Insisting on the need to take care of customer service as a fundamental basis for competitiveness, quality of service and the achievement of excellence would seem repetitive. It might also seem unnecessary to continue arguing that there is nothing so important for the image of any “public-facing” activity, as taking care of even the smallest detail the transmission of the values with which we intend to build customer loyalty. Despite what it may seem, I am convinced that it is worth insisting. Do we have sufficient reasons to be satisfied with the level of quality in customer service that we encounter every day? Honestly, it leaves a lot to be desired and to top it all the market is full of threats.
Bad is always to generalize. Companies and organizations that feel satisfied with the results obtained must be congratulated. It is sure to be the final result of a firm commitment to quality service. But other things also happen.
What's going on
Your employees, those who serve the public or customers, have surely taken one or more training courses. Result: With the passage of time, forgetfulness, laziness, relaxation, routine, mechanization arrive. If these are blights that are cooked day by day, the current market situation is not going to complicate them a little more, if possible:
The salary of avant-garde workers is not related to the alleged importance that their job deserves.
The selection of personnel does not always have people who have a clear orientation towards others. For this reason, they end up being valued and accepting other reasonable aspects but that fail in their essence.
There are fewer and fewer young people willing to work in public-facing services. And those who do are passing through. These positions are filled by immigrants who must be trained not only in customer service techniques but also in cultural aspects.
Market flexibility doesn't help either. When we have them formed and prepared, they leave us. And generally the best.
The sense of acceleration with which we live today is detrimental to a personalized, delicate and time-consuming work. If to this we add those positions that are held in crowded spaces, the feeling of depersonalization succumbs to any attempt to offer a good service.
Middle managers often suffer from a lack of managerial skills, sapping team morale. To top it all, many remain convinced that the training courses are useless and that "the letter with blood enters."
The maintenance in key positions of people burned or tired of a routine that demands conditions that they are no longer in a position to offer. The worst thing is that they are going to dedicate themselves to demoralizing the new ones and imposing the veteran law.
What can be done
Taking the topic: turning threats into opportunities. But this is not so simple:
As a manager or manager, are you willing to play the card of quality of service and customer care to the full? Yes? Really? Sincerely? Well. What are you willing to do?
Are the people responsible for the vanguard workers well prepared? Do they have enough skills? Do they have clear and common criteria on how the company wants to serve customers? Do they comply? Everyone?
Have you done enough training? Have you evaluated it? What mechanisms or procedures will work to guarantee the maintenance of the level? How will you resolve individual cases that are not fully adjusted?
Have you thought about introducing in the employment contract the specifications that refer to the knowledge, skills and attitudes expected of the workers? Is there a manual that specifies it? Yes of course? Does everyone have it? Is it followed to the letter?
Does the company or organization select with clear criteria? Do those who have the best conditions to serve the public serve the public?
Do we take care of measuring customer satisfaction? How? It's enough? Is it clear to the client that we take care to measure their satisfaction?
Are the workers who serve customers clear about their mission? They have assimilated the importance of their responsibility? Are they clear about their role? And do they exercise it?
Have you thought about what your workers should think about the work they do? Have you consulted them? Does your opinion take into account?
Do you take care of the environment in which workers interact with customers? It is nice? Are these workers well integrated with this environment? Is everything designed to satisfy the customer?
And why so many questions?
Part of my job is to ask questions. Nor do I, of course, intend to teach anyone, that is, anyone. Like other colleagues, I feel the need to contribute my own reflections. And the reflections always begin with the questions. Then, perhaps, you dare to show the result of your work. This has been for me: The scenic sense in customer service. The rest are questions that have helped me to take action. I hope they also serve you.
What is the scenic sense
People have senses through which we filter our perception of the world. In the performance of our work we use these senses in addition to a set of knowledge, skills and attitudes that we develop especially in specific fields. When we are especially skilled at something, we tend to say that we have a "special sense for…" That is, specialization, tendency, vocation appear. And if it is very appreciable, the talent.
One of these senses is the scenic. Despite attributing its functionality to the world of theater, the truth is that there are people, not necessarily actors or actresses, who have this meaning. They are basically people who understand their work as a staging: They know how to play the role they play at all times and they enjoy doing it. They know how to maintain the character as long as the scene lasts. They know how to accommodate the stage space and redecorate it to make it more effective. They know that they have a mission that is none other than to please, to convince, to excite if possible. They know how to show their best smiles, their best phrases, their most elegant expressions and hide everything that hinders their mission. They are applied more and more because they understand that they are "artists" of their work and as such,every opportunity is a new occasion to put your art in check.
Do you really think I'm talking about actors and actresses? Theatrical?
Although the analogy is perfect, don't be fooled. There are people who are like that. And they're not just behind a counter. We can find them at diplomatic receptions, in high political salons, in media corridors, in beauty salons, even at home.
They will in turn be deluded if they believe that these people represent a well-learned theatrical role. They are simply like that. It is part of his personality structure to which he has added mastery of an essential skill: communication.
In customer service, don't you think it is essential to have a scenic sense? Any person who deals with a client or a visitor must at least understand that the set of actions and interactions that take place are immediately processed by our interlocutor. And that are produced in a context, in a framework that in turn will require the corresponding adaptation. As you can see, we are determining the basic laws of communication: I, the other and the context. Only here there is no room for improvisation, no meaningless chatter or poorly expressed messages. In customer service we have a clear mission, a concrete message, an express context and an intention. I'm not telling you anything from the other world, right? It is even rather simple. So why is so little accomplished? Or why does it cost so much?
In the first place, why not everyone is clear about the role concept. And although it is clear, that does not mean that it serves to be face to the public. And although it serves to be face to the public, it will not do you much good if you do not learn to maintain the role.
Secondly, because from the top of the management there is not a clear and decided commitment to define the model of care that you want to print. And assuming that it does, this message needs to arrive with clarity and unity to the corresponding places. Very often the orders end up being reinterpreted by the downward filters and in the end, distorted by the players.
Thirdly, because a culture of modeling is not followed, that is, learning "how" the best do. Some also confuse modeling with trying to get everyone to do the same. Don't waste your time. Each one must be modeled according to its characteristics; Even letting the most artists do.
A fourth clue can be given to us by the assumption that being extroverted, or declaring an easy way to deal with people is reason enough to consider that one has scenic sense. We all know people who talk a lot, but that doesn't mean they speak well. We all know people who are easy to contact but who lose themselves in wanting to please too much, in being funny.
Fifthly, it must be taken into account that only people who have a scenic sense can stay on stage and improve their performance every day. The rest, I assure you, end up suffering stress, burning, mechanizing their work, neglecting the fundamentals. And what is worse: He who does not have a vocation for service ends up perverting the image he has of customers. He ends up seeing them all the same, with the same interests, with the same neuroses. And of course, that's how they are treated!
I could go on even longer. But I think it is enough to understand the need to equip customer service professionals with tools that go beyond the always necessary general dictates on service.
What is not the scenic sense
I intend to insist on the need not to confuse the scenic sense with the scenic art, that is, the theater. Their differences are fundamental, although their techniques are not so, which can be useful in many aspects of the professional's preparation. Let's clarify:
In the theater, the actor or actress develops a process called character construction. Once the created character is put on stage, it is interpreted exclusively for the duration of the representation. The actor or actress does not have to assimilate or be "like the character they represent" in their daily life.
On the other hand, in the scenic sense, those attitudes and characteristics of the person that can most favor interaction with the client are enhanced. And the professional lives it as part of his nature, of his being, he assimilates it as his own condition, and not as a role that is broken when the function is finished. In other words, he models himself.
Anyway it is worth saying:
Some professionals are more comfortable "acting." They really understand their role as that of an actor. Otherwise they would have a hard time. It is easier for them to "play the role" than to consider many of their attitudes from the assimilation. If they did they would feel fake. They prefer to believe that the exercise of their work is part of a representation. If you know of any cases, let them do it. I assure you that you will not be disappointed since he has learned his character very well and, due to the prejudices mentioned above, his performance will usually be infallible.
There are also cases of people who coexist badly with the "character" they have to represent. Contrary to the previous case, the feeling of having to act generates internal conflict in them and they end up transmitting it by boycotting the required premises. They do so by exaggerating behaviors, exposing their disappointment. If you come across such cases, feel free to take them away from public work. They are going to spoil everything and they are going to laugh all over it.
How interpretive techniques can help in the scenic sense
Here are some techniques or strategies that can be transported from theater to customer service.
Without a doubt the best of the techniques is modeling. In conventional theater, the actor or actress assumes her character based on assimilation and later a lot of repetition. To do this, she initially draws on the necessary information about the character to be interpreted. At the same time, the daily rehearsals will give you the opportunity to test and test, to assimilate and bring that information to life. It will be essential for this to have a director to guide you and a space that facilitates the development of the action.
In customer service you can work in the same way. Initially, the professional must gather the necessary information (procedure manuals, for example) to indicate what is expected of him. What attitudes you should display, what behaviors will be necessary and which ones you should avoid. How he should be dressed, where he will move, who will be his co-stars. In short, what should it basically convey and what should it achieve.
From there, your modeling begins. BUT THAT'S WHERE WE USUALLY LEAVE THEM ALONE. Most courses emphasize informational content, the letter to say, the tones to use. It is a very important part. But it won't do much good if it is not guided through its assimilation process. That is the task of the stage director, that is now the task of the trainer or professional who can be used as a role model. And they must be visible. And not just once. It is essential that they have a clear idea of what and how they communicate personally. And you have to give them scope to try, to make mistakes and correct.
Role-playings have undoubtedly become popular from the theater. They are exactly that, putting themselves in the "as if" situation. They are "improvisations" that are both practiced as stage exercises. By the way, in the theater an expression is used that reads: The best improvisation is one that is prepared. You often come across professionals who, despite their years of work, have never entertained themselves in drawing up a list of recurring phrases that can help them in different vicissitudes. Or those others who after repeating the same song so many times, already interpret it as a grated record, or with a song that nothing resembles the original version.
But it is perhaps the very concept of "the scenic" that should attract our attention the most. Because there is a scene if at least three factors come together: a character (actor or actress), a stage and a spectator (here we call a client). It is not necessary to insist that these same factors occur in customer service.
And we could still add other techniques such as concentration, breathing, diction, relaxation, stage preparation, etc. And to continue with the stage analogy, please always understand that the protagonist of any staging is the client, the citizen or the public. Make no mistake, professionals are characters at the service of the protagonist. For this reason, it is possible that we are artists in our work but the one who determines its success is none other than the client. Without him nothing made sense, right?
When you consider starting a new training process aimed at quality of service and customer service, do not hesitate to introduce this concept of the scenic sense:
. Clarify well the concept of role (obligations and expectations)
. Analyze well the expressive capacity of each person (verbal and non-verbal)
. Watch their orientation towards service.
. Work with modeling and repetition techniques
. Practice active listening
. Determine precisely what procedure manuals indicate (what, how, where, to whom)
. Create procedures to regularly evaluate the maintenance of quality of care.
. Do not hesitate to have a person to direct and model (such as a stage director or someone who exemplifies the role model.
. Make rotations in the positions; Do not allow yourself to fall into mechanization
. Gradually work on emotional intelligence
. Give priority to artists and change places to those who do not know how to change faces, . Do not insist on making those who have a bad smile or those who never laugh smile.
. Share how those who do have a sense of the scene manage together.
. Insist on improving communication skills.
I think I have given enough clues to recruiters to introduce some elements that serve to find people who have a sense of stage. If I had to define the ideal profile, I would summarize it in three concepts:
. Service orientation
. communicative ability
. Scenic sense
If the first two conditions are available, the third can be learned.
And although I have focused the exhibition on the world of customer service, or the citizen, you will have already observed that the scenic sense is convenient in many areas of work, society, even interpersonal relationships. I tend to use this terminology a lot given the relevance that communication is acquiring as a fundamental skill in the development of our interactions. The scenic sense contributes to better contextualize them. Therefore, it is interesting to introduce this concept in training courses for communication skills, public speaking, management skills, society and protocol, etc.
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