Featuring Dianne Durkin of Loyalty Factor

July 31, 2003

Investors Business Daily

By Cord Cooper

Deal and Communicate with People Effectively: No person is an island. Learn to understand and motivate others.

For years, firms have employed three generations of workers. Now a fourth generation is joining them - nexters, also known as millennials, born in the early 1980s and beyond.

The arrival of nexters underscores a simple truth, says specialist Dianne Durkin: The wider the age range of workers, the bigger the challenge in managing them.

"How you balance older and younger workers' competing needs can mean the difference between a productive work force and one slowed by division," says Durkin, who heads the Loyalty Factor, a Portsmouth, NH based consulting form.

Managing younger workers involves understanding all four generations, she says. Durkin offers this breakdown, culled from studies by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and leading universities.

Veterans. Born between 1922 and 1945, they were shaped by the Great Depression, New Deal, World War II and the Korean War. "They were products of hierarchical management and adhered to the rules without questioning them," Durkin noted. In leadership roles, they tend to be directive.

"Older veterans adapt more slowly to changes such as new technology. The younger ones, born in the 1940s, are more flexible and make it a point to master new systems and programs.

Boomers. Born between 1946 and 1964, they can be an odd mixture of optimism and cynicism. Their values were shaped by the Peace Corps, the assassination of President Kennedy, Vietnam, Woodstock, The Civil Rights Movement and the moon landing.

"They go the extra mile and then some - but something has to be in it for them," she said. "They mastered the 60-hour work week, and view work as their self-fulfillment."

Gen X-ers. Born between 1965 and 1980, they were shaped by Watergate, the Challenger disaster, the technology boom and the beginning of terrorism.

"Growing up, many were home after school by themselves," Durkin said. "Both parents were working." The result? "Gen X-ers are independent and emphasize self-development. They grew up on computers, and technology made them impatient" she said. "Software and the Internet gave them instant feedback."

Nexters/millennials. They were born from 1981 to 2000. Their influences: technology, terrorism, school shootings, the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the global economy.

"They're optimistic and civic-duty minded," Durkin said. "They want to make the world a better place, and many choose jobs or hobbies to help them do that."

When rewarding nexters and younger X-ers, mix quarterly and annual awards with "quick awards" - a small gift certificate or an extended lunch hour for a job well done. It's immediate - Which is what they're used to with quick-response technology - and it says, 'You handled this well. We noticed it'.

A common conflict among the generations? Veterans and boomers view some X-ers as "not being reliable and not dedicated to work. But usually that's not the case" Durkin said. "They're into work-life balance and are more willing to ask for flex time to achieve it."

May/June 2003

Learning and Training Innovations Magazine

By Jack Gordon
Download the PDF

Having trouble with your computer or your Internet connection? Go ahead and call your vendor's technical support hot line. Mind your blood pressure, because you're likely to face a maddening battle with an automated voice-menu system that mocks you with assurances of the company's love and devotion while it thwarts your every effort to speak to a live human.

Think there's nothing more aggravating than the menu maze? You'll discover otherwise if you finally do get through to a real person and it turns out to be some techie who patronizes you for having the problem in the first place. You're the customer. You're paying for this service. Yet,your "support" rep cops an attitude: Why are you bothering him with this elementary glitch? How can you possibly not know that the solution is to go to Control Panel,then click on Device Manager,then on Network Adapters,then on D-Link DFE-530TX+PCI Adapter,then...

This is how computer experts - and technical-support people in particular - developed a reputation for arrogance and insensitivity. It explains why many ordinary citizens are completely fed up with the aggravation and have declared mutiny or have merely surrendered out of sheer exhaustion.

Dianne Durkin makes her living teaching technical-support reps not to behave like that. At the same time, however, she argues that the stereo type of the customer-insensitive techie is unfair.

The ability to relate well to customers is mainly a matter of one's personal communication style and one's flexibility when dealing with people who have different styles, says Durkin, president of Loyalty Factor, a training and consulting firm in Portsmouth,N.H. The problem, she says, is not that technical experts, as a species,lack interpersonal skills (Durkin herself holds a master's degree in mathematics from Duquesne University). The problem is, rather, that the flood of new technology into homes and workplaces during the past two decades has created an enormous demand for techies to act as teachers, coaches, and consultants to the rest of us.

Every professional field has a lot of practitioners who aren't naturally inclined to be good teachers or patient coaches. Some Renaissance art experts will graciously share their knowledge with anyone who asks; others will dismiss you as an idiot if you don't know the year of Michelan-gelo's birthBecause we have many more occasions to call upon the forbearance and the coaching skills of technical experts than of art historians, and because we call upon those qualities when we, ourselves, are under stress, we have more chances to bump up against techies who fail to satisfy. Hence the stereotype.

In fairness to the techies, some of us do put their forbearance to severe tests. The battle for basic computer literacy in the general population, which began in the 1980s, has not been completely won. A few months ago, Durkin says, a support rep for one client company took a call from a customer who thought the pull-out tray for the CD drive in his laptop computer was a cup holder.

From the perspective of a technology company, however, the problem is that a support rep who fails to satisfy can alienate customers and drive away business. This is disastrous, Durkin says, because research shows that it costs six to 10 times more to acquire a new customer than to service an existing one. "With the cost of sales being what it is today,you really need to hang on to your existing customers," she says. The danger is especially acute in business-to-business situations,where a technology company has a contract to provide service and support for another company's software or systems.

Here the customer alienated by an insensitive technical rep might represent a major account. Durkin says she has one client whose business could be destroyed by the loss of a single corporate customer,which pays up to $100,000 a month for support of its systems.

The stakes are equally high for the customers. Durkin says another client has a service account with a company that stands to lose $100,000 per minute if its computer system crashes. Imagine being the support rep on the receiving end of that frantic phone call. Then imagine the consequences for the rep's employer if the rep responds to the caller with anything less than complete sensitivity and professionalism.

For technical experts in customer-support roles, Durkin says, "people skills" can be as important to keeping customers as is the computer expertise required to solve the customers' problems.

What training can do
Durkin speaks from experience. Early in her career, she spent several years in a technical support role for General Electric. She later worked as a marketing manager and as corporate sales training manager for Digital Equipment Corp., and served as vice president of marketing for software supplier Astea International.

Loyalty Factor, the consulting firm she founded in 1996, employs what Durkin describes as a "core" of five full--time trainers and consultants, and another five contract trainers who are kept busy regularly. The firm specializes in customer-service training for technical support reps. These range from people who answer phones in call centers to engineers and project managers who install, maintain, and troubleshoot systems and software at customer sites. Loyalty Factor also trains and consults with executives and managers of the service reps,partly to ensure that leaders support the behaviors and techniques taught to their people.

Among Durkin's clients are IBM Lotus and Kronos Inc., a Chelmsford,Mass., provider of business and human resources software. A recent project for Lotus involved training for 120 strategic account managers brought in from locations around the world. In a long-standing relationship with Kronos, Loyalty Factor trains project managers, field technical support people, and all newly hired call-center employees.

Loyalty Factor takes a classic approach to improving interpersonal communication skills.The basic principles it teaches would be familiar to many managers and sales-people who have attended intensive courses in influencing and establishing rapport with others.

"We firmly believe," Durkin says, "that before people can interact effectively with others, they first have to understand their own styles of communication." Her programs begin with an assessment that identifies trainees' primary and secondary communication styles in terms based on the theories of Karl Jung and measured by instruments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

There are four primary Jungian communication styles:sensors, intuitives, feelers, and thinkers. Sensors, Durkin says, "just want to get to the bottom line; they want results right now, never mind the details." Intuitives "want the big picture first"; they want to know how a specific problem relates to a larger whole. Feelers are "less impulsive" than those first two types;; they "tend to ask a lot of questions and to try to understand the situation from a 'people' perspective -they don't want to offend anyone." Thinkers are "very detail-oriented and analytical; they have a step-by-step process for everything they do in their lives -and they love to be right."

Sensors, whether they are software engineers or art historians, have to work harder than feelers to function effectively in support roles. "A sensor doesn't have the patience to explain something to you," Durkin says. "A feeler will figure, 'Oh, I guess I didn't explain it clearly.'"

Gaining insight into their own primary and secondary styles - and how those styles change under favorable vs. stressful conditions - paves the way for further insights, Durkin says: "'Ah,now I understand why I get along so well with this person but not with that one.'"

This basic knowledge about communication styles is then expanded and applied to dealings with customers. What are the clues to identify the customer's primary style? How can you flex your own style to get in sync with the customer? How do you "listen emphatically" so as to recognize the emotional issues you may have to resolve before you can address the technical issue? What are the major customer problems you run into daily,and how can you cope with them?And,importantly, what kinds of questions should you ask?

"Questions are your secret weapon," Durkin tells trainees. "If you can get an angry person talking, it not only calms him down but shows that you're truly interested in his situation."

To help reps build quick rapport with customers, Durkin teaches techniques of Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), an interpersonal communication system developed in the 1970s from a study of the behaviors of expert psychotherapists. NLP techniques have to do with such things as the pace and pitch of one's voice and the verbs one chooses. For instance, when talking to people who speak in visual terms ("I don't see what you mean "), the rep should reply with visual verbs ("Let's see if I can explain it differently "). When dealing with an "auditory" customer ("That doesn't sound right "), the rep should try to match the customer's auditory language.

Recurring nightmares
Which issues cause the greatest headaches for technical reps? Two recurring themes come up in her sessions, Durkin says. First there is "the angry customer who wants a system up and running in five minutes, and I can't do it that fast because of applications they've added or because the system is so complex that I'm going to need more time," she notes.

The second issue, which arises mainly in call centers, is the client who is more knowledgeable than the customer service rep. "The CSR says, 'I'm going to have to get you an engineer,' and the customer is angry because the CSR doesn't know the answer," Durkin explains.

Whatever the problems that plague particular reps, Durkin says her training programs have a demonstrable effect that shows up in customer surveys. At Kronos, a pre-training survey measured customer satisfaction at 3.6 on a five-point scale. After training, the score jumped to 4.2. A survey at IBM Lotus showed similar results, she says, though the scores are confidential.

Whatever the cause - great training, great management, or exceptionally dedicated individuals - truly outstanding customer service can cement a client relationship like little else. Durkin witnessed a case in point earlier this year when a rep at a client company received a frantic call from an important customer at 4 o'clock on a Friday afternoon.

"This woman called in a state of panic," Durkin says. "'Our boss is coming in on Monday morning, we need this information, what can you do?' The rep says, 'I have it. I can e-mail it or fax it.' 'No,' the woman says, 'I need the book.'

"The rep says, 'I live 15 minutes away from you. I can drop it off on my way home.' 'No,' the woman says, 'I have a family emergency going on, and I need to leave at five.' The rep says, "Then I'll just leave work early and bring it to you.'"

The next week, Durkin says, that customer called back to speak to an executive at the rep's company. "She said, 'We love you and we'll never switch suppliers.'"

An organization that can encourage behavior like that will never have trouble hanging on to its customers. LTI

---

Jack Gordon is a freelance writer based in Eden Prairie,Minn.
Please send comments to Editor Vi Paynich at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Featuring Dianne Durkin of Loyalty Factor

CRM
Customer Relationship Management

By Lisa Picarille

"People want what they want when they want it." That sentiment is how one-to-one marketing guru Martha Rogers sums up customer expectations. Today, meeting those ever-rising expectations has become more challenging--and more rewarding.

The recent financial collapse of such big businesses as Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, ImClone, and Andersen has left consumers feeling skeptical and cynical. Call center and Web technologies often leave customers frustrated, so reinforcing and rebuilding customer relationships has become more important than ever. It can cost about six times more to acquire a new customer than it does to cultivate and retain an existing one, but a mere 5 percent improvement in customer-retention rates can yield a 25 percent to 100 percent increase in profits.

One of the best ways for a company to increase customer satisfaction is to make sure there is a thorough understanding throughout the organization of what customers really want, then use that information to follow up with actions, solutions, and resolutions. It will be the difference between good business and bad.

Make It Simple and Specific

Michael Johnson, senior director of customer service communications for satellite television provider DirecTV, claims that first and foremost people want an ease of doing business. "That means a choice of how to do business: a phone with an automated system, over the Web, with a customer agent," Johnson says. "The customers want it on their terms."

However, says Rogers, president of Peppers & Rogers Group, a consulting firm headquartered in Norwalk, CT, giving people what they want does not always mean giving them more choices. For example: The average grocery has 30,000 product SKUs, yet the average consumer purchases the same 300 SKUs over and over. To Rogers that proves that people don't want more choices. She claims people are often forced to go through twice as many options to get to what they want. Once customers decide how they want to interact with businesses, they want that experience to be speedy, efficient, and pleasant.

John McKean, a Florida-based researcher and author of Customers Are People: The Human Touch, says 70 percent of what determines which company a customer will buy goods or services from is based on how humanely they are treated. "What people remember about any interaction is how [well or not] they were treated," says McKean, who notes that it all comes down to acknowledgement, respect, and trust. "It's so simple and so obvious, and costs nothing."

Steve Horne, president of ANALYTICi, the CRM and database division of ad agency giant Foote, Cone & Belding, says, "People like to feel special. Today most people are aware that they are one of many filed away in a customer database, numbered and tracked. They know that when they receive a letter that says Dear Valued Customer, they are merely a name and a number in a database. They feel insignificant. They are not being spoken to. There's no bond."

But, Horne says, if a person receives a specific, personalized message, there's a greater chance of eliminating that feeling of insignificance, of connecting with that person, of forming a bond with them.

Dianne Durkin, president of Loyalty Factor LLC, a training and consulting firm in Portsmouth, NH, says customers want human interaction--most of all, they want someone who understands and can respond to their needs.

But that doesn't mean people are totally averse to automation. They want processes that are streamlined and automated, but they also want some kind of guidance or at least human confirmation that at the end of the automated process their issues, complaints, orders, etc., have been resolved or fulfilled, Durkin says.

"I was at a local grocery store that had installed a self-service checkout lane where customers put their purchases on the belt, scan them, and use a credit card to pay," Durkin says. "I was having a problem with my credit card and there was a helpful person standing there who showed me how to do it. If that person was not there to walk me through it and make me feel comfortable, I would not have used that checkout the next time I shopped in that store. But instead, I will now use the more efficient automated process."

Be Consistent and Thorough

DirecTV's Johnson says users want consistency. That's not always easy to achieve, but automation of some processes can help.

Headquartered in El Segundo, CA, DirecTV provides satellite television to about 11 million homes and to many businesses across the country. To support its customer base DirecTV has 10 call center locations employing about 7,000 agents, who answer about 6 million calls a month; all but one of those centers is outsourced.

For users contacting DirecTV for service that means putting out a consistent message and having the same response to a question across the entire organization. To do that DirecTV created a knowledge base that employees can access via an intranet. The company is using Interwoven Inc.'s Teamsite product to manage the data. Teamsite also allows DirecTV to link from its Siebel Systems Inc. CRM application directly to specific pages in the knowledge base. "That is a huge challenge when you've got a complex product," says Johnson, who adds that it becomes even more of a challenge when customers have multiple interactions with the company.

Agents and representatives asking the same basic questions over and over tends to frustrate already frustrated customers. "People want personalization. They do not want to repeat the whole story [to] each person they speak with," Johnson says. He says DirecTV is now using software from Siebel to capture customer history to ensure customers are not required to repeat basic information.

In addition Johnson says that by having the basics about a customer, DirecTV can be more proactive and helpful to customers. "We probably don't need to suggest certain promotions to all 11 million of our customers. It is certainly better to deal with only those that might be interested," he says. "That means that customers are getting more tailored, more informed offerings and services."

That's great for the company and its customers, but it's not quite enough. According to Johnson, customers want to know they are dealing with a representative who can speak with authority and get things done. It also means that agents have all the necessary information to make decisions about what they can do proactively--like offering discounts and reduced-price services--to save a good customer who might be close to canceling the service.

Rogers uses 3M Corp. as a B2B example of a company that has taken great steps to improve customer satisfaction and seems to really know what its customers want.

"If you were a 3M customer three years ago, you would be buying the sticky tape that holds your diapers closed from one division and the tape designed to seal the boxes from another division of 3M. It was like dealing with two separate companies," Rogers says. "Then 3M got smart and figured out that by calculating the number of sticky diaper tapes you buy, it could figure out how many boxes there were and how much tape you would need for those boxes and offer it to you in the same deal." According to Rogers, that makes customers a lot more likely to buy everything from 3M, which would result in increased customer loyalty and possibly increased profits.

Matching Multiple Channels

Andrew Chen, vice president of product development at GSI Commerce Inc., which develops and operates online retailing and direct response marketing businesses for other organizations, finds that customers want an extension of their brick-and-mortar experience. "Customers want to see the same assortment and type of goods; to use the same credit cards; to have the same sales," Chen says.

He says that CRM software is helping GSI to both see ROI and better serve customers. The company is using E.piphany as its real-time engine and is using E.piphany's CRM software to extend its online marketing. Using CRM, for example, allows GSI to match online prices with prices quoted in a weekly circular. CRM is also aiding the company in managing purchase history, which lets GSI segment customers and make special offers only to the appropriate customers. GSI also noticed that one of its sites had a burdensome process for organizations to purchase team uniforms online; it created a wizard to streamline that process.

Using software from Keynote Systems Inc., GSI can measure what features people are using on the sites it maintains. That has led to some interesting developments in search capabilities. It has also led to a discrepancy between what customers say they want and what actions they take online. "Everyone in every survey tells us they want free shipping," Chen says. "However, we have no evidence that the cost of shipping has deterred anyone from making a purchase." This is one instance where Chen says he is not listening to what customers really want, and where actions speak louder than words.

In the end, a key reason for listening to customers and being customer-centric is to generate a return on CRM investments. Like DirecTV and GSI, Canada Post found a way to deliver that ROI.

Canada Post, one of the world's largest and most technologically advanced postal companies, recognized a need to consolidate its many technology systems to better serve customers. By putting CRM at the center of its business, Canada Post introduced an eOrder system for its more than one million commercial customers, and automated four call centers. In addition it launched Canadapost.ca, now the most-visited Web site in Canada, which offers customer self-service, including package tracking, rate calculators, and outlet locations.

Based on the integration of mySAP CRM into all facets of the enterprise, Canada Post saved $16.25 million (C$25 million) in revenue through an integrated order-to-cash process and resulting improvements in customer data accuracy at time of receipt.

Contact Senior Editor Lisa Picarille at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

10 Ways to Give Customers What They Want

1. Make sure there is a thorough understanding throughout the organization of what customers really want. Then use that information to follow up with actions, solutions, and resolutions.

2. People want an ease of doing business, so offer a choice of how they can do business with your company (e.g., by phone with an automated system, over the Web, or with a customer service agent). Make sure the experience is speedy, efficient, and pleasant.

3. Customers want someone who understands and can respond to their needs. Acknowledge customers and treat them with respect to earn their trust and their business.

4. People like to feel special. Sending specific, personalized messages will help eliminate some customers' feeling of insignificance, help connect with those people and other customers, and help form a bond with them.

5. Offer processes that are streamlined and automated, but also provide guidance or have confirmation available at the end of the automated process to ensure and to show that the customers' issues, complaints, orders, etc., have been resolved or fulfilled. Always have an option to escalate issues to a customer service or support agent.

6. Create a knowledge base so customers do not have to repeatedly give their contact, product, or problem details.

7. Use data to be proactive, but also use it for targeted upselling and cross-selling. Don't try to sell the same widget to your entire customer base; approach only those customers who are most likely to be interested.

8. Empower customer service agents to resolve problems on the spot, including offering discounts or special services to retain customers who might otherwise head to a competitor.

9. Find ways to make it so easy for customers to do business with you that switching to a competitor would be "work" for the customer.

10. Note the difference between what customers say and do (e.g., customers say they want free shipping, but willingly pay for it with no complaints), and find ways to use that information for your and their benefit. --L.P.

Boston Herald

Net Life by Stephanie Schorow

Perhaps many of you - if you've been good - will get your wish tomorrow. Cool new computers, video games and digital cameras will be under the Christmas tree.

But on the day after Christmas, some of you might be wishing for a sledgehammer. You might be desperately dialing the manufacturer's technical support line because you can't get those new gadgets to work. And, even after the on-hold music has been imprinted on your cerebral cortex, your problems may not be solved.

Hark unto Winthrop writer Tom Derderian's description of online tech support: "They are weapons of mass frustration."

With the downturn in the tech industry, many companies have cut back on consumer support. On-hold waits that once were minutes can now drag on for hours. Pressured tech-support staff may try to rush you off the phone or start charging for additional time and advice. And with the proliferation of software and hardware, getting your various devices to work together may have your screaming, "Why can't we all just get along?"

Take Derderian's recent case. Derderian, a running magazine columnist and author of a history of the Boston Marathon, couldn't get his Compaq PC, loaded with Microsoft Windows '98, to work with a new DSL line from Verizon. Verizon told him his computer didn't have the right card. He bought the card from a computer store; when it still didn't work, Verizon told him the problem must be the computer. Compaq blamed the software. Microsoft fingered the computer.

"It was like having four parents: 'Ask your mother, ask your father, ask your mother, ask your father,'"he said.

Not surprisingly, a lot of folks feel Derderian's pain - and not all of them are technophobic consumers.

Technical help services, such as Speak with a Geek and PlumChoice, have sprung up to help consumers with a range of products. Using diagnostic software and the Internet, technicians at both companies can link into your computer to "see" the problem. Headquartered in San Diego, Speak with a Geek (www.speakwithageek.com) was founded about a year ago, said president Daniel Sullivan, a Boston native. The service, which requires a subscription of $35 to $50 a month depending on the number of users and computers, is intended to help home users with a range of operating systems, including Windows, Linux and Mac systems.

Via toll-free phone line, e-mail or live chat, customers can get help with hard drives, internal CD and DVD drives, and other hardware. Technicians "will work with them as long as it takes to solve the computer problem", according to the company. The company is also offering a free trial that lets consumers solve one computer issue during a five-day period.

Many consumers already "have a geek they can turn to", Sullivan noted. Others pay for in-home service from IT freelancers. But those who can't make a panicked call to cousin David in Silicon Valley or the IT guy from work may wish to consult round-the-clock services such as Speak with a Geek. "It's an outlet for the rest of us", Sullivan said.

PlumChoice (www.plumchoice.com), another IT support service, focuses on those who maintain home offices. Based in Bedford, the company was founded about a year ago by Ted Werth, A Northeastern University MBA graduate. PlumChoice charges on a per-time basis at a rate of about $20 per 15 minutes; the average cost of a service call runs about $60. The company also offers a $70 gift certificate for 60 minutes, which can be spread over several sessions.

Like Speak with a Geek, PlumChoice provides help for a variety of products, networks and software. Today "the home environment is very complex", Werth said.

Via PlumChoice's remote hookup option, "there's absolutely no guesswork because we're looking into the machine and seeing things the customer is not able to read," Werth said. Speak with a Geek recently added a remote computer hosting application, downloaded quickly through the Web.

Werth recalls a customer who spent two days on the phone trying to get his printer to work while bouncing between two vendors, "We were able to reinstall printer drive through the Internet and he was printing in 15 minutes," Werth said.

Companies may be cutting back of IT staff, but many haven't given up on improving customer service. Many have sought the help of the Portsmouth, N.H.-based Loyalty Factor, a consulting group that runs intensive workshops to train consumer service representatives, including IT support (www.loyaltyfactor.com).

President Dianne Durkin said consumer frustration often stems from communication difficulties, not a lack of technical expertise. Her workshops teach IT staffers how to get inside the heads of callers to better understand how they think. Some callers are visually oriented, and a technical person who helps them "see" a solution will be more effective, she said.

Support staff who "validate" callers - i.e., make them feel they are right to be frustrated instead of incredibly stupid for calling - also will be more effective. "Computers scare the living daylights out of some callers, others already have a good inkling of the problem," Durkin said.

Sometimes the best thing to say is, "I don't have the answer but I could find someone who does," Durkin said.

Derderian doesn't blame individual tech-support staffers for the frustration he encountered. With one exception, "they personally seemed like nice people." But he would have preferred to talk to "someone who represented a giant service, not the little pieces." In his case, he concluded on his own that Windows '98 was to blame. "I personally suspect Bill Gates," he said.

But try getting him on the phone.