Presented by Lou Honick, CEO of HostMySite.com

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Presented by Lou Honick, CEO of HostMySite.com
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Topic Overview

• Service culture and philosophy
• Managing with metrics
• Building your own service culture

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What is great service? My definition
Responding promptly and accurately to customer
requests in such a way that each customer
feels valued, respected, and understood.
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Why is it so hard to deliver great service?

• Employees receive bad service from companies
  they deal with
• As a result, they haven't been conditioned to
  deliver good service to your customers
• The Golden Rule vs. Reality

• The Rule
• Do unto others as you would have others do unto
  you.
• The Reality
• People do unto others as others have done to
  them.

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Create Your Own Service Culture

• Develop your own definition of great
  customer service
• Engage your employees to help define the
  service philosophy
• It's harder to develop a service culture
  the longer your company exists without one

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Organizational Vision

• Everyone (especially management) must
  embrace the service culture
• Successes should be highlighted
• Failures should not be ignored
• Consistency is key
• Our pillars project
• Training is not just possible, it is
  required

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How do you measure success?

• Call center metrics
• Create methods to measure success
• Reinforce your service culture
• If you can measure it, you can improve it

Average Answer Time 16 seconds Average Talk
Time 5 minutes, 41 seconds
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Metrics Examples

• 3 Month Period (1st Quarter 2006)
• Spent 236 days on the phone
• 542 inbound calls per day
• 46,527 ticket responses (517/day)
• 16,476 Web chats (183/day)

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Metrics Pitfalls

• Dont let metrics dehumanize service
• Valuable tools, but dont always tell the whole
  story
• Examples Average talk time" Tickets closed
• Balance hard numbers with subjective quality
  assessment

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The Pillars of Great Customer Service

• Compassion
• Credibility
• Exceed Expectations
• Never Say No

• Ownership
• Respect
• Reliability

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The Pillars of Great Customer Service
Compassion

• Outstanding service is frequently derailed by
  condescension
• Great service is personal, not mechanical
• Understanding the customers viewpoint

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The Pillars of Great Customer Service
The face of compassion
Your support staff are pureprofessionals. They
are alwaysfriendly and I've never once felt
asif they were trying to get me off thephone,
even if I (or one of mypartners) made repeated
calls aboutthe same issue.
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The Pillars of Great Customer Service
Credibility

• Why it isnt enough to just meanwell
• Accuracy is the key to credibility
• Employees must have the toolsthey need to serve
  customers well
• You guys provide great service almost every time
  I call!

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The Pillars of Great Customer Service
Exceed Expectations

• Setting expectations and exceeding them
• Each employee must be in tune with the
  capabilities of the organization
• Aggressive goals vs. impossible goals
• Customer delight not just satisfaction
• Hows the weather?

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The Pillars of Great Customer Service
Never Say No

• Why this is the most difficult pillarof all
• Is it even possible?
• Getting organizational buy-in
• Creativity is the key
• How do I make an apple pie?
• Maybe Pizza instead?

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The Pillars of Great Customer Service
Ownership

• When things go wrong, ownershipissues are often
  to blame
• Going the extra mile to find asolution rather
  than passing theissue
• Particularly challenging in 24x7service provider
  environments
• Take your lumps from C-list celebrities

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The Pillars of Great Customer Service
Respect

• Disrespect from customers is stillreturned with
  respect
• True respect is given all thetime not just
  when the customercan hear
• Customers need our help thatdoesnt make them
  less intelligentor capable
• Are you sure hes on hold?

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The Pillars of Great Customer Service
Reliability

• Be responsive to customer needs
• Answer the phone avoid hold times
• Respond to emails promptly same day minimum
• Own up to mistakes honesty builds loyalty
• Blizzard!

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The Myths of Great Service

• Great customer service is too expensive
• You have to draw the line somewhere
• You cant satisfy everyone (so dont bother
  trying)
• Its OK to fire difficult customers
• It is acceptable to sacrifice service skills for
  technical talent

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The Rewards of Great Service

• Builds brand loyalty
• In competitive industries like hosting and
  access, someone will always be cheaper price
  is no longer an effective and sustainable
  differentiator
• Drives referral and repeat business
• Lower cost of customer acquisition
• Lower customer churn

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Thank you for attending!