Becky Rhone-Nowlan

In internet marketing, we get a lot of email.  Some has great content. Some not so much. Almost all of it is meant to make a sale at some point in time.  Recentyly I purchased Tellman Knudson’s List building CD and I was looking forward to the bonuses he offered.  When I tried to access the bonuses, I ran into a bit of trouble.  As happens with me sometimes, my name caused me not to be able to access them.  Many times website scripts only allow letters and sometimes numbers however, I have a hyphenated name.  My hyphen is considered a symbol and therefore not allowed.  This was the problem in this case. 

I went to Tellman’s support area and submitted a ticket.  It was in a place that was easy to find and once i logged in, easy to use.  This is very important on your website as it can make the difference in how irritated your customer is by the time you get to them.  I was only mildly irritated because i know this does happen.  The irritation was mostly that the scripters didn’t take us hyphenated folks into account. 

I received the usual “your ticket has been received” email.  Less than 12 hours later, I received the solution to my problem.  Instead of just telling you about it, I have gotten permission from Tellman’s Customer Experience Manager to post the reply so I can actually show you what can be accomplished in a short email and why it impressed me so much.  Obviously some things will have been removed  for privacy sake.
 

Hi Becky-

We have reset your username and password.

We are so excited to help you with your Listbuilding efforts.

The Listbuilding Club is PACKED with useful information that I am confident will
help you to turn your
business into one that is successful.

To access your account, please go to:

Access Page: (removed for obvious reasons)

Username: my user name
Password: my password

***When you log into ListBuilding Club, there is one offer, however, if you wish
to decline, all you have to do
is scroll to the end of the page and click “cancel.”  Then, you will
automatically be rooted to the homepage of the club.***

Don’t forget about the Live Members Only call tomorrow evening 8PM EST.
Call in details are located on the homepage once you login.

Please let us know if you have any further client support needs.

Sincerely,

Andrea

Determination is Everything!

P.S.

Let Us Know What You Think: http://overcomeeverything.com/cs

We take pride in being able to offer you support as you develop your On-line
Business and

have made the lofty goal of providing our clients with the best support that
they have ever experienced!

Please help us to accomplish our goal by letting us know about your experience:
http://overcomeeverything.com/cs

We look forward to providing you with continuously improved client support.

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: (removed)
Department: Other
Priority: High
Status: Open
 
That is the email I received.  Let me tell you why I am so compelled to share this mail with you and why if you implement a few of these techniques you will earfn more loyal customers who will come back time and time again.

It starts off with a friendly casual greeting.  After that, you will notice, that it immediately addresses my problem and offers a solution.  As a customer, this difuses any irritation I might have and it shows me that you respect the fact that I had a problem.  This is important because you aren’t wasting their time.

The next thing she does is tell me that they are excited to help me.  She doesn’t just say thank you.  When I read this, I was anxiousto get started. I was inspired to take action and use the material. She showed enthusiasm and that translated in the email.  With all the noise out there, anytime you can differentiate yourself from others, go for it!  Enthusiasm is an excellent way to do that.

She goes on to tell me about the pproduct I purchased and gives me explicit instructions on how to access and use my product. Telling me what to expect and then she even reminds me about a call the following evening and how to access that call.  Everything she has done here is to help and support me in reaching my goals. Here she is using the company’s goals and ideas in a way that feels supportive to me as the customer. She has sold me further while solving my problem. Remember, part of the package I bought is a free trial of Tellman’s List Building Club.  In one short support email, Andrea has already created customer loyalty and I haven’t even tried the club yet. 

Then at the end of the email,she does something I am always going on about. She asks for feedback.  Not only does she ask, she gives me the URL of where to go to give her that feedback. She has made everything so easy and understandable that I feel happy and satisfied.  She has done everything right for me as the customer and right for the the company, Overcome Everything Inc. She has done a wonderful job of supporting both and creating a win/win situation.

I know not all of you are at a point  in your online journey  to have a customer support department as Tellman is.  However, you don’t need one to create this sort of loyalty. All you need to do iswrite your support emails using he same or similar techniques that Andrea has.

Here is the process in a step by step fashion.  I have counted 10 of them. 

1. Make sure your support area is easy to find andeasy to use.
2. Respond quickly (24 hours or less is optimal)

3. Friendly, casual greeting

4. Address customers problem/issue witha solution

5. Write in a way that differentiates you from your competitors (Andrea used enthusiasm to get me excited about the product)

6. tell your customer about your product and how to access it. Also tell them what to expect. (Allow no surprises)

7. If you have other support information, products, or trainings remind them about that.

8. Write this in a way that supports your customers goals. (This sounds difficult but it’s not. You know your product. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes.  Just tell them about it in a way that creates a winning situation for both you andyour customer.

9. Ask for feedback. Customers love to communicate with you.  You will find you get more compliments than anything else.

10. Provide a place forthem to give  you that feedback that is easy for them to find and use.
So there you have it.  Hard to believe that much can be accomplished in a short email? Not really, help your customers in a way that shows you care and they willremember you.  If you use one or more of these techniques and your support emails will create more loyal customers.

If you would like to learn more about how to get your customers to keep coming back time and again, check out my book, Secret’s of the Second Fortune.

Go check out Tellman Knudson of Overcome Everything Inc. at http://www.listbuildingpower.com

I can personally vouch for the service they provide.  Do you have a situation I can help with?  An email you’d like me to help you with or give an opinion on?  Let me know what you think by leaving me a comment.

After all, that’s what I do.

I interviewed Becky Rhone-Nowlan about Customer Service dynamics.

The following is Part 2 of the interview:

MagicBecky Messmer: May I take it from an on-line perspective?

Mooie Infinity: Yes indeed.

MagicBecky Messmer: I talk about this in my book, “Secrets of the Second Fortune.” When you begin the process of creating your on-line business you look for a problem to solve right?

Mooie Infinity: Right.

MagicBecky Messmer: So you start researching and getting into your prospects head, thinking how they think, figuring out how they feel.  Your next step is to create your product and start communicating with them.

So you expend all this energy and time making a connection with them.  Are you not at this point working on *serving* your customers needs?

Mooie Infinity: Yes.

MagicBecky Messmer: At this point you are doing customer service.  That’s the very interesting distinction that people don’t seem to get.

Mooie Infinity: Customer Service is a genuine attention to the needs of the customer.

Mooie Infinity: Customer Service is a genuine attention to the needs of the customer.

MagicBecky Messmer: Problem resolution on the other hand- is solving
(or resolving) a very specific problem they are having.

MagicBecky Messmer: Yes, Mooie! I love that statement, Genuine attention to the needs of your customer.

Mooie Infinity: Yes you can use that somehow–it has a certain ring to it.

MagicBecky Messmer: Sounds like the title to an article.

Mooie Infinity: I want to address the lack of communication skills.

MagicBecky Messmer: So, back to what I was saying.

Mooie Infinity: People need to altruistically learn how to
communicate.

MagicBecky Messmer: After someone plunks down there money, most people on-line
want to automate the rest of it.  So they are basically automating their customers right out of their business which does one thing. It alienates the customer which ruins all the time and energy the business owner has spent in connecting with them in the first place.

Mooie Infinity: Yes.

MagicBecky Messmer: I agree about the communication.

Mooie Infinity: Communication is key, and largely overlooked.

MagicBecky Messmer: Yes it is but then that goes back to the whole
taking responsibility issue.

Have you listened to how we as adults communicate with each other and our children?

Mooie Infinity: Yes, we all can fall prey to negative communication.

Also–people tend to allow their emotional hot buttons to be pushed as opposed to learning the art of detachment in talking to others.

MagicBecky Messmer: Glad you brought that up Mooie.  This is one of my favorite parts of service.

Mooie Infinity: As I said in Ho’oponopono and Stellar CS (a bonus to your forthcoming electronic book). Love is all you need.

MagicBecky Messmer: We are emotional creatures. We have 2 sides of our brain,
the emotional side and the thinking side. 

Mooie Infinity: Yes–creative and rational, spiritual and practical.

MagicBecky Messmer: When you are upset, the emotional side takes over.  That is why its so important for someone doing problem resolution (or CS) to learn how to let a customer rant while supporting them in their right to be upset.

Once they get done ranting their brain equalizes itself out and they  can then *hear* what I or any CS person has to say.

When a customer is really angry, you could say, I am going to give you a million
dollars and they wouldn’t hear you.

Mooie Infinity: Are CS people trained in communication?

MagicBecky Messmer: Whether they are trained in communication, depends on the company.

Where I worked we took CS classes all the time- including one called Communication 101.

Mooie Infinity: You could write an ebook about that very problem: Lack of communication skills and the solution for CS workers.

MagicBecky Messmer: I did want to speak on one more issue if that’s ok.

Mooie Infinity: oh please, do.

MagicBecky Messmer: The idea that customer service is not a revenue producing activity.

Mooie Infinity: Ah, yes.

MagicBecky Messmer: Many believe that because it doesn’t immediately put
a check in your bank account that it doesn’t make you money and therefore
not such an important part of business.

Mooie Infinity: How wrong “they” are.

Everyone in an organization needs to be CS minded

MagicBecky Messmer: My thoughts on the matter are if you don’t take care
of your customer they won’t stick around.

Mooie Infinity: Every one must be a CS person in any organization.

MagicBecky Messmer: Everyone in an organization should be treated like a customer,
whether they are internal customer or an external customer.

Mooie Infinity: Now there’s a good point! As an employee, I recently wrote
to the Vice President of my hospital about a very serious problem–and got absolutely no response.

A few weeks later I sent the letter back, saying I expected the nursing staff
to be empowered and not blown off.

MagicBecky Messmer: Are you not HIS customer?

Mooie Infinity: I am. And that’s why I sent it back, and got an answer then.

MagicBecky Messmer: But see that’s another reason why CS is not done
correctly in many cases. Everything trickles down from the top.  If the people at the top don’t value service, then who is teaching the employees?

Mooie Infinity: Good point.

MagicBecky Messmer: It all works together. If a marketer on-line doesn’t think customer service is important, how well do you think his or her staff is going to take care of the customer?

Mooie Infinity: I believe whole organizations could learn from this, from several
hundred or more to the lone marketer, like us.

MagicBecky Messmer: I agree, because it is such an integral part of business.

Mooie Infinity: Respect, cooperation, compassion, kindness, humanity.

MagicBecky Messmer: Whether it be a huge corporation or a small online business,
the one thing everyone seems to forget is the reason we are *in* business is for the customer. Is that not who we create products and services for?

Mooie Infinity: Yes.

MagicBecky Messmer: So let’s not forget them in the equation.

Mooie Infinity: Building relationships and trust, loyalty– Fans!!!

MagicBecky Messmer: Trust me they will remember it and thank you for it
by spending with you again and again.

As I like to say, A customer will never remember what you do for them but They will ALWAYS  remember how you made them feel.

Mooie Infinity: True. That’s what I always remember, as a customer.

MagicBecky Messmer: Me too!

Mooie Infinity: Thank you Becky! This has been enlightening.

MagicBecky Messmer: And of course that goes right back to your idea about love your customers.

Mooie Infinity: Love is all you need.

MagicBecky Messmer: My pleasure Mooie. You got me to talk
a lot.

Shhh– It’s a secret.

It’s the Secret of the Second Fortune!

Mooie Infinity: Yes it is.

MagicBecky Messmer: Definitely. How to tap into your customer’s heart.

Mooie Infinity: Our conversation today will help people see the mportance of nurturing Customer Service in their businesses.

Thank you for coming!!

I was recently Interviewed By Kate Loving Shenk of Nurse Healers Portable Empire island at Second Life, was the scene of a not so formal interview between the avatars of Mooie Infinity (Kate Loving Shenk) and Magic Becky Messmer (Becky Rhone-Nowlan), fellow Second Life pal and Customer Service expert.

Becky’s first e-book, “Secrets of the Second Fortune” will be released in the next several weeks.

Mooie Infinity: Great place to do an interview, (sitting by the beautiful lavender fountain, overlooking Portable Empire Island).

MagicBecky Messmer: I agree

Mooie Infinity: So I would start out by saying: that Customer Service is one of the most overlooked treasures business could be engaging in. But they sadly shirk it.

Since you have been in the CS (Customer Service) field and have great reverence for it, I think you are one of the best people to ask some serious Customer Service questions to.

Why do you think businesses shirk intelligent Customer Service?

MagicBecky Messmer: In many cases I think it’s because most people perceive it as difficult.

It means they have to actually take the time to communicate with the customer.

How many people today really know how to listen?

Mooie Infinity: Do you think the problem is that communication skills are lacking?
Listening being a big one there?

MagicBecky Messmer: In many cases, yes. I think we have become a me/me society and that plays a lot into it.  For whatever reason, we have stopped taking responsibility-
and taking responsibility seriously.  I had an issue with a well known marketer and his CS guys whole communication was about how it wasn’t his fault I had this problem.

At that point I didn’t care. I just wanted it solved.

He finally said he was done with me because i was uncooperative and sent it to the marketer.

Mooie Infinity: So when businesses refuse to take responsibility and blame the
customer, then that’s when the whole thing falls apart?

MagicBecky Messmer: Of course. It takes so little to really make
your customers your fan.

With the guy I was having a problem with, up until he said he was done with me, he still could have won me over. All he would have had to do was say, I understand why you
are angry and this is what i am going to do.

In fact, I had a customer call today because she hadn’t received her records and one of the other reps said that I was going to have to do a little song and dance when explaining why we hadn’t shipped them.

I got on the phone and said Pat, I am very sorry. For some reason the records haven’t shipped. Let me send an email and see what I can do to get you an answer and get them shipped to you asap.  My number is (and i gave her my number). I will personally make sure this gets taken care of. If you don’t have them by Monday at noon call me. She was ecstatic! No muss no fuss.

The other rep said, Wow! Just straight forward truth! Cool!

Mooie Infinity: That is going the extra mile–the buck stops here sort of philosophy–and we need more of that.

MagicBecky Messmer: It’s all about intention, which goes back to responsibility.

As long as you tell them “what you are going to do to solve the problem” and then make sure you do it, of course.

I think it’s because you are showing trust in them.  Most people will pick up on that

Mooie Infinity: Yes–so CS service is outsourced routinely these days.   Why is this such a trend?

MagicBecky Messmer: Real quick point and then to your question.  The CEO I learned service from, had a real liberal return policy and we paid for return freight.

Someone asked him once, Aren’t you worried that the customers will abuse the policy?

His answer was, “Yes, some will.”

Mooie Infinity: Most won’t

MagicBecky Messmer: But more will appreciate that we are taking care of them and those are the customers that are important to me.

Mooie Infinity: Creating friends and relationships, not enemies.

MagicBecky Messmer: Exactly! And it works.

Mooie Infinity: Fans as you say.

MagicBecky Messmer: As for the outsourcing? That’s an easy answer with multiple layers.

It’s about money, the almighty dollar.

Mooie Infinity: When you outsource, you barely pay them anything to do the job?

MagicBecky Messmer: Companies here in the US don’t have to pay them much,
a few dollars an hour- you don’t have to pay benefits and you don’t have workman’s comp insurance.

In addition you don’t have a building to pay upkeep and monthly bills on.

Mooie Infinity: I have had experience talking to these outsourced CS people and it’s been a nightmare–communication at its worst. And I got the feeling that the language barrier was at the heart of the problem.

MagicBecky Messmer: The sad thing is, the people who lose out is the customer, and of course ultimately the company when customers stop doing business cause they are angry.

Mooie Infinity: Yes–in the end you go out of business.

MagicBecky Messmer: The company I work for has a group of people we “affectionately” call the I team.

Can you guess what the I stands for?

Mooie Infinity: Intelligent?

MagicBecky Messmer: Yeah. It’s a constant struggle trying to read the notes. And then the things they interpret as what I have asked gets ludicrous.

I had one location that had never returned a call and this was after months of our I team leaving messages.  So I called and left a message and got a return call the next day. She said the reason she called me back is she could understand me.  She said she would rewind the message over and over and just had no clue what was being said.

You are right. It’s a quick fix that will come back to bite them.  I think what you said earlier is really right on.  People are getting sick and tired of trying to communicate with people who don’t speak the language fluently or even well.

Mooie Infinity: Computer services routinely outsource their customer service. Apple does not and they have wonderful CS.

Comcast has good customer service. Credit card companies make it almost impossible to get any help.

We had a computer system at our hospital called Iprob.

One of the major reasons we had to abandon the system was very poor customer service. Again, a language slash communication barrier.

All the CS people were in Israel were very difficult to understand. Also were not always available.

MagicBecky Messmer: When a customer is irritated because something has gone wrong, the last thing they want to do is to try to explain it to someone who flat doesn’t understand.

The whole point of problem resolution is to calm the customer down so they can hear what you have to say.

Which by the way brings up the difference between customer service and problem resolution.

Mooie Infinity: Customer service and problem resolution?

Explain.

To be continued…..