Sometimes when there is a service failure, the customer can become irate, irritated and occasionally even rude or belligerent. Sound familiar?

It is extremely important for you not to take this personally, but to detach and let the customer vent.

When communicating with an irate customer use a soothing tone and try to use positive communication statements. We have all heard curse words and it is important that you do not let these personally offend you and hang up or disconnect from an irate customer. We know it is not a pleasant experience but it is one where your good communication skills, professionalism and the proper use of the DEAR model will help you respond and recover in such a way as to create greater trust and loyalty with our customer.

Use this simple framework that we call the DEAR model:

Detach: stay completely calm and professional in your demeanor. Apologize immediately and allow the customer to tell you their full story. Do not interrupt the customer.

Expand: Expand upon what the customer said to make sure that you fully understand their expectations and desired actions.  This could include reiterating or summarizing what the customer said to ensure that you have an accurate understanding of the problem at hand.

Acknowledge: Acknowledge the situation and ask the customer for their thoughts on the desired steps to resolve the service problem or issue. Remember, the very act of apologizing and acknowledging the customer’s situation often times is the only resolution the customer is seeking.

Respond and Recover: It is important that we offer a response and as appropriate a recovery as quickly as possible. Respond by proposing a reasonable and equitable solution that you have the ability to execute. Follow through and confirm expectations are met or exceeded.

If the situation or recovery requires a decision outside of your authority, immediately see if you can reach the individual who has the authority or responsibility to assist in the recovery. Regardless of whether the service issue was caused by you or by another group or individual, it is critically important to never pass the buck, never blame others, or use excuses.

It is important that you personally and proactively follow up with the customer to confirm their problem or issue was resolved.

If you and your team do that, even when you drop the ball, you can still create an exceptional recovery experience for the customer!

I swear….

If you’re a service provider that has to deal with one of those “pesky” customers, here are some tips.

A great way to add positivity to your communications and your service delivery is by communicating things in a positive way such as:

• Thank you for being so patient while I located your info
• I am happy to take care of that for you.
• Certainly. It will be my pleasure.
• We know you have options, and we appreciate that you chose us.
• Thank you for holding. I apologize for the delay.

Some statements you definitely want to avoid:

• I really don’t know how that happened. A better alternative is; I apologize that happened. I will personally ensure that we correct the issue.
• That’s not my job. I just work here. Instead say, How can I ensure your experience is exceptional might be a better alternative.
• I don’t work in that department. Instead a better response might be; Let me make sure I understand the issues so I can get you in touch with the right person to get you the help and answers you are looking for.
• You’ll just have to wait. Instead say; I apologize for the wait
• We have some people out of the office today can be said; I will take personal responsibility to ensure you get the answer you are seeking
• I assumed you already knew that information. A better alternative; Let me confirm that you have all the required information
• I would like to help you but…can be said differently as; how can I assist you further?
• The computer system is down can be said positively as; I apologize that information is not currently available. I will follow up to get you the required information.

These are the little things that can make a big difference with the customer’s experience. Even if this person inside of the company that I am interacting with has dealt with the same issue 50 times that day, this may be my first and only time I am interacting with that company. I guess that’s what some people call a moment of truth.

How are you and your organization doing on your “moments of truth”?

Presenting how a complex global organization improved customer loyalty and experiences through a process that was delivered in six languages and created exceptional customer experiences at the 8^th Edition of the Marcus Evans Customer Experience Conference.  Chicago. July 17-18.

Toronto, Ontario.  CSI will share how the Financial Division of a Global Fortune 50 company creates exceptional customer experiences using the Layered Learning approach developed with CSI.

“You create customer delight through the cumulative effect of delivering exceptional service to your customers, one interaction at a time,” says Peter Psichogios, President of CSI International’s Performance Group.  “This collective service consistency will be something that creates a sustainable competitive advantage and is also something that is very hard to copy or replicate” he added.

Peter will share how a complex global organization improved customer loyalty and experiences through a process that was delivered in six languages. The customer experience Layered Learning process focused on:

• Customer Communications
• Customer Problem Solving
• Customer Connections and Commitments
• Delighting Customers
• Continuous Experience Improvement

“Working with our client, we created a customer focused culture from the inside out,” says Peter.

About CSI International

CSI International helps clients create and recognize results through people.  CSI provides learning, engagement, and recognition solutions that connect people with company values, improve customer experiences, and grow revenues. We deliver global employee engagement, peer-to-peer recognition, customer service, safety, service anniversary, and wellness solutions via intuitive cloud-based web technology. Our focus is on your goals, your people, and your results.  Our impact is measurable.

CSI’s global headquarters is in Toronto, Ontario.  We have offices throughout North America.

For more information, visit us at www.csi-international-inc.com or call us at (855) 231-8407.

I wrote previously about the rising costs of healthcare and The Advantages of an Integrated Approach To Employee Wellness.

Now, I want to address the other side of the equation.  While certainly prevention is the key, when treatment is needed, there is vast opportunity to improve the patient experience. I think what is really needed is a focus in health care organizations in creating exceptional patient and customer experiences.

How do you improve patient experiences? You better ensure your caregivers are fully engaged in their roles and delivering care.  It’s called employee engagement.

Easy, right?

Nope.

So few do this well because hospital administration (or, frankly, business leadership in general) does not stop to really understand what it will take, and for the few who do even a smaller percentage make the proper investment of energy, resources and follow up to create sustainable culture change.

A recent survey by Press Ganey Associates surveyed 140,000 former patients from over 225 hospitals.

None of the top 15 factors determining patient satisfaction referred to the patient’s health outcome.

Patient satisfaction directly related to the interactions they had with staff.

So let’s not leave it to chance. There’s a better way.  You CAN systematically change the culture of your healthcare organization (or any organization) by layering in skills and competencies with your leaders and by taking an integrated approach to reward and recognition.  I’ve seen it happen.  I’ve seen hundreds of millions of dollars of correlated benefits be directly attributed to layered learning and engagement that is supported by an integrated approach to reward and recognition.

If we want to improve patient experiences, we need to improve employee experiences first! This puts the emphasis on creating exceptional patient experiences and improved health care for all on the leaders of health care organizations. Leaders must create a level of engagement and an environment of care, credibility and trust in order to create enhanced patient satisfaction.

There is a misconception that supportive interactions require more staff or more time and are therefore more costly. Although labor costs are a substantial part of any hospital budget, the interactions themselves add nothing to the budget.

Kindness is free.

Listening to patients or answering their questions costs nothing. It can be argued that negative interactions—alienating patients, being non-responsive to their needs or limiting their sense of control—can be very costly. … Angry, frustrated or frightened patients may be combative, withdrawn and less cooperative—requiring far more time than it would have taken to interact with them initially in a positive way.

Whether this happens or not is truly leadership’s biggest challenge in any healthcare organization today.

It is simply an inside out proposition and one that takes consistent follow up and reinforcement.

The good news is this isn’t just “airy fairy be nice to your staff so they are nice to the patient” stuff.  Take a look at the results of Griffin Hospital in Derby, CT. They live the principles I am talking about in this blog. Their leaders create high engagement with their staff. Their staff in turn creates great patient experiences for all members involved in the care giving process. They are wildly financially successful. They are growing market share. I believe they are the only hospital in the best 100 companies to work for list. And, oh by the way, they have been on it for 8 consecutive years now.

Helping people produce good results and then rewarding them for that not only helps them feel better about themselves. More importantly, this is the key to enhancing the patient experience and the care-giving environment.

Companies continue to try and lower their healthcare expenses for insurance and lost time through wellness programs.  So where are the results from all these wellness programs?

Companies continue to try to improve wellness through education. The recently published Principal Financial Well-Being Index indicates the top four wellness benefits offered are:

• online wellness information
• educational tools or resources
• fitness center discounts
• printed wellness information

So the primary approach is information and education.  In other words, the low cost approach.  It doesn’t cost much to create a corporate wellness page and load it up with information – but who reads it?  Nobody.

The lack of results says this approach isn’t working.  None of this is bad, it’s just not all that employees want or need.

So what do employees want?  The same research shows us top benefits employees would most like offered are:

• fitness center discounts
• on-site preventive screenings
• access to wellness experts such as nutritionists
• onsite fitness facilities

I like the employee list better.  Help me get active.  Help me get fit.  Let me take some tests that track my progress.

One last bit of trivial pursuit stats for you.  What do employees see as benefits that would motivate them to participate in a wellness program?  One out of two said better overall health … in other words, if the program works they’ll keep at it.  Close behind this, for one out of three, a meaningful incentive from their employee to encourage participation is desirable.

So what really works? Results are not going to show up until companies change their approach.  The more I talk with business leaders and the more I read on the costs of healthcare, the more strongly I feel that we need we need to shift from treatment to prevention employing an incentive based approach to wellness.

At CSI, we see organizations successfully engaging employees in wellness programs that have real impact by bringing multiple incentive-based programs together under a single umbrella working in concert with local access to fitness facilities and health screenings.  Employees can set goals, access information, receive recognition and incentives, track results, and even share their progress with peers in the organization through social networks all in one place.  Easy.

Real-time data about the effectiveness of wellness programs is hugely valuable to both the employee and to the company.  Employees can take action on their personalized plan based on the results they achieve.  Employers can see which aspects of the overall wellness mix yield the greatest results and invest more there.  It’s a win-win.

Consistent delivery of world-class care and patient experiences starts with creating consistent and world-class employee and caregiver experiences. Timely, specific, personalized and sincere recognition in the workplace will help support any healthcare organization’s focus on the patient and exceptional patient care.

Here are some powerful yet simple ideas to create better recognition and engagement in a caregiving environment (or ANY environment):

• The best way to let someone know you notice the good work they do is to personally thank them.  It is hard to believe that something so simple, that can be done so quickly, can have so much power and lasting benefit.
• Simply asking someone for his or her opinion can be a powerful form of recognition. It validates that person has knowledge, skills and experience that can help you the manager, and the entire organization. It is especially important to ask someone’s opinion about how they do or do not like to be recognized.  For instance, some caregivers enjoy being praised publicly, while others would prefer receiving praise privately on a one-on-one basis. The very act of taking the time to ask can help you learn a little bit more about your team member, while helping them feel supported and involved.
• The best recognition also starts with good timing. The sooner you acknowledge a job well done, a good performance or behavior, the more likely you are to have that behavior repeated. The key is to reinforce specifically what it is you are recognizing and why you are recognizing the caregiver for it.
• The glue that holds these elements of recognition together is keeping in mind that the recognition must be appropriate both for the situation and the individual. Every caregiver deserves recognition, not just the top performers. Each one of your caregivers is doing something that should be recognized in a way they like to be recognized for it.

Personalized recognition and praise is a message you cannot deliver enough.  In fact, research shows that providing some form of sincere recognition each and every week for doing good work is a key factor in promoting high levels of employee engagement.

It is also a message your caregivers (or employees) cannot hear enough. Especially when it is real, when it is done in a timely context, and when it comes from the heart.

Companies continue to try and lower their healthcare expenses for insurance and lost time through wellness programs.  So where are the results from all these wellness programs?

Companies continue to try to improve wellness through education. The recently published Principal Financial Well-Being Index indicates the top four wellness benefits offered are:

• online wellness information
• educational tools or resources
• fitness center discounts
• printed wellness information

So the primary approach is information and education.  In other words, the low cost approach.  It doesn’t cost much to create a corporate wellness page and load it up with information – but who reads it?  Nobody.

The lack of results says this approach isn’t working.  None of this is bad, it’s just not all that employees want or need.

So what do employees want?  The same research shows us top benefits employees would most like offered are:

• fitness center discounts
• on-site preventive screenings
• access to wellness experts such as nutritionists
• onsite fitness facilities

I like the employee list better.  Help me get active.  Help me get fit.  Let me take some tests that track my progress.

One last bit of trivial pursuit stats for you.  What do employees see as benefits that would motivate them to participate in a wellness program?  One out of two said better overall health … in other words, if the program works they’ll keep at it.  Close behind this, for one out of three, a meaningful incentive from their employee to encourage participation is desirable.

So what really works? Results are not going to show up until companies change their approach.  The more I talk with business leaders and the more I read on the costs of healthcare, the more strongly I feel that we need we need to shift from treatment to prevention employing an incentive based approach to wellness.

At CSI, we see organizations successfully engaging employees in wellness programs that have real impact by bringing multiple incentive-based programs together under a single umbrella working in concert with local access to fitness facilities and health screenings.  Employees can set goals, access information, receive recognition and incentives, track results, and even share their progress with peers in the organization through social networks all in one place.  Easy.

Real-time data about the effectiveness of wellness programs is hugely valuable to both the employee and to the company.  Employees can take action on their personalized plan based on the results they achieve.  Employers can see which aspects of the overall wellness mix yield the greatest results and invest more there.  It’s a win-win.

As I’ve mentioned before, I think managers often miss the mark and get caught up on being “nice” and accommodating to their employees, even ignoring poor performance in the name of maintaining good relationships.

However, I have seen time and time again that in the end, relationships not based on performance typically sour and the team and organization both suffer. Every leader’s primary focus should be on getting the best results from his or her people.

To do that, members of your work team should be focused directly or indirectly on one or more of four key fundamental areas: growing revenue, acquiring new customers, serving the customers you already have, and reducing costs. If any part your team’s day is spent not related to those fundamental areas then you better wake up and change what you are doing.

When results are achieved, enthusiasm and commitment builds. Good leaders understand this.

On the flip side, managers who are more focused on being ‘liked’ than getting results are the ones who tend to excuse or tolerate sub-standard performance. What I’ve seen is sometimes employees appreciate this flexibility in the short run, but in the long term the high performers get frustrated and bored with the lack of drive and performance.

When manager’s focus on relationships over performance this typically makes the high performers resign and the rest quit…. but stay.

On the other hand, leaders who focus on getting results rather than winning a popularity contest are much more likely to have a loyal and productive team over the long term.

It’s kind of like that one teacher we all had going through school, the one teacher who had a reputation for being tough, with high expectations.

I don’t know if you noticed like me, that those tough teachers were always a favorite among the students who wanted to achieve, the ones who liked being challenged, and ended up being proud for surviving the class and meeting the teacher’s high expectations.

My advice if you want to have happy employees, if you want to have engaged employees, is worry less about being nice and more about if your team is achieving high performance in the four fundamental areas. Teams that continually produce results create numerous opportunities for employee recognition.

When you align your team to those areas you will create more loyal and productive employees who just also happen to be happy.

Any logical person can look at the trends in healthcare for business and healthcare for individual employees and see that they are unsustainable.

In my opinion, companies that don’t figure out an integrated way to manage wellness face a real threat to their bottom line.

I would also argue that anyone who thinks the forthcoming healthcare reform can solve the problem alone and significantly lower healthcare costs is mistaken.

I talk to business leaders every day, it is apparent that the only way to significantly lower health and wellness costs is to keep employees out of the healthcare system in the first place.

The bottom line is that a healthy employee is a more profitable employee.

There are billions and billions of dollars at stake, and it is CSI’s belief that these gains can be achieved through an integrated approach to wellness by leveraging a variety of different incentives, gamification, social feedback and recognition.

Organizations that want to achieve competitive advantage by reducing this ever-growing cost require a shift from treatment to prevention.

Sounds simple enough doesn’t it?

It’s logical.

No one can really argue that it makes good sense to shift the focus from treating the condition once the individual gets sick to preventing the onset of the condition in the first place.

The best way to shift from treatment to prevention is for employers to capture the value through an incentive based approach to wellness.  

A recent national business health study showed employers average of $430 of incentives per employee for wellness-based activities, up significantly 65% in 2009.

What I’ve seen is that some programs provide reams of data. Others provide little or none. Some programs focus on one time events like a health risk assessment, while others encourage behavior based wellness like physical activity, smoking cessation, and weight loss.

One of the other challenges is that while many organizations offer multiple programs, they still struggle with awareness and utilization.

And to compound the challenges, even among the employees who are aware the program is available it is sometimes difficult for them to see the big picture with such a wide variety of programs, incentives and communications.

In my experience, poorly designed or incomplete wellness programs lead to employees becoming unsure of what they need to do, how to do it, when to do it, or if it is really any benefit to them.

Given all this, it is tough for employers to measure any impact or ROI of their employee wellness investments. In turn, this affects an organization’s ability to make sound decisions like adding or discontinuing programs, allocating incentives, and communicating the right message, to the right employees at the right time.

What we’ve seen at CSI is that the forward-looking organizations are addressing these challenges by bringing multiple incentive based programs under a single umbrella platform. What I have seen and what our clients tell us is that in this day of information overload there is great advantage to making things simpler and clearer as it can lead too much greater understanding and higher engagement.

More importantly, it allows organizations to leverage their existing incentives budget to get more done. With an integrated approach, organizations can have one central place to communicate with and motivate employees. This allows cohesively promoting and managing integrated programs and incentives. When these are tracked together it is easier for organizations to measure the effectiveness and impact that healthy and more productive employees create to the bottom line.

Having real-time data about the effectiveness of wellness campaigns also gives organizations more efficient and flexible decision making processes.

From the employee’s perspective, having an integrated approach helps them understand exactly what incentives they are eligible for and how to earn them. Plus, it provides a consistent message, social interaction with peer groups, and line of sight to the big picture goals regardless of the individual programs and tools being offered.

Finally, it helps engage employees see how all the programs and activities their organization offers contribute to not only their individual health, but to their organization’s health and well being as well.

Any logical person can look at the trends in healthcare for business and healthcare for individual employees and see that they are unsustainable.

In my opinion, companies that don’t figure out an integrated way to manage wellness face a real threat to their bottom line.

I would also argue that anyone who thinks the forthcoming healthcare reform can solve the problem alone and significantly lower healthcare costs is mistaken.

I talk to business leaders every day, it is apparent that the only way to significantly lower health and wellness costs is to keep employees out of the healthcare system in the first place.

The bottom line is that a healthy employee is a more profitable employee.

There are billions and billions of dollars at stake, and it is CSI’s belief that these gains can be achieved through an integrated approach to wellness by leveraging a variety of different incentives, gamification, social feedback and recognition.

Organizations that want to achieve competitive advantage by reducing this ever-growing cost require a shift from treatment to prevention.

Sounds simple enough doesn’t it?

It’s logical.

No one can really argue that it makes good sense to shift the focus from treating the condition once the individual gets sick to preventing the onset of the condition in the first place.

The best way to shift from treatment to prevention is for employers to capture the value through an incentive based approach to wellness.  

A recent national business health study showed employers average of $430 of incentives per employee for wellness-based activities, up significantly 65% in 2009.

What I’ve seen is that some programs provide reams of data. Others provide little or none. Some programs focus on one time events like a health risk assessment, while others encourage behavior based wellness like physical activity, smoking cessation, and weight loss.

One of the other challenges is that while many organizations offer multiple programs, they still struggle with awareness and utilization.

And to compound the challenges, even among the employees who are aware the program is available it is sometimes difficult for them to see the big picture with such a wide variety of programs, incentives and communications.

In my experience, poorly designed or incomplete wellness programs lead to employees becoming unsure of what they need to do, how to do it, when to do it, or if it is really any benefit to them.

Given all this, it is tough for employers to measure any impact or ROI of their employee wellness investments. In turn, this affects an organization’s ability to make sound decisions like adding or discontinuing programs, allocating incentives, and communicating the right message, to the right employees at the right time.

What we’ve seen at CSI is that the forward-looking organizations are addressing these challenges by bringing multiple incentive based programs under a single umbrella platform. What I have seen and what our clients tell us is that in this day of information overload there is great advantage to making things simpler and clearer as it can lead to much greater understanding and higher engagement.

More importantly, it allows organizations to leverage their existing incentives budget to get more done. With an integrated approach, organizations can have one central place to communicate with and motivate employees. This allows cohesively promoting and managing integrated programs and incentives. When these are tracked together it is easier for organizations to measure the effectiveness and impact that healthy and more productive employees create to the bottom line.

Having real-time data about the effectiveness of wellness campaigns also gives organizations more efficient and flexible decision making processes.

From the employee’s perspective, having an integrated approach helps them understand exactly what incentives they are eligible for and how to earn them. Plus, it provides a consistent message, social interaction with peer groups, and line of sight to the big picture goals regardless of the individual programs and tools being offered.

Finally, it helps engage employees see how all the programs and activities their organization offers contribute to not only their individual health, but to their organization’s health and well being as well.