.JPG)
Secrets From a Coach - Debbie Green & Laura Thomson's Podcast
Secrets From a Coach - Debbie Green & Laura Thomson's Podcast
193. Customer Service Excellence - Think NeuroService
In our latest 3-part miniseries we take a look at customer service and the role it is playing in enabling organisations to thrive now and into the future. As more service experiences are becoming automated or augmented with eg AI-enabled chatbots, the human is fast becoming the premium service differentiator. So how can we maximise every moment when providing a service experience with a customer, client, patient, passenger, student or internal stakeholder?
This first episode takes a fresh look at the decades-old thinking around customer service. We explore what the growing world of neuroscience can show us makes the difference when one human interacts with another in a service scenario. We’ve coined the phrase ‘neuroservice’ and shares top tips to bring this to life for tangible results. From the link between touch and value-perception, to the role imagination plays in creating intrigue and commitment.. let’s be inventive in our approach to service experiences. Now is the time to maximise our human edge in ourselves and our customer-facing teams.
Curious for more?
Secrets from a coach thrive and maximize your potential in the evolving workplace. Your weekly podcast with Debbie Green of Wishfish and Laura Thompson Stavely of Phenomenal Training. Debs Hello, you all right? Yeah, I'm doing well. We're taking a bit of a change, aren't we? On this mini-series. This is a three-part approach, but you like threes, lord, I like it in threes Debs. You're right, tell me, how are you at the moment?
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm okay, I feel. How do I feel Like, wow, providing so much stuff to others. It's like what about me? So how do I look after me? But also that ability to watch the impact that you can have on people when you're conscious of the service that you're offering.
Speaker 1:Oh, too right. And what's been interesting is we've been kind of right out and about up and down the country, haven't we? Us training team and the difference in service levels that you get, even within the same brand, is quite an eye-opener and it's a real reminder of you might have this shiny brand logo, but it's the interactions you have with the people that work as part of that team where it's made or lost, that that positive customer impact I think you're right.
Speaker 2:And, as you say, we've had like two months worth of experiencing customer service, um, and some people have just disappeared. And you go, where is everyone? And you're going I can't find anyone to get extra coffee, you know and then the others, you just it's the most crappiest hotel that we've stayed in, but the people have been amazing at providing a service. So it's really interesting, isn't it? Absolutely, you know, you sort of say, see, the it is about the people, and I must say we were with somebody. Where were we? You know, I don't know where I was.
Speaker 2:We were in um york, and the person that was looking after us this time round I can't remember what his lovely name was, but I did send in a thank you very much for your service thing so I made a point of calling him out. He noticed that we were drinking some bottled water that we'd taken from our rooms. We stayed overnight and he put jugs of water out and then he, just, without us asking, just replaced everything with bottled water and you go, wow, that was magic, because he noticed and seamlessly did it like the magic fairy. It was lovely, not that he was a fairy, but you know what I mean yeah, yeah, yeah, he was lovely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the impact of thinking, someone's noticed, someone's bothered and they're prepared to go a little bit above and beyond just to make a difference in that moment. Do you know? I remember one of our beloved clients. So they're a global retail director and, of course, retailing fashion at the moment. That's not for the faint-hearted, if you own a pop-up restaurant environment.
Speaker 1:You could be serving customers out of a shop which hasn't been part of the upgrade project, for example, but the environment in which those humans create, as people are welcomed into that store or that restaurant. It's the environment that people then remember, even if it might not be a particularly glossy bricks and mortar experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, and it does make a difference. Um, that noticing and just caring and chatting to some people is about. They just love the job they do, so they will go over and above or over beyond, because they want you to have a good experience of them. And I think, when you think about it from that way, what is it that goes on in that person's head where they are absolutely giving a service? They want you to come back, they want you to remember them, yet others there's no thought that goes into it, which I think is fascinating.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. Let's reveal what might be for some of us, a fresh approach to view this age old bit of training content around customer service. But let's not look at what was done in the 80s, 90s and noughties. Let's take a real fresh look at what does it mean to create an amazing customer experience, whether that's a five-star excellent experience, whether it is one where someone feels safe and secure. So, whatever your measure is, what is it that actually makes that difference in that customer interaction? So, debs, go on. What did you know? When one human touches an object deliberately, slowly, in the other human's brain it registers the intuition that what you're looking at has a luxury value to it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I did not know that, laura. So when you like stroke something, that's lovely. Oh, I did not know that law.
Speaker 1:So when you like stroke something that's lovely, absolutely In whatever retail environment you happen to be in at the time. Debs A pet shop, is that lady buying a cactus, anyway? So apparently there's just something inbuilt. I mean, for example, anyone that has ever carried a newborn baby you don't chuck it from one parent to the next, do you? You really slowly pass that beautiful object, that item, in the most careful way. And because, if you think about our evolution, we have known that if you don't treat things that are important and valuable with slow, delicate pace, then you're potentially not going to be very successful or very effective. So there's something inbuilt in our human brain. When we see someone touching something in a really slow, intentional way, then it implies to the other person this is a premium, luxury product. And I learned that because back in the day when I was a sales trainer, we had a guy in our team who was um on the side doing some qvc shopping channel.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, okay yeah and it was one of the first things they were taught which is the slower the item, the slower you touch the item, the more perceived premium that item is. So let's say, for example, in your day job, you have to distribute handouts or distribute a report around a room. If you just fling them out, you are basically demonstrating with your body language this is low value. So you know, have a look at it. If you believe it or not, literally chuck it away.
Speaker 1:Whereas if you hand pass an item of clothing, an instrument, a piece of paper, if you deliberately pass it with intention, then it implies to the other person oh, I need to take value from this. Same, for example, if you are I don't know removing someone's bag to search at an airport, or if you're taking someone's coat to like put it onto a coat rack, if they turn around and they see you just chucking it over the chair, then in that moment you have demonstrated with your whole demeanor this doesn't matter to me and you don't matter. So these are some of the things, debs, that when you, we start to explore the amazing emerging world of neuroscience, these deep held bits of perception that we have, that can actually make those little tnts the tiny, noticeable things that even just with the smallest tweak in our behaviors and interactions can make some really significant results in terms of that customer um environment that you create yeah, oh, my god, that that is, um, it is so true.
Speaker 2:So it's very much being, I suppose, mindful in intention or in your actions. Right, that sets you up for that. I'm going to consciously serve this person or step in that way, or nurture that child. I'm not just going to go, oh, thanks, that's lovely. Suppose it comes into that intent, your intent, which means you have to be in the now in order to read the situation. Well, that enables you to provide whatever that person might need. So it's like you've got a sixth sense.
Speaker 2:Um, I know, we, you know we sometimes say that in the coaching space about using your intuition. And I'm just saying, as you saying, the more slowly you are unveiling or moving something I think that's what happens in a coaching space you create that slowing the process down, I suppose, slowing that individual's thinking down. So in a way, metaphorically, you are not touching them, but you know what I mean. You're slowing everything down. So it's of a higher value. Their time with you, your time with them, is of high, high value. So you're not going to rush it through and you're not going to finish off a coaching session in 20 minutes when they were expecting an hour. So that ability to use time in inverted commas.
Speaker 1:I suppose it can make a huge difference to how somebody perceives it and feels there's value in it, absolutely so, um, I'm really looking forward to the next one that we're going to cover, which is to how somebody perceives it and feels there's value in it, absolutely. So I'm really looking forward to the next one that we're going to cover, which is looking at creating an internal customer service culture. So I guess what we were kind of wanting to get some fresh air to all of our thinking is. It just sounds so old and been there, done it, talking about customer service. But actually, if we were to just reframe it and refresh it and we'll look in a moment at what that means in terms of your own mindset, before you enter into a customer conversation, for example but even asking people to imagine something gets them already thinking about something differently.
Speaker 1:So did you know that even if you ask someone imagine you've walked into a dark room and it's pitch black they can tell that it might be quite imperceptible, but your pupils start to dilate because your brain is so literal it will actually start to create an environment where you could see better in the dark.
Speaker 1:So let's say you're there with a customer and you're wanting to encourage them to think about doing something a different way, rather than forcing them with. You must do this. You must do that, just giving them some gentle nudges of what are your thoughts around X, how much thinking have you done around Y, and even just getting the other person to be able to have a think about something that you've suggested, it's almost like an invitation to connect to that thought rather than sort of forcing someone to do it. And I think it's so interesting what you were saying from a time point of view, because pretty much everyone in the world, or the world that we are involved in anyway, feels like there's not enough time to do everything you want to do. So if you can create that unrushed, unhurried, unpressurized moment, it might actually turn out to be quicker overall anyway, because you've been able to do some proper listening and create that good patient, student, customer client conversation space.
Speaker 2:And I think that builds on that whole point you just said about listening. And again, that's our gift. We were fortunate to be in the room with some ex-police officers who were high ranking and they were to. One of them then trained how to do interviewing skills and interrogation skills, and not, he never gave obviously anything away, but he was just saying the thing we have to teach people is that ability to listen and just be quiet and enable the silence to just be and not be afraid of the silence. And if that person is processing or thinking, they will hold the. You know, we hold the space for them and it just made me think we do that in coaching as well. You know, we enable people to just let their thoughts go and they will feel the silence, um, and I could see how they use that skill. So the transferable skills that people have from one environment, one industry to another, um, are things that can enable our brain to process things well. So, and again, enables us to feel safe, because if you're living letting them listen, you're listening, so they can be heard.
Speaker 2:You're then paraphrase back what you've heard. They're automatically and think you've provided that space, that great service for them, as you said, rather than just crash on through and have it your agenda, um, this is what I want to get out of it. And you're not hearing and listening to them, you're cutting them over. Um, you know, you're just not taking time and I think that's that's the thing in. You're managing teams or people, um, you know, team people, leaders or whatever. I think that's the thing that sometimes I watch and observe that gets missed in team dynamics people, people are ready, waiting to speak in a room, so therefore they're not just being in the now, and I think it's Eckhart Tolle, isn't it, that talks about the now being present, really in the now, so you can observe and tune into and read the energy and connect and then enable great conversations to take place. But that is intentional, isn't it?
Speaker 1:it is yeah, and it's also very different from what an algorithm could deliver. So that service experience of what do you want? Let me give you some information. The algorithms are becoming increasingly intelligent. Um, I was at the lsc this week. Oh, how was that, lord god, it was fascinating. So I was following a professor who was talking about some of the advances in AI and what that means that we can do in our day-to-day work, and then my bit was then about how do we unlock the human edge in our day-to-day interactions, and what an algorithm will find difficult to do is to evolve as the storyline goes, as it's communicating with you. To evolve as the storyline goes as it's communicating with you, us humans being able to evolve the information that we choose to deliver because we've listened, we've understood, we've read the room. That ability to do that but that reminds you to be that requires you to be fully present in that moment. So I wonder if it's worthwhile now having a look at what might that mean for us setting ourselves up for a good customer interaction.
Speaker 1:Yes, let's do that so, deb's right, have you come across this concept of mirror neurons?
Speaker 2:I have heard about it law, but explain all, all right.
Speaker 1:So picture the scene. You and I hooked up some amps to some um mri scanner.
Speaker 2:So what would that bring out if they did that?
Speaker 1:these two are beyond employment. That's why they work for themselves that's why they work for themselves. No corporate will have them but let's say you and I were hooked up to these mri scanners, right, yeah? If you then started to have a conversation with me, talking about all these wonderful things that happen in life, my brain can't help but ding-a-ling-a-ling sparkle in those areas that you've activated.
Speaker 2:Oh, please, let it ding-a-ling-a-ling.
Speaker 1:Was it more like an echo.
Speaker 2:No, definitely the ding-a-ling-a-ling, because I can see it when your brain goes ding-a-ling-a-ling, literally. Sorry, I interrupted you there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the mirror neurons is where we can't help but influence each other. Because, again, if you think about how the human species is involved, if you're not able to be influenced and impacted by the people around you in your tribe, then you would have been the last to know that the saber-toothed tiger was coming and you would have been eaten and wouldn't have gone on to produce offspring. So it's part of our revolutionary kind of upbringing that we can't help but be influenced by the mood and the information we receive around us. So, on a very neuron level, if one person smiles, even if their face doesn't smile back, the little smiling bit of their brain goes ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling. So it can't help but influence, likewise for bad.
Speaker 1:So let's say, debs, you and I are hooked up to MRI scanners and I'm talking with you about all the aches and pains that I've got in my body, then, no matter how chipper you were feeling before the conversation started, it's going to grind you down. Even if your face is still keeping the smile on in your brain, you're going dum, dum, dum down the stairwell. So the idea of mirror neurons I think just from a customer service interaction bit is that if we're not aware of where's our head space, at what's our energy that we're portraying, then, actually, even though we might have a script in our minds, that script is not going to land in the way we want it to if our head's not in the right place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that and it is. It's so true, it's it's we how we choose to be, isn't it how we choose our attitude and our behavior in that moment? And and because if we intentionally want to have a good impact on people, then we have to do something about it for ourselves, internally to get ready for whatever conversation or whatever I'm stepping into, because, you're right, the mood will just filter out if you know, we are just doom and gloom or we are happy and smiley and ding-a-ling-a-ling. We will impact on others because of that. And and we've seen that because you can, you know we've done it in. We never do role plays, do we all? But when we've done some real life examples with people, you can watch the mood shift because you know you've made the mood shift, so it's so powerful.
Speaker 1:So powerful Isn't it? It really is In sales teams that I've not only kind of partnered with from a consultant point of view but being a member of the team, the impact one or two characters can have on the room in terms of the energy levels. And you don't have to be a formal leader to lead the mood of the room in terms of the energy levels. And you don't have to be a formal leader to lead the mood of the room. You know it's who kind of carries that sway and just on a very kind of simple level, it's the mirror neurons. We can't help but mirror what we see around us, just even in terms of that sort of brain functioning with that.
Speaker 2:That's fascinating, is it? And I suppose also, then, if you are providing or you are internally noticing that in others, you sometimes have to work really hard to not get, you know, dragged along or buoyed along, depending, um, so you've got quite a fine line, haven't you really?
Speaker 1:if you don't want to get either sucked into it or sucked out of it, yeah, um, as you're Absolutely, which is why I think being aware people have quite enjoyed it when we've taken them through our dose concept.
Speaker 1:Yes they have. So the dose concept is how do I, rather than using stress and anxiety and fear to put a smile on, and going outside and have a customer interaction, how do I use those feel-good hormones to be able to have that flow of a conversation where it's not hurried, it's not stress-driven, it creates an environment where actually we're able to have a relaxed but purposeful conversation with that customer interaction? So, first off, well, actually after we've done through Dose Debs, can you take us through the 4-4-4-4 breathing tool? Because I just think that is one of the number one things people have taken away recently in terms of how do you not use stress to impress a customer but you use flow to connect with the customer, whether that's on the phone, in person, whether that's in any kind of environment. We're having an interaction with someone that is using a product or a service that you're providing, but DOSE stands for dopamine. Someone that is using a product or a service that you're providing, but DOSE stands for dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins.
Speaker 1:And if we can do some little mini behaviors that just are more likely to generate these feel-good hormones, then it just means we've got an energy that's positive and inclusive as we go over to a customer or engage with them, rather than it being a bit of a sort of a ball of stress that can be felt. Go over to a customer or engage with them, rather than it being a bit of a sort of a ball of stress that can be felt. So dopamine is where it's, that sense of yes, I've achieved some stuff. So sometimes breaking down small tasks then gives us a sense of purpose and a bit of a buzz, which means we're going to have a bit of lift. Then when we then have that conversation, oxytocin is that hug hormone, so it's the sense of togetherness and love for your fellow man. And so oxytocin is maybe having a chat with a colleague before you go out and have that customer interaction, just to remind yourself of the people that you're connected with. It just can make us friendlier and a bit less threatening or threatened by new people that come into our realm.
Speaker 1:The serotonin is that, oh, that sense we get when we've been rewarded or recognized, so saying thank you, you're giving that feedback to the guy that gave you water especially, and it might have been a small thing to him, but it created a serotonin feeling in both sides of oh, I'm special, someone cares. And then the endorphins is that, rather than things kind of dragging and a conversation going on longer and it gets a bit boring, the endorphins can be activated even by saying to someone okay, so I've got one more question to ask, and it just reminds someone, okay, cool, we're at the end of the finishing line almost, and it just gives a little bit of that kind of energy. So dose is kind of quite a cute way to look at. Actually, rather than using stress, fear and anxiety as a way to propel me to go out and have customer conversations, what if I were to treat myself really kindly and actually do some of these little mini behaviors that enable us to unlock some of these feel good transmitters?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, and I think that's a really good point actually, laura, because some um just don't feel like they're up for their job today, you know, and they just are not. Whatever's gone on for them, you know, they're just not firing on all cylinders and and just by understanding that that actually we can, if you like, have an impact on ourselves and the way we're thinking, just by, you know, doing something quite small but intent again coming back to what we said, very intentionally doing it so that it does spark, as you say, your brain into action, that gives you a different result and a different outcome, which could be enough just to connect better with somebody because you've connected better with yourself. So I just love dose. I think it works really well and we can, we can do that, you know, we can do it um devs.
Speaker 1:Take us through the four four, four, four, four, four, four four four, four, four number one when people say what did you take from your part one, when we kind of go back and do some further stuff, people will say breathing, yeah which is remarkable just how this simple thing can actually just make such a big result.
Speaker 1:So, putting it into the context of customer service, I guess if this action was taken, uh, if you were to do this just a minute before you went over and connected with someone, yeah, you can't help but have a more relaxed, um demeanor where you're ready to listen. So, yeah, what's that all about?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's. That's really interesting, because we obviously breathe, obviously, but we very rarely focus on where our breath is and the 4-4-4 enables us to just take a moment and pause in less than well, we can do it in 30 seconds, we can do it in less than a minute. But that ability to just gather your thoughts and gather where is my breath and being noticing where it sits, and then doing the four breaths, you know going. You know breathe in for four, hold for four, exhale for four, pause for four, breathe in for four, and then you're consciously focusing on your breath and you can scan it up and down your body, if you want to do a body scan with your breath. But that can be just enough just to quieten any chaotic minds that you might have.
Speaker 2:Or you've been rushing from one to the other and you know you're about to go out and see a customer or have to come face to face with anybody who is your customer.
Speaker 2:It just calms the brain down and it just brings you back into a real nice space is the only way I could describe it where peace and calm reigns. And it's that ability to just. You can do it, and as you're walking as well, um, you don't have to sit there and meditate with it, but it's that ability to just you can do it. And as you're walking as well, um, you don't have to sit there and meditate with it, but it's just a great skill to get you ready, um, to step into whatever is in front of you, whatever's going to happen next, and it's that calming impact that four, four, four, four breathing can have, the box breath can have on your state, um, that enables you to be in your best way as you approach whatever it is you're having to face. It's so powerful to do, it's so we forget to breathe, we forget where our breath is yeah, it's so powerful and the impact that then has is I've never spoken to anyone.
Speaker 1:I mean often when we run sort of service culture workshops you'll ask people what's the best service experience you've had, what's the worst service experience you've had? What's the worst service experience you've had and I've never had in the hundreds of thousands of people maybe that we've had conversations with between us over, you know, as a team over the last 20 odd years, not once has anyone ever said the best service experience I had were when it was hurried. They were stressed they use tension as a way to try and get me to commit and it all just felt really stressful and overwhelming. No one enjoys a customer service experience that feels like it's full of stress. The way in which you go about it is your unique human way of doing that. But whether you're a big talker or a small talker, someone with loads of energy or more of reserved energy, being able to think about things like dose, how to set yourself up well for that, calm confidence, the four, four, four, four four breathing I can't tell you how grateful I am to have that little tool now.
Speaker 1:I was waiting in the in the church to do a speech at a really good friend's wedding and even though I do it for a living standing up in front of people, it's nerve-wracking when you know you've got to stand up and do a speech and to just sit there and calmly practice the 4-4-4-4 breathing.
Speaker 1:Just put me into that state of calmness and you know, and making that moment count and also just thinking, maybe in a refreshing way, around service experience. Actually, rather than looking at some of the old school ways of ask this question with the challenge in this way, if we just go right back to the core, it's two people having a service interaction and what enables us to bring the human edge over an algorithm or a purely automated experience is the ability to evolve and adapt as that conversation elapses definitely and I think that would be my call to action is to notice the impact you're having and whether it's the one you want to have or the not, and if it isn't, then change it, because you can, and you can reset yourself in that moment, but getting ready for it, I think, be ready to step into anything.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that would be my call to action Notice when you're having good interactions and when you're not, notice what's going on for you, because you will make or break that conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, beautiful. My share the secret would be well, first off, I've got a dare to set you, so I dare you to experiment with this whole. The slower you touch it, the more premium it looks. So I dare you, in whichever realm of life you want, to try that out. Just give it a go and the more sensible. Share the secret is, I guess, channeling what you were saying about that hotel experience you had. As we go about our day to day, just clock. What are some of those service experiences you've had that have made the difference for you In that moment. Share Thank you for that service. I really enjoyed that, because sometimes you've had that have made the difference for you, um, in that moment. Share thank you for that service. I really enjoyed that, because sometimes you've got people that are going about doing all of these things and actually, unless we give them some feedback, it can get a bit disheartening. So that would be my share the secret nice try the touching slow thing.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna just for a laugh, um and uh. Also, as and when you come across great examples of service, let that person know and share it, because it just might make their day as well as yours yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:Can't wait to keep talking about this in our three-part series.
Speaker 1:Lord, I know debs and next week's one. Oh so let's take it from individual to collective. We're going to look at what are some things to consider if you want to create a service orientated culture in your organization.
Speaker 2:Love. That Cannot wait, cannot wait. I look forward to it.
Speaker 1:In the meantime, have a fun time stroking your cactus or whatever it is you're going to do.
Speaker 2:Deb. Slowly I'll let you know how my day goes. Have a brilliant week. You too, love you. Have a brilliant week. You too Love you, love you, bye.
Speaker 1:We hope you've enjoyed this podcast. We'd love to hear from you. Email us at contact at secretsfromacoachcom, or follow us on Insta or Facebook. If you're a Spotify listener, give us a rating, as it's easier for people to find us, and if you want to know more, visit our website, wwwsecretsfromacoachcom, and sign up for our newsletter here to cheer you on and help you thrive in the ever-changing world of work. You.