Tutorial: PhraseHacking!

Many articles and tutorials offer lists of helpful phrases and magic words that can turn a call around. I say that’s only half the story. You need the recipe, not just the finished product. You need to know how to construct your own magic phrases—not just parrot the ones you found on in a listicle somewhere.

I’ve performed word-by word “autopsies” on some effective phrases I’ve used or heard used in my call center days, for your own coroner’s report!

The four phrases:

“Hi, I hope you can help me.”

“Okay, we are at $87.52 today.”

“So, I see by the notes that you’re considering closing out the account today.”

“Oh, I wish I didn’t have to say that it’s the case, but unfortunately, that’s what we’re looking at right now.”

 1.       For collections: (For requesting contact information from a third party)

“Hi, I hope you can help me.”

This phrase was extremely effective. Why?

1.       “Hi” (Informal greeting, sets a friendly tone)

2.       “I hope” (no one wants to dash your hopes)

3.       “you can help me” (a request for help is actually a more powerful psychological bonding tool than doing a favor, studies show. Use this to “bond” your listener to you.)

Overall, this phrase gives your listener a direction, and something to do, to get you off the phone graciously—i.e., give you the contact information. It also puts you in this position (see below article), ‘the powerful supplicant’.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2013/08/the_kindly_brontosaurus_the_amazing_prehistoric_posture_that_will_get_you.html

Frankenstein’s monster: making a similar sentence using the knowledge you gained from your autopsy

“Hello there¹, I’m hoping you might be able to² help me out here³.”

2.       For retail or other sales: (Giving tally)

“Okay, we are at $87.52 today.”

1.       “Okay” (casual usage, indicates wrap- up of job duties, sounds brisk yet friendly)

2.       “we” (magic word cubed. “We” creates a sense of teamwork, unity, and the subtle indication that you’ve been working with the customer this whole time.)

3.       “are at” (Some people don’t like roundabout ways of referring to dollar amounts- those numbers with no currency indicator you see on menus, or the like. I personally think it’s situational. When you’re the IRS, you don’t say “We’re at $15,528.53 today”. There are times to be exact, and there are times to draw the veil of subtly over what you’re doing. Shopping for pleasure is one of those times to blur the lines of harsh reality as much as possible.

4.       “today.” (You’ll be back! Or conversely “Hey, it’s just one day, tomorrow you can go on a budget! But YOLO!”)

There is something offhand, casual, and even at bit international about this phrase. Heard it at the H&M in Denver Pavilions shopping center and was so struck with it I decided to write this article.

Frankenstein’s monster: making a similar sentence using the knowledge you gained from your autopsy

“Alright¹, we’re² looking at³ 57.92 for you this time⁴.”

3.       For retention: (Upon opening up the case)

“So, I see by the notes [or “my other customer service agent told me” if you have a retention queue that is separate] that you’re considering closing out the account today.”

1.       “So” (this is the opening shot of a longer conversation, inviting explanations, which means you can give counteroffers.)

2.       “I see by the notes” (I pay attention and I care)

3.       “you’re considering” (You haven’t done it yet, but I am deferential to your wants)

4.       “closing out” (or some other delicate euphemism like “changing the status of”/ ‘discontinuing”)

5.       “today” (What happened in the recent past that dramatically changed your service so that TODAY you called us? Oh my gosh!)

I had to train my retention reps out of saying “You want to terminate your account, is that correct?” (So many things wrong with that, I don’t even know where to start!)

Frankenstein’s monster: making a similar sentence using the knowledge you gained from your autopsy:

 So¹, I can see that² you’re thinking about³ discontinuing⁴ your services with us today⁵.”

 4.       For all customer support bad-news situations:

“Oh, I wish I didn’t have to say that it’s the case, but unfortunately, that’s what we’re looking at right now.”

1.       “Oh” (universal signal for regret)

2.       “I wish” (further signaling that you care, and you regret having to give bad news)

3.       “have to say it’s the case” (firm yet polite way of setting expectations and boundaries)

4.       “unfortunately” (signally that you understand the frustrations/situation of the customer

5.       “that’s what we’re looking at” (I particularly like “what we’re looking at”- it orients the “team” to the mindset of problem solving and looking forward to solutions, rather than digging in and arguing about the policy or situation)

6.       “right now” (this signals that the situation is not ‘set in stone’, and the customer doesn’t have to contact the BBB or the Attorney General to file a complaint, things might change in the future)

Frankenstein’s monster: making a similar sentence using the knowledge you gained from your autopsy:

“Oh, gosh, what a tough situation¹. I wish I didn’t have to tell you this², but⁴ where we are5 right now⁶ is…”

I heard this phrase from a recorded call from India. I was tasked to find out why certain Indian reps were getting such high scores from our customers (answer: partly their Anglo-Indian accent, which sounded extremely high class and credible, partly their delivery—sweet and helpful.)

Well, you heard the medical examiner! Now you know why these types of phrases are so effective. Go forth and use your knowledge!

The biggest mistake your agents are making in bill explanation: the Memento problem.

For almost all major companies who outsource customer service, “Bill explanation” in one form or another is a top call driver to their centers. (For those that just want to know where Memento comes into play, see #4).

How do you get this pivotal service right?

1.       Listen very carefully to the customer and ask questions

There are generally only a few reasons the customer needs their bill explained: unexpected charge, or first bill, or new customer on an existing account (i.e., hubby calls in to make a payment when it’s usually wife’s job, or vice versa). Your reps will answer the same questions over and over. For most bills, I would say about 75%, a standard scripted explanation will be sufficient.

However, the remaining 25% will age you before your time and make you face your own mortality, because they are so challenging to understand, let alone script.

This is why it’s key to listen to all the information coming from the customer, ask targeted questions (list below) and  pay attention to what the customer says at all stages of the game.

 Generally, customers are the worst source of information about their own account—I mean, they’re calling you for information, right? If they knew, they wouldn’t be on the phone with you! But in the case of the double bill, the missing bill, or the bill that keeps coming in the wrong name, they usually have valuable information.

-        Targeted questions to ask (nicely!!!)

o   Have you had this issue before? If so, and if it was resolved, what was the resolution?

o   When did you first notice this issue?

o   What is the outcome that you would like to see here? (This may help with people who rant, ask questions, rant, go on a tangent, and then rant some more.)

o   Before I explain this, would you like me to refer you to our Self Help page (or other resources they could use to resolve the issues alone)?

 

2.       Use active listening to paraphrase the concern before commencing with the explanation

With outsourced agents who speak English as a second language, it’s a fact that nuances can be missed. With billing questions, especially tangled events like a promise for a % off that never happened, it’s very important to double check with the customer before “solving” the issue.

-        Paraphrase1: “So, you’re seeing a charge for $41.95 over and above your normal charge of $21.99, and you’re wondering what happened there?”

-        Paraphrase after catching the miss from paraphrase 1: “Oh, your entire bill is $41.95. Okay, so there’s an additional $19.96 that we need to find somewhere.”

 

3.       Match the speed, pacing, and comprehension level of your customer

I’m sure I don’t need to explain this advice in detail, but let me fill it out a bit by suggesting how you can determine the comprehension level of your customer.

-        Vocabulary. One of the easiest ways to determine the “reading level” of your customer- do they use industry jargon (such as “billing cycle”)? Do they seem familiar with billing practices at all? (It happens that we do get callers who’ve never seen an e-bill or even a checkbook!)

-        Question frequency- are they asking a lot of questions or are they just giving you verbal nods? A lot of questions usually means they aren’t following your level of conversation and it’s time to take it down a notch.

-        Type of question- pointed or targeted, or “huh? What?”

-        Verbalizations other than full words. “Uh, eh, oooh, mmm” etc. Listen to these to tell if the customer is understanding you or is lost

-        Total silence. You’ve usually lost them.

-        The structure of their explanation upon calling:

o   Example A (low structure): “Uh, yeah, um, about my bill? Okay, what happened is, I signed up for $29.99. And that was like, last year, or whatever. And now I’m seeing, I dunno, about $60.00 or something! So, uh, yeah.”

o   Example B (high structure): “Hi, Lorinda, you can help me by telling me what this charge is in the amount of $61.97 on my bill of June 1. My account number is…”

 

4.       Explain it as if you were telling a story: beginning, middle& end.

This is the biggest single mistake agents make: they start with the issue, not with the origin of the issue. Factoring in challenges with grammar and sometimes cultural expectations (“Don’t give bad or upsetting news directly, it’s better to talk around the issue and let the listener draw their own conclusions.”) and you have a vague, muddled, hard-to-understand bill explanation.

Most agents start with “Okay, so if we take 295 and minus out this month’s bill for 49.95, we have 250 dollars, right? So then we go back to August, and we see that there is a charge for 25.99, right? Okay, well that is 10% of 250 dollars.” WHERE DID THE 250 come from???

It is VERY HARD to think backwards for most people. It’s like watching the film Memento. Memento is a really cool film, but its limited audience and cult status are in place for a reason: it’s a brain buster.

Don’t try to challenge the intellect of your customers by making them think in reverse. Tell the story in the order that it happened, *starting with the origin of the issue*.

-        The steps in telling your bill story:

o   The precipitating event- the domino effect-the current state:

 “Okay, back on July 7, we were expecting to receive your old cable box. That was the end of the 30 day cable box receipt grace period. Since we did not receive the old cable box, a charge for 259.00 was generated. (The precipitating event) This charge then appeared on your August bill. Since you mentioned that you sent in a check from your vacation home for the usual amount of your bill, the additional 259.00 did not get paid in that cycle, leading to a finance charge of 10%, of 25.99. (The domino effect) So your September bill is now…” (The current state).

 

5.       Follow up with a test close and actually answer any concerns that you receive

After you’ve explained the source of the questioned items on the bill, (or solved whatever other concerns they may have), make sure that you ask “Is there anything else we could help you with today?” Sometimes customers don’t want to interrupt a very clearly earnest and trying very hard agent, but they couldn’t capture the explanation. This is their chance to ask again, or ask for more information. It’s also your last chance to have First Call Resolution, or to ensure that they won’t call back a few hours later on the same issue, because you didn’t really explain it well the first time.

6.       Guide them to resources where they can find answers on their own or through a community if they would like

Personally, I would suggest doing this after a good, solid “solve” and really at no other time—not before, not after a half assed solve, and certainly not after a no-solve! (Unless company mandates it, in which case….all I can do is shake my head). After a solid solve has been achieved, the customer is in the glow of happiness—you fixed their problem!

Now is the time to offer the vaunted value- add! Now is the time to ask them to “join the conversation” at #cablebillsmakemetingleinside. Now is the time to gently ease that baby bird of a customer out of the nest of the call center and into the welcoming arms of the community! Fly, baby customer! Fly!

3 crazy things customers think, and how to set them straight

Ring the bell! School’s back in! Educating your “confused” customer the right way.

Isn't CustomerWorld just lovely? Don't you want to live there too?

Source: weheartit.com

 

Your customers live in a magical, bluebell-sprinkled world called “CustomerLand”. The Internet is free, or 9.99. Money grows on trees, their word is law, and everything written in promotional brochures about customer-centric focus is literally true. HA HA! Poor customers.

They have some ideas that, shall we say, are hindering you in providing them with the best service. What are those common beliefs and how can we educate our customers without angering them or talking down to them, and making sure they listen and understand?

Formula for success:

1: Sympathize with the belief, no matter how nutty or misguided.

2: Taking your cue from clues the customer has given you, choose your education approach.

3: Educate the customer and if applicable, offer them choices or a compromise to help ease the transition from CustomerLand to the Real World.

Belief 1: The Internet is a natural resource like air or water.

 Since I can get it “free” at places like hotel lobbies, airports, and the library, why should I pay your company anything more than the barest minimum for an internet connection?

The Reality: Where to start? Free wifi is a “hidden cost” that you “pay” for with the cost of your coffee or your plane ticket. Some free wifi comes from your tax dollars, your retail taxes, school taxes, etc.

The Internet is never free, but wily businesses make it look ‘free’. If you want high quality, reliable internet connection for your home, you’re going to get what you pay for, just like most everything else in life.

How to explain this to your customers without a blow up:

Choice 1: Just one steelworker blue collar person to another

“I know, it’s crazy, right? Everything seems like it costs so much more nowadays. But you know what, when you pay for quality, you get quality. You get [whatever features and benefits they are paying for: warranty, truck rolls, 24- hour- access to help, etc]. So I know it’s a bit of a pinch, but you’ll have peace of mind knowing you’re getting a quality product.

Choice 2: Tour guide dishing on state secrets

“I know it seems a little high, but the thing is, it’s all about what the market will bear. It seems like some people are willing to pay pretty steep prices for unlimited data, so that’s where the prices are set right now.”

Belief 2: If only we could go back to the “good old days” when there was no outsourcing. If customer service reps were all “Americans”, we wouldn’t have any service issues.

The Reality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EokF_4MGjqI. This USA DMV employee sharpens pencils while a room full of people wait for her to call their number. One of many, many videos about American employees doin’ it wrong.  Point is, bad service is not limited to, nor does it originate in, outsourced call centers.

How to explain this to your customers without a blow up:

Choice 1: The Warren Buffet

“I know some call centers haven’t given our customers the service we’d like. But outsourcing some of our most common calls allows us to keep our prices low for everyone. If we sourced all of our work onshore, you’d be looking at much, much higher costs.”

Choice 2: The Mother Teresa

“I know, it’s hard to deal with outsourced centers sometimes. But you know, we’re really doing a wonderful thing giving people a job and a leg up out of poverty with these call center jobs. Sometimes we just have to look at the big picture and help our neighbors.”

Belief 3: Yes I did! (send that check, rebate form, item back to the warehouse)

This is a hard one. It’s very hard to argue something in the negative. You can’t “prove” that you don’t have something. However, the upside is, rarely can they prove they actually did do what they most likely didn’t do.

Reality: No they didn’t. (Or you have no record of it, which is pretty much the same thing).

How to explain this to your customers without a blow up:

Choice 1: That was then, this is now.

“Gosh, I wonder what happened. Well, the bad news is we don’t have the item, and we don’t have a record of it. So, your choices are….”

Choice 2: Hate the game, not the player.

“You know what, I gotta tell you, I just hate these new computer systems. Things are getting lost, not logged in, you name it. There’s always a chance it’s a glitch in the system. But what we need to do for now is…”

Remember, the customer lives in a world where there is one red phone on your desk, and he’s the only person you’ll deal with today, or her call is the only one in queue. Don’t break their fragile butterfly dreams, just gently guide them back to earth.

 

 

You're doing it wrong: call centers.

Source: http://bjoernvold.com/

 

Recently, a viral video recording of a customer service call gone terribly wrong made the rounds of the Internet.

http://gawker.com/youve-never-heard-a-customer-service-call-meltdown-qui-1299857467

When it was posted on Gawker, comments ranged from sympathy with the poor agent to agreement with the caller.

I enjoy reading comment sections, and since my profession and interest is call center training, I read through almost all the comments for this article. There were 2 that really stuck out in my mind:

1: "It's not surprising that customers snap and have meltdowns like this — the way they treat you, I feel dread when I have to call any of the big companies. Transferred five times, on hold for 45 minutes, and suddenly I'm back at the starting point, forced to endure the whole recording urging me to use their website instead + the "speak your account number" system that never, ever understands me. I've been brought to tears by customer service — notably, AT&. […] Melting down accomplishes nothing. If you can connect with them, they might hook you up. Then when it's all over, three hours later, you can let out the tears."

2: "He didn't handle it admirably, but I have sympathy for the guy who lost his mind. It happened to me once when I tried to cancel my automatic payment with Sprint. After being disconnected at least 10 times, and being on the phone for 2 1/2 hours, I got a person who told me Sprint couldn't do that. I had to contact my bank to stop the payment. Something broke inside of me that day, my friends. I was actually crying with despair. […]"

(comments from Gawker.com)

Where did we go wrong? Why, with all the technological updates, customer experience blogs and experts, and mature call center staff,even overseas, are we still reducing our customers to quivering balls of tears?

It genuinely saddens me to read lines like “Something broke inside of me that day” and angers me to think that companies have the nerve to call experiences like the 2 above ‘service’ of any kind.

What are the issues identified by these comments?

1: It’s very clear that people HATE the IVR auto options, yet companies keep tinkering with them to make them “better”. My bank has a speech recognition system that asks me to speak my account number and PIN. Uh, bank? Has it ever occurred to you that I might not want to speak confidential information like that aloud?

We need to make the IVR better at recognizing speech, but we also need to offer a clear option for “human” in the *first* set of options, not after a Keystone- Kops- like chase through the phone tree from hell.

2: Lack of communication between platforms. The IVR doesn’t take notes. Department A doesn’t know what Department B does, nor do they care. Chat queues aren’t connected to voice queues, and can’t see any of the notes on the account from previous calls.

 This was one of the most common headaches I encountered in my call center production floor days. Nothing is more annoying to customers than having to repeat all the information they just gave “the robot lady”, and yet many companies still do not integrate their IVR and their CRM (or they don’t fix the issues with accounts that don’t “screen pop”).

3: Lack of awareness of common customer service requests. Stopping an auto pay should not take 2.5 hours and ten phone calls. Customers should not be “letting the tears out” after routine concerns like getting a new phone number, tracking down a missing bill, etc. Either major corporations are not aware of the top call drivers and don’t train to them, or they don’t care. Not sure which option is more chilling.

4: Understaffed and under trained call centers-. Yes, everyone is excited about the new social learning engine that will allow “the swarm” to collaborate on the customers’ issues. But that technology is still in its infancy and in the meantime, 3 hours-in-total calls, dropped calls, no supervisors, long holds….they’re clearly still an issue. We need more training, more supervisors, and more agents, plus better, more flexible staffing.

5: Lack of connection between the high level decision makers and the front liners. Just ONCE I would like to see the CTO or CFO of a megacorp take an irate phone call. Some of the corporate communiqués I’ve received are so out- of- touch as to be almost funny. “Customers will love our new Self Service option- it will save them time and money!” Yeah. Something like that. Only not at all.

 I’ve also worked with a company (that shall remain nameless) that insisted that all the product and service issues be dealt with by using “better scripting and delivery”. Hon, there’s no good way to explain charging 60 dollars a month for download speeds of 3.0 Mbps, with a cap of 200 MB okay? There just isn’t.

I think it’s clear that companies have a duty and a responsibility to step up to the plate and start getting serious about the quality of their call centers. I understand that customers sometimes don’t get it that if they want 30$ Internet, the cost cutting has got to start from somewhere, but I believe we can avoid the blatant “We don’t care about you” mistakes.

 

Let’s all step up our game.

Only connect: customer experience as customer caring

source: folsol.blogspot.com

 

I could write a book about how bad call centers, especially outsourced call centers, are.

Instead, I would like to share what I have learned about customer care in the Philippines frommy own 2+ years in outsourced call centers, in a positive way.

The customer’s experience in the Philippines is very different from the US—in some terrifying ways (which I will cover another time) and in some surprisingly pleasant ways.

Advice to a stranger.

Because of the cultural edict to help and serve others above themselves, most Filipinos will break themselves in half trying to help you, even if you are a stranger. Yes, it could be annoying to have strangers tell me how to do something, but it could also be helpful. I think about the commercials in which strangers in the US helping each other is portrayed as Mother Teresa level sainthood and a real novelty, and I have to say that we could probably use a bit more of this.

Translation to best practices in the contact center:

Encourage your reps to anticipate potential issues that other customers have suffered, and warn the current customer about them.

Have other customers experienced slow uploading when they chose this package, and wound up upgrading a month later? It might be worth your while to mention it.

Have other customers signed up for the monthly text message reminding them that their payment will be taken out of their checking account the next day, and they loved it? Again, might be worth mentioning.

It all comes around.

If I asked my driver to wait, he gets a tip. When I asked my tailor to complete a rush project for me, she got not only my business, but the business of my wealthy, idle ladies- who- lunch friends.

In the reverse, I lived in a service apartment, with a maid service for a year. In that year, I must have given the maids almost 100 books (paperbacks that I intended to read only once), and just as many DVDs (cheapies that I bought to watch once, on a whim, or got one episode into and didn’t like).

When I was in terrible pain and couldn’t walk one night to get medicine, the maids came up to the room, got the money, and went to the store to get medicine for me. That was great "instant karma" for my good deeds.

Translation to best practices in the contact center:

Many times it can feel like an ER in the production floor: you help a frantic customer out and never really know the ending of the story—what happened? Did the patch work?

I would try to develop a practice of ‘catching them in the act of doing good’—when you audit calls, note the highlights and good deeds, not just the grammar mistakes.

 When you hear an agent struggling with a cranky customer, give them a thumbs up, an extra few minutes on break, or a much needed coffee for free. Make sure they get “instant karma” for doing the right thing and helping others.

Whatever you call it, customer service, care, or experience should be about making the customer’s life easier.

There were many times in the Philippines where life was much harder than in the US—getting a new ATM card was a Himalayan outing. However, there were many things that made life much easier—little mini shops that sold OTC medicines by the pill, so that if you were short on cash you could buy just as much medicine as you needed, and not be stuck buying the whole $10.00 bottle, as I was the other day in the Detroit airport when I had a headache and needed relief, fast. Shoe repair shops inside the grocery store, so that you could drop off your shoes and go shopping in one errand. A huge variety of public transportation choices: light rail, dollar vans, cabs, buses, and mini buses (“Jeepneys”) as well as private cars with drivers, and rickshaw-like contraptions for short trips when you were just too tired to keep walking. 

 It was all about variety and convenience.

Translation to call center best practices:

If it’s at all possible, offer choices to your customers. Try to make those choices genuinely different, and genuinely appealing. Letting the customer know they can use UPS OR FedEx to mail back their broken modem at their own expense really isn’t much of a choice, now is it? Coach your agents to try to offer choices, workarounds, or ‘hacks’ whenever they can, to make life genuinely easier for the customer.

Look around you in your own life: what connections do you make that you can bring to the customer experience?

Woolie Boolie gets a comb: using your own stories in training.

source: wehearit.com

 

As a trainer, one of the top 3 of the most effective tools in my tool kit was the personal story. 

I always got a very positive response to a personal story—about almost anything. They not only enjoyed it, they clamored for more, sometimes to the point of getting downright nosy. (Especially on the topic of my dating life, which was a cabinet of curiosities to them).

How can you use your own stories (sometimes stuffily called “personal disclosure”) to greatest effect?

A few ground rules:

The story should be short, well rehearsed, and punchy.

If you are a natural story teller (few of us are), great.

Otherwise, write it, prune it, rehearse it, and test it. It should be about 30 seconds long, be devoid of any fillers or ‘go backs’ (“Wait, hang on, the thing is, she was my best friend since first grade, that’s really vital to the story. Okay, where was I?”).

 

It needs a punch line—something unexpected or dramatic works best.

There should be one lead- in line, a little “build up” to the punch line, and then the punch line.

“When I was living in Manila I used to work on jigsaw puzzles all the time, and I would always have one out and half complete.” (Lead- in)

“Well, I started noticing that the puzzle was more done than I remembered when I would sit down and work on it. At first I chalked it up to the fact that I was always having a glass or two of wine while working on it” (Build up)

“But then I caught on: the teenage girls that cleaned the room every day were actually working on the puzzle while I was at work!” (Punch line)

The story should show you in a slightly funny or self deprecating light. Failing that, it should highlight one of life’s “universal truths”, such as how we are all silly, puffed up, or wrong- headed on occasion.

The time you found yourself on the verge of tears when you couldn’t find an item called ‘A goodie basket’ in the department store, only to find out that your boss wanted you to buy the goodies and assemble one. (me)

The time you raised holy heck to find out who stole same goodie basket only to find out it was being stored for safe keeping in a coworker’s locker. (still me)

Things like that.

The stories should be treats, not the meat and potatoes of class.

Like many things (snow, whiskey, choral singing) a little goes a long way with personal stories. Always better to leave them wanting more than wishing you would just be done with it.

The story teller should know his or her limits, audience, and self.

Having an extensive grab bag of stories to reach into is helpful—most trainers are natural leaders and story tellers, they wouldn’t have gotten into the biz otherwise—but what’s really key is knowing your strengths. If you can’t do imitations to save your life, don’t stake your story’s life on them. If your class is full of highly technical, highly educated, and rather sharkey tough guys, don’t tell the story about the time you looked for your glasses, only to find them on top of your own head, punctuated with nervous giggles at your own silliness.

Finally….it had better be real. Surreal is even better. But it has to be authentic—don’t “pray at” your audience in the hopes that they “see themselves” in your little morality tale. Use stories for fun, humor, and adding life to your classroom, not making a heavy handed point.

 

 

 

Passion Pit: must you be truly passionate about customer expereince to excel in providing it?

Source: http://weheartit.com/

Passion is what keeps you going when things are hard, unexpected challenges arise, or you get bad news.

 BUT: You don’t really need to live, breathe, and eat “customer experience” day in and out to become very successful in the field. It sounds a bit counterintuitive—how can you succeed at something that you’re not completely involved in? 

·         Competence

When working in collections, there were two types of successful collectors: naturals and grinds.

Naturals were born salesmen with lovely voices and an uncanny sense of what to say when to close a deal. They got jazzed over hitting big payments and putting up huge numbers on the board day after day. They thrilled to the roller coaster ride of it all.

Grinds usually came from academic or other white- collar backgrounds—they were educated in a wide swath of subjects, and were always finding angles to improve their game—jotting down telephone numbers that didn’t ring through on the automated dialer system and then manually calling them later, creating more detailed notes in the accounts, learning more about Accurint in their spare time.

Overall, both groups had competence- they were skilled at their job. Naturals came by it more easily, but both groups were focused, prepared, and knew their market.

·         Work Ethic

Passion is the spark and the fire, but good work habits like application, patience, and perseverance—those are the things that you really need at your job. I’ve seen many a reality show in which a sniffling participant argues that they want the prize more, so they should get it, which is often a cover for their lack of competence or work ethic. Wanting something or loving something to death is not enough to bring it to fruition.

·         Curiosity

My top reps at a Philippines based outsourced call center would surf Wikipedia in their ‘avail’ times. It was one of the few sites not blocked, and it gave them an irresistible look through a window into the outside world.

 In many of my jobs, including retail, I made myself a better salesperson by reading everything I could get my hands on about the company and the products.

Was I “passionate” about denim washes? No, but as a naturally (and insatiably!) curious person, I was willing to direct my curiosity to a area where it would pay off in competence down the line.  

·         Vision

Exceptional “psychic” customer experiences come from knowing what your customers might need down the line. It’s great to be passionate about providing great service in the here and now, but what about extension brands, products, and services that they’ll need and want later down the line?

How can you take your 1-store operation from using all paper processing and tracking to a 3-store chain that’s completely digital and eco-friendly?

You need more than just “passion” to accomplish moves like this.

Passion can take you far-- but without these other traits, you'll be flapping your melting wings as you soar ever closer to the sun, oblivious to the dangers....