Customer Service Insight-The Power of a Customer's Name
What’s in a name? In terms of customer service, the famous Shakespearean query from Romeo and Juliet will mean much.
There is really not any greater compliment to a person than to remember and use their name in an interaction. Your name is your brand. It is who you are. It is your identity and it is unique to you. When used by a service provider it represents a significant compliment and statement of respect. It indicates that the service provider was interested, was listening and that they value you as a person and not just a number or access code.
The use of a customer’s name also has a couple of other benefit points. First, it perks the attention of the customer by focusing their listening. This same phenomenon occurs with children and pets. Lead a conversation with their name and the customer is much more likely to keep their attention locked on the message.
Using a customer’s name in any interaction also has a warming effect on the conversation. The exchange of names and the use of names will dramatically take the cold edge off of business interactions and turn them more casual and more likely to build a positive and long term connection. When dealing with a difficult customer, the use of a customer’s name will also diffuse some of the anger from that customer.
There are a couple of pretty simple rules to use when saying a customer’s name. The safest form of a name to use is the courtesy title followed by last name. Many customers will almost automatically correct that and request that you use their first name. In the western United States, the use of the first name is significantly more prevalent and accepted. In the eastern part of the country and in some formalized business centers such as San Francisco and Denver, the use of the courtesy title and last name are used more frequently.
One pitfall to avoid has some geographic implications and also some age bias. The use of sir and ma’am are good one time references but if used more than once in a conversation can be patronizing, irritating and demonstrate a lack of desire to connect on a more human and personal level. With difficult or upset customers, overuse of sir or ma’am can lead to increased levels of irritation with the customer. Since this article is being written from Nevada, the use of madam as a title will be avoided.
As a guide, most customer interactions will require the use of the customer’s name three times. Once, early in the conversation; once again in the contextual part and; finally in the closing thank you statement. With difficult customers, that frequency can increase to above five times. These frequencies can change slightly with the length and type of customer interaction.
One of the excuses that many people lean on for not using customer names is that in some interactions, the customer’s name is not known. If the customer is paying via check or credit card, you know their name. If they have an account or relationship, you know their name. If they called for reservations, you know their name. If you have caller identification, you know their name. You will also note that more and more people are wearing identification. They have embroidered shirts with their name. They have name tags. They have a lanyard with an identification card. Their names are there.
When all of that fails, there is the tried and true method of offering your own name in a reciprocal gesture. When you offer your first and last name, most customers will respond with their first and last name. When you offer your first name, they will offer their first name. This process is usually foolproof but if all else fails, ask to whom you are speaking.
Another little road block for many service providers is the fear that they will forget the name. There is no perfect solution for this except to commit that the customer’s name is the most important focus that you must have at that moment. Not the next thing that you will say or trying to anticipate what the customer will say but complete focus on their name. Another technique is to parrot the name back after hearing it for the first time. The repetitive nature of hearing it twice and saying it once will greatly improve your ability to remember it during the interaction.
One final point of difficulty involves very hard names to pronounce. People will tell you universally that they would rather that you try to pronounce their name compared to avoiding it. Another technique is to ask the customer for help in pronouncing the name or apologizing in advance for not being able to say their name.
Although a simple part of the customer equation, the use of a customer’s name is a powerful reminder of how important that customer is to us.
