I’ve recently (well for a few months now) received some really poor customer service from a well known rentals by post company in the UK. I’m not going to go into the details here, nor am I going to name and shame - it’s not my style. I see this as an opportunity to learn some really important points.

The main challenge I’m having, and I believe this is true of almost all poor customer service, is that I’m really struggling to be understood. This particular company prefer to do everything by email and I have sent in the region of 15 emails about their service in the last 6 months. To their credit, each time I have contacted them, they have replied within a few hours, however they seem to have a set of stock responses that do not relate to the challenges I’ve experienced.

In any situation where a customer or client makes a complaint, it is critical that your customer services representatives get straight to the root of the problem, without making assumptions about what their customer is experiencing. In the IT world, (where I worked before becoming a coach) the help-desks would always ask the obvious questions such as, “is it switched on at the wall” and “have you tried rebooting the computer”. I’m sure if you’ve had those conversations with an IT help-desk, you’ll have some idea of how frustrating it is.

I’m happy to allow one of these stock responses - I can understand that help centres must receive a good proportion of complaints where the user is doing something wrong. However, when a company continues answering your enquiries with these stock responses, it becomes immensely irritating. Rather like having a conversation with someone who is clearly only interested in hearing themselves speak. It feels like you are banging your head against a brick wall and there seems to be no solution. If you allow your customers to get to this point, you are pretty much guaranteed to have lost them for good.

One of the major problems that large companies have chosen to take on, is when they outsource their help and customer relations to a country where their staff speak the customers language only as a second language. Immediately, in such difficult communications, you are creating a barrier. If your customer or client feels like they are not being heard or understood (which sadly is often the case) they immediately feel that you are a company who do not care and all trust is lost. Many complaints are complicated in their nature and even if the user is in error, the customer service staff must first understand their point of view before explaining the correct procedure or pointing out what they may do differently.

The bottom line is that you don’t get many chances to make a good impression - especially in an economic climate that people feel uncomfortable in. The most upset and angry of customers can easily be turned into a trusting, loyal customer with a little understanding from someone who represents your company. It strikes me that when you receive poor customer service, you immediately assume that the company doesn’t care about it’s customers. The truth is probably that they are doing things on the cheap and paying the price for that in their customer service.

There is no situation that cannot be resolved in an agreeable way - with good customer service, where the client feels heard and understood, you are 95% of the way there.

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Before I begin, I’d like to clear up the meaning of the word love in this post. I’m not talking about romantic love (i.e. between two consenting adults/people), I’m referring to the feeling that is present in us all when all negative emotions (e.g. fear, guilt) are removed.

I’ve always noticed that there are many times in my work with clients when I seem to enter a place of deep connection and in that place, much of the best work gets done. It’s difficult to describe without using the word love, in fact, I’m not sure there is another word to describe it. I’ve been wondering lately whether this place of love/connection is the key to creating or attracting into our lives the things we want. In terms of your work with people, even if you work without any direct connection with your clients or customers, finding a way to love them in this way is good practice for a thriving business.

I’m not talking here about any contrived experience or relationship with them or a kind of trick to get more sales. If you can offer them that deep connection, you allow them an experience that very few others can provide them. It gives them the opportunity to be themselves without any judgement or another’s agenda getting in the way. If the business transaction or service you offer is going to provide them with a genuine improvement in their lives then the deal is done. If not, then because you are in the place of love, there is no need for you to feel disappointed in their decision, it’s the right one.

I’ve found often that if you connect with people in this way and then no purchase is made, they will go out of their way to suggest to others that they do business with you - most people understand the power of personal recommendation.

With existing clients and customers, if you can generate this deep connection you will open doors that were previously closed to you. They will think of you when they require something you sell and often it doesn’t matter if you are the cheapest. This love or connection creates trust - because you are putting them first, something that rarely happens in business transactions.

The first step is to begin working on your ability to listen deeply, letting go of your own agenda. It’s something that coaches have to learn in order to be successful - that’s pretty obvious, however to me it seems as though this is an incredibly useful tool in all walks of life. Do it with genuine integrity and you’ll begin to understand the connection/love that I’m referring to here.

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This is a fascinating subject to me and I encounter this so frequently in my coaching work. Why do we always get what we fear? Why do things always turn out in the way we expect them to? In the main these questions are only asked when the outcome is something we do not want.

There is a big clue in my last sentence - when we focus on what we do not want, this is often all that we get. There are some fantastic books and articles on this and often I see that it gets explained by the universe not understanding the word not and delivering it to you. To me, although this in some way explains the outcome of what is happening, it doesn’t really place you at the centre of responsibility for what is happening in your life.

If you’ve ever done any goal setting, you may well understand that a good goal is phrased as what you do want, rather than what you do not want. e.g. I want to be confident (or better still I am confident) - instead of I am not going to be shy anymore. In the latter statement, we are focusing on what we do not want and therefore all that occupies our thinking is being shy. There’s no focus on being confident and you are unable to move away from being shy when you constantly tell yourself you are not going to be shy. All you are doing is reminding yourself that you are shy.

It’s very much the same with expectations and fears - if you expect your friend is going to let you down, you may be frightened of it or worried about it too, then there is very soon going to come a time that they are going to let you down. Why? Because you are going out of your way to look for situations where they can let you down. Because of this belief you hold about them, you are very likely to get involved in the process and help them (subconsciously) towards a place where they can let you down - thus supporting the fear, expectation and belief you hold about them. We are very good at proving ourselves right - in fact the brain has to do it. This is why if you can learn to focus your expectations on the positive outcomes you are looking for, your brain can get involved and help these positive outcomes come about. In the example here, you can expect that your friend is going to be a good, dependable friend and you will go out of your way to prove this is right.

It doesn’t really matter how you understand this process - if your view is that the universe will deliver what you ask for - whether it’s -ve because you are focused on what you do not want, or +ve because you are focused on what you do want, then that’s great. If you are more inclined towards the science of stuff, then you can learn about how your subconscious will support the thoughts and expectations you are having because it needs to prove it is right. Therefore if you focus on what you do not want, the chances are that your subconscious will move you towards proving your expectations of bad things right, whereas if you learn to focus only on what you do want, the subconscious can go about making that happen instead.

I’m sure there are many other ways to look at this, however the meaning and message are the same. I’d love to hear some more ideas!

Technorati Tags: belief, Brain, Clue, Expectation, Fantastic Books, fear, fears, focus, Latter Statement, Universe

I’m a member of an online coaches discussion forum and there was a really interesting discussion about plagiarism. It reminded me of a thought I’d had several years ago about what kind of world we choose to live in.

For the most part, people tend to live in a world filled with fear and bad things happening. It is this place where the media is king and we are reminded constantly of how awful life is. A long time ago I made a decision to live in a different world - in a place filled with love, awe and wonderful things happening. It was quite a turning point for me.

I understand of course that there are things happening in the world that people describe as “bad”, however for me, I choose to live in a different world where I see the good in people and things.  The truth is that things are only good or bad because we say they are. On whatever level (either consciously or un-consciously) people are attracting and creating their own circumstances. In essence, (I learned this from Neale Donald Walsch) everything is perfect as it is.

My truth is that I am able to define things as good or bad as I choose, not as I am told to think. If things in my world are not as I want them to be, then I have the power to change myself in order to change those things. Of the many things out there that are considered by many to be “bad” I appreciate that there will be a few people who recognise their power to make changes. I am not here to bend the world to my will, or to create a perfect environment or society. I trust that everything is and will always be perfect.

I create my experience. I choose.

Technorati Tags: awe, circumstances, Different World, Discussion Forum, Essence, fear, Long Time, love, Many Things, neale donald walsch, People, Plagiarism, Truth, Turning Point, Wonderful Things

I often have new clients who approach me because they are stuck and at a crossroads in their lives. The surprising thing for their friends and families is that they are paralyzed by having too much choice. When presented with an infinite array of options and choices in your life, there is the tendency to shut down and block them all out.

The sheer volume of options and choices available to us can overwhelm us and heap pressure upon our eventual decision. Why? Because we want to make sure that it is the right decision. Imagine choosing the wrong thing when there is so much on offer…

The truth is that it doesn’t matter what we choose. It only matters that we do choose.

There is no-one who is going to say, you’ve made a wrong choice - except for you yourself. You are the only judge of your decisions (although they may certainly the lives of others). If you say they are right, they are right. If you say they are wrong, they are wrong.

What can you do if you are faced with such a situation? The first place to begin is to establish all the important factors - not the how, what or where. Decide what is important to you in this decision, what are the considerations - location, people, environment etc. What are all the tick boxes that need to be ticked before you can make the decision?

Ultimately you are going to have to decide on something - if you have armed yourself with as much information and experience as possible, you can take away the voice in your head that will try and tell you that your choice was poor. If you can find your inner truth, which is that nothing matters and your choices are simply opportunities to express yourself and learn something, then the overwhelming feeling of indecision will disappear. In the meantime, work on discovering what is important to you about the choice and you’ll be moving forwards.

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