Seamless customer satisfaction every day, every time, every interaction - every "moment of truth." Realistic? No. Attainable? Maybe! Building a seamless customer satisfaction organization begins with understanding what will enable us to produce successful "moments in truth."

 I was a member of a team which designed and implemented a customer treatment program [TACT] for American Airlines in 1970. We used the program to train over 12,000 ground and flight service people to provide outstanding customer treatment. Naively, we believed that customer satisfaction was the result of outstanding customer treatment. Consequently, our original formula for customer satisfaction was Customer Satisfaction = Customer Treatment, or CS = T.

 Later, as Sales Manager of Training for American Airlines, I provided customer treatment training to over 100 client organizations. A nagging feeling began to emerge. The training only taught them how to handle customer complaints. It did not address fixing the cause of the customer’s problems. This belated discovery led me to expand the formula to include our services and products. So the formula became CS = Service + Treatment + Product.

 Customers expect operational excellence [Service], positive personal interaction [Treatment], AND product quality [Product]. They want it all the time. Inconsistent STP just doesn’t work. The challenge for today’s Field Service executive is to deliver perfection in an imperfect world. I have found that when we do not deliver seamless service, it is most often because we disregarded the importance of the customer treatment.

If we’re to deliver seamless customer satisfaction, we must train and manage our service providers in all three critical areas: Product, Service, and Customer Treatment.

PRODUCT: We invest years designing our products so that they perform to quality standards that will surpass our competition’s products. We continuously improve out products to maintain our competitive edge. Once this is accomplished, we move on to the next critical factor, Service.

SERVICE: We provide our Service Engineers with in-depth training on how to diagnose and repair our sophisticated equipment and systems. We test our field service people on lab equipment, mock ups, and simulators. We insure that they are competent in their equipment servicing skills. Then we provide them with the latest diagnostic and communications tools to perform their work.

TREATMENT: Too frequently we are so focused on our products and services that this variable is slighted or completely ignored.

Typical Service Engineer training involves weeks of technical training on our products and servicing, but only hours on customer treatment. Most of that treatment training is filled will buzz words such as: "The customer comes first." or "The customer is always right." What we fail to impart is solid customer communication tools to enable the Service Engineer to effectively handle critical situations.

We wouldn’t think of sending a Service Engineer into the field without product and service knowledge, yet each day most Engineers are going into the field without customer communications knowledge.

Ask yourself, or better yet ask your Engineers, do you have the communication tools to:

• Successfully handle difficult and upset customers?

• Avoid the top ten things to NOT say to a customer?

• Effectively communicate with customers?

Without these basic customer communication skills and tools it is not surprising that many Service Engineers avoid interacting with customers. They may not know how to interact with customers. They may be uncomfortable dealing with people whom they perceive have a higher status. They may been stung by negative responses from customers.

Many of our Engineers received their basic technical training in the military where they learned to salute and generally avoid officers. Other Engineers got their basic training in technical schools whose curriculum is technically focused. We reinforce the process of "technicalizing" engineers if our company training focuses solely on fixing things, rather than fixing customers.

Service Engineers must be taught the skills and tools to handle upset customers, to listen to customers without becoming defensive, and to calm customers’ emotions. They must be able to identify the causes of customers’ problems and to resolve these difficult situations. They must know that they are empowered and trusted to use their good judgement to "fix the customer" immediately.

Service Engineers must provide customers with information that is honest and appropriately stated. They must know to check facts before rendering an opinion that may damage their company’s position with the customer. They must know how to seek solutions that fix the problem rather than affix the blame.

 Service Engineers must view themselves as vital emissaries of their company. They need to appreciate their importance as valued representatives of their company, entrusted to manage the organization’s most critical "moments of truth." They must see themselves as the person who is securing future sales for their company through their dedicated customer service and treatment. They need to expand their self image and confidence to appreciate how much their customers are depending upon them to fix not only their specific products, but also their organizational needs.

When outstanding Treatment is included with comparable Products and Service, seamless customer satisfaction can be attained. Is Customer Treatment Training the factor that's missing in your quest for seamless customer satisfaction?

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