them!



At Inspire Sales we work with companies and their people to help everyone sell naturally with a process that works for them!

About Johanne Cannon and Inspire Sales

Welcome to Inspire Sales where the objective is to inspire people and companies to grow and be successful by first connecting then getting organized.

My philosophy is that you can get more from people if they feel connected to what they are doing and the people they are doing it with.

I believe that even though most people don’t call themselves sales people, we are all in fact sales people.  We sell everything from vegetables to our kids to advice to our friends.  We recommend the things we like and we persuade people to see things as we do.

I understand that people often have a negative feeling toward selling, that as soon as they realize what they are expected to do is sell, they are fraught with a whole bunch of mixed emotions.

I know this because I felt the same way.  From the first time I was asked to do product cross-selling at a credit union I worked for to when I took a position as an Account Manager for a large software company and my job was to sell.  Suddenly I had to think about what I was going to say, how I should say it.  I had to deal with rejection.  Without realizing it, I often assumed no one would want to buy what I was selling so I rushed through a ‘pitch’ and waited for the no so I could move on.

In those early days I was given some coaching on sales – things like:

Sell the value

Feature benefit
Call high
Don’t confuse sell with install
Just get it done (love that one)

I remember seeing an executive eye roll at a meeting when I was asked if a deal was sole sourced and I had no idea what that meant.

Selling to me, before I actually was employed as a sales person was quite a natural thing.  I, on the most part was likeable, I’ve always had a lot of friends, people often ask for my opinion or advice and more often than not take it.  When I took the Account Management position that was offered to me I didn’t think I’d end up feeling so confused.

There were PowerPoint presentations with a bunch of bullets I had to talk about; features and benefits I had to discuss.  There was so much JARGON; corporate speak.  I felt like everyone was talking in a language I didn’t understand.  It was petrifying – literally.  I felt judged every time I had to present in front of an executive.  I got to the point where I was afraid to open my mouth because it seemed like I was always saying the wrong thing.  I was so confused over what to say and not to say that I actually screwed up more often than not.

I remember my sales manager telling me my presentation skills were terrible and I asked for some constructive critisim – like what exactly was I doing that was so terrible and he said ‘everything’.  I don’t think I ever felt so alone and unsure, yet there was this little voice in my head that kept saying “don’t give up, don’t give in you can do this”.

Lucky for me I got a new manager who didn’t see me the way my previous one had.  He saw in me what I knew was there and let me be me.  He let me manage my clients in a way that worked for me.  If I didn’t want to use a PowerPoint he didn’t care.  He thought my somewhat silly personality was engaging not unpolished.  He believed I was smart and capable and guess what?  As it turns out I sort of was.

The following year I met and exceeded all of my targets for both client satisfaction and sales and made Chairman’s Council and enjoyed a wonderful few days at the Ritz in Grand Cayman.

For familial reasons I eventually went to work for a smaller software company.  Though I had some good success bringing in new clients for them and upselling their existing clients, after one year I resigned.  One of the reasons I resigned was no matter how hard I tried somehow somewhere I didn’t connect. 

This gave me an idea. 

That’s when I started examining my career.  I saw when I was successful and when I wasn’t.  I recognized how many times I took a position and felt disconnected and a bit confused and how many times I took a position and felt connected and not confused.

When I resigned, I knew what I wanted to do.  I wanted to find a way to help people connect to what they do; help companies get their people connected- engaged.  I started consulting independently to free up my time for research.  I also spent a significant amount of time researching the millennium generation because their work ethic seemed to be in question.  I spent some time working on a book and after a while I realized I needed to get back engaged with people and work through my ideas with real people and real companies.

I started my career answering phones and doing secretarial work.  Six years later I was approving loans.  Two years later I was doing software quality assurance testing and engineering.  Two years after that I was doing senior customer technical support.  Two years after that I was a business analyst and implementation consultant writing client requirement and specification documents.  Two years after that I took a position as an Account Manager and have been working with clients and selling ever since. 

I have a passion for problem solving and process management.  I love finding the best and fastest way to get things done.  I love to question process or demand it if I don’t see it.

The way I see it is companies can achieve great success if their people are connected.  If they understand the company they work for and the people that represent it.  If they understand what they are doing and why they are doing it.  If they understand the products and services they sell – not just the features and benefits on the marketing material. 

So what do I do?  First I get people connected.  Open honest conversations about what they do and about their clients or customers.  I ask the questions they are afraid to ask, and encourage the Managers to answer them.  I believe people connect when they understand.

Now everyone is feeling understood and inspired, the next step is to get organized.  NOW we can talk about process – sales process, business process because we all understand what we are doing and why we are doing it so we can find the best way to get it done.  I help people discover scalable processes and work with them to roll them out.

My sales process involves talking about the products and services a company provides.  What has worked, what hasn’t worked.  What kind of people they sell to.  We talk about the best ways to reach people.  We work out ways to handle cold calling and create connections rather than pitches.  At Inspire Sales the process is the way we organize and follow up.  The rest is about doing what’s best for the people – both customers and staff.

The result – sales you and your people will be proud of.

Inspire Sales works with companies and their people to help everyone sell naturally with a process that makes sense for them.