CRM - December 2008 - (Page 40)

CUSTOMER-CENTRIC STAFF about personality, attitude, and behavior more so than skill.” Shea says that it’s important for companies to find that happy medium of behavioral traits and learned skill. “It’s a balance that a lot of organizations have realized,” she says. “They really do need to make certain that [customer-facing employees] have the right personality and attitude. In some instances, you can train to get to the skill level you want, but you can’t always train to get the attitude and personality that you need.” Caliper’s Sweeney says that his organization has an in-depth personality profile just for that purpose.“We need to get at the heart of what drives and motivates individuals, as well as their key qualities,” he explains.“You can get better at certain [skills], but you must be self-aware and know [the] qualities that drive you. As managers, it’s really not our job to try and change somebody to make them other than they are—[but] rather to help identify their potential and help them develop it.” Sweeney rattles off a cursory list of some of the attributes and traits particularly important for customer-centric employees, including empathy, outgoingness, the ability to handle rejection well, intelligence, and a combination of aggressiveness and level-headedness in approaching the customer issue. Lastly, people best suited for customer-centric jobs like to be told two words: Thank you. (See “United Rentals Ships Customer Centricity,” below, for a look at Caliper’s success at equipment-rental firm United Rentals.) “It makes them feel better and complete when someone says, ‘Hey, thanks—that was excellent,’” Sweeney says. “Customer-centric people are more interested in coming through and being recognized for that.” Shea adds that, beyond personality, an applicant with prior experience in customer service can be a good place to start. InfoCision’s Murphy, however, warns employers to be careful about hiring those with the wrong kind of prior experience— something that can be difficult for her organization, where the average age of applicants is currently 42 years old.“Sometimes we may not want such strong skills [from prior jobs] because it’s harder to break bad habits,” she admits. CONSISTENTLY HONEST Given the ever-shifting roles that customer-facing employees—particularly contact center agents—are asked to undertake, training with an eye toward evolution is crucial. “Everybody needs to understand the reasons around why purposes are changing,” Hildebrandt says. “Whether [that] means selling different products…or reinforcing some [offerings], training is critical in that whole role change.” HotChalk’s Fields explains that his new hires go through a one-week boot camp, paired with a particular person in the company.“It helps them to understand the HotChalk way, why we do things…and [to] make sure they’re proficient on our United Rentals Ships Customer Centricity Attracting, hiring, and training customer-centric employees doesn’t just involve the consumer front lines. United Rentals, an equipment-rental company headquartered in Greenwich, Conn., differentiates on customer service because customer service is virtually the only place it can. “You may think it’s a pretty simple business, or [that] it doesn’t have much of a customer relationship to it,” says Craig Pintoff, vice president of human resources at the company. “Actually, it’s intensely a service [organization]. All of our competitors rent out similar types of equipment, but what differentiates us is our employees and how they relate to our customers.” Pintoff says United Rentals utilizes Princeton, N.J.–based Caliper’s services for its management-track employees— 40 percent of employee hires, ranging from inside sales positions all the way to senior-level executives and vice presidents. The company takes advantage of Caliper’s assessment tools in order to match up prospective employees with the types of metrics they would need to hit in order to be deemed successful. For sales, this could be revenue and budget. Management, on the other hand, would be assessed by operational metrics and profitability. This gets combined with an employee-engagement survey created to determine just how well supervisors are influencing their charges. “That’s very important for us because an engaged workforce should be more customercentric,” Pintoff says. “We try and make sure our managers have certain characteristics leading to engaged workforces.” United Rentals also aims to have its interviewers be more informed and ask better questions while speaking with prospective hires— providing yet another point of research the company will consider. “We constantly train [to foster] these skills, so their insight is just as valuable,” Pintoff explains. “Caliper is just a tool in the process, not a veto. It helps our managers be better at interviewing with their own skill set along with what Caliper can provide. It’s a very important point for us.” 40 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2008 www.destinationCRM.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - December 2008

CRM - December 2008 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point The Rave Is Over CRM on Twitter Financial Frenzy Will Customer Experience Survive in a ‘Soft’ Economy? Holiday Humbug Empowered Consumers Are Ready to Flip the Switch Required Reading Transparency Spiff Up Your Site! They Aim to Please Mixing In a Little Sugar Sweetens the Deal A Newsletter Employs New Tactics A Site Stops Feeling Overtaxed Make ’Em Laugh—Personally Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - December 2008

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