Some individuals are poor at it, some are good at it and yet others excel at it. What am I talking about? Engaging customers. Have you ever noticed how some individuals relate really well with people? They make interacting look like a walk in the park. They can even make a fake smile seem real….if they wanted to do so. But, to these individuals, there’s no need to fake anything. They are the real deal when it comes to human interaction.
One major superpower when interacting harmoniously with people and in particular, with customers, is the ability to maintain one’s composure throughout the encounter. Even when words, gestures or actions upend one’s equilibrium, the ability to bounce back quickly and press on, is an attribute that few individuals possess. It’s a priceless piece of weaponry in the engagement arsenal, when irate customers have to be assuaged, haughty customers are bent on only listening to themselves and demanding customers are laser focussed on getting exactly what they want.
Recruiters in the customer experience universe feel thrilled at their good fortune when they come across these engagement stars and snap them up in the wink of an eye. Chances are that these new hires will allow the business to bask in the knowledge that there will be one less individual for whom it will have to be outing customer engagement fires, daily.
The ability to bounce back quickly and press on is an attribute that few individuals possess, it’s a priceless piece of weaponry in the engagement arsenal.
There are quite a few attributes and skills that allow these engagement stars to be so outstanding.
They have a natural chemistry with people, bolstered by the fact that they are naturally curious about how others think, act and behave. This openness allows them to not put too many hard parameters on how they “want people to show up.” They know that people are people and are willing to be flexible in the way that they navigate the exchanges.
In the customer experience universe, these engagement stars show up with the ability to depersonalize situations that may destabilize regular folk. They are not easily offended and float above name-calling, offensive gestures and off-putting behaviours being slung by customers. in other words, they are good at resisting the temptation to be pulled into conflict.
The lesson here, is that when we place expectations on how we want people to show up, invariably, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment when people arrive with opposing profiles. A better idea would be to lean in to the tenet, “Blessed are the flexible, for they will never be bent out of shape,” and save ourselves the pain of emotional displacement.
One major superpower when interacting harmoniously with people and in particular, with customers, is the ability to maintain one’s composure throughout the encounter.
Another distinguishing trait of these stars, is their unwavering commitment to serving all customers with distinction. They understand their role, which is to serve and they adopt the mental positioning that irrespective of how customers show up, they will deliver a stellar experience.
When engaging with customers, it’s crucial that performance standards be indexed to the highest, unvarying, world-class standards and not to floating standards that change from day to day and customer to customer.
Low effort is not attractive to engagement stars. They abhor mediocrity and relish doing their best work and giving their best performance every day. When interacting with customers, they make the customer’s priority, their priority and go all out to ensure customer happiness.
These engagement stars show up with the ability to depersonalize situations that may destabilize regular folk.
This reminds me of an experience that I encountered a few years ago, whilst executing a service transformation project for a client. The supervisory group had really embraced their role as first adopters of all of the new standards that had been introduced and were deploying and reinforcing those standards across their departments.
One supervisor in particular, who became the poster-person for the project, because he was taking in and applying all of the learnings so earnestly, was promoted to a floating supervisory position, with responsibility for supporting his peer supervisors in imbedding the new standards and monitoring compliance across the departments. Another lesson is that stardom has its own rewards.
The interesting fact, is that these engagement stars do not come into this world as members of an elite or hallowed species. Often, their stardom is driven by ambition, an appetite for growth and a potent desire to do everything with distinction.
Irrespective of how customers show up, they will deliver a stellar experience.
In an uncertain world, a winning business will be one that’s densely populated with engagement stars, who create a level of certainty and predictability around the delivery of an unvarying level of distinctive service delivery and customer experience.
The lesson here, is that if stars are so important to the value chain, populating a workforce with as many of these individuals as possible, should be a key mandate of recruitment strategies.
After all, why struggle with hit and miss, when a winning formula is available?