Humor in Customer Service and how it can help your business

Now, wait a minute. Not a stage comedian or an actor. Your job is to sell something, not put on a clown act. How is humor appropriate customer service?

And this is exactly why this works: Everyone thinks exactly as above. Because everyone thinks that way, nobody's using humor to facilitate a transaction of the client. This makes the business world to take a buzzing, monotonous tone: "How are you?" "Do you want a receipt?" "Thank you for shopping with us." "Can I get you something to drink with that?" "How can I help you? '

Goes on and on, a routine that everyone sleepwalks through. Clearly, there needs to be very fun to break the rhythm. Even a little ', little fun makes it very, very well in the jet stream of consciousness flowing which is the day the consumer. And they will remember for the rest of the day.

Here's one of the best examples I've ever seen from real life. Like a business call and hear one of those menus that tell you the phone buzzing to press a button for each option? Well, here's another:

Welcome to International Discount Brokerage!

This call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance.

For stock trading, press 1.

To order a kit new account, press 2.

For stock quotes, press 3.

For other customer service, press 4.

If you are a netware points benefits for the customer, press 5.

To learn more about our program easy-buy, where you can get the future stock credits, press 6.

If you want to hear a duck quack, press 7.

If you know your party's extension, press 8.

To return to the main menu, press 9 ...

Or stay on the line for the next available customer service representative.

Thank you.

With the book, is not it? This is a real example of a real business. When customers pressed seven, they got exactly what he asked for: a recording of one, quack duck routine. Then the menu is back. Believe it or not, this simple silly trick led to millions of additional calls and finally a 75% increase in new accounts! There is no logical reason really, except that people tended to see the business favorably if it could be something serious but still have the grace to do some 'fun of your menu. This also helps to relieve the tension of the customers who call, since many people report that they do not like automated phone menus.

Another coworker had an interesting, entertaining story could say. It 'was just something funny that happened to him. It took two minutes, tops, to walk, was very simple, and has not had a chance to offend anyone. Those of us who have worked with him felt so many times that we've got to save ourselves. The useful thing is that he could take him out to keep a customer occupied for two minutes while they were waiting for a transaction to be completed.

He could use it to break the tension, lighten the mood of a customer, make a new friend, and sometimes he has changed a bit 'to work it in. to those of us who have heard all the time, it sounded almost like a recording, but what everyone first heard it, laughed, or at least smile, because he could tell so naturally. I never once heard a customer complain that employee, in fact, has won awards and positive reviews all the time. It was simple, but brilliant in its simplicity.

You always have to be careful not to have the opportunity to offend anyone. Make sure if the joke must fool a target, the target is you. The lower the better. People who simply do not have time or are not in the mood no matter how, but the rest will smile or laugh. You, you might get tired of hearing yourself say it, but professional comedians do it all the time, can memorize a spiel and tell so smooth and natural, from years of practice. The point is that the mood lightened, he made someone smile, unconsciously like you a little 'more, and have also directed a bad mood if the potential client was already feeling a bit' of stress.

Computers are a popular target. Stress from the inadequacies of dealing with computers are something none of us can identify with. And we have all the computers to the point of sale transactions, waiting to open an account, print a receipt, or obtain an order loaded into the database. When working with computers behind a counter, I always took advantage of a moment's hesitation on the part of the machine. Again, this is just something quick, simple and silly. Pick up the mouse and like talking into a microphone, as if trying to wake the computer up, or move the hand from the side of the monitor, as if you were turning a crank imagination to make it run faster.

When he did what I wanted to do, sometimes I slap on top of the monitor and say "Good boy!" before returning back to the customer. This quick, stupid gestures help to establish that I could not control everything, that the slowness on my part is due to the machine and not my lack of trying. And it almost never failed that customers threw in a comment or a story about their frustrations in dealing with computers as well. Only helps to lighten the mood a bit 'and everything goes more smoothly.

Sometimes, as in the phone menu, it is also useful to do some 'fun light of the bureaucracy of your company. All we have to do with filling out complicated forms, postage stamp, staple this file somewhere, sign something, and so on. Make sure you have the approval of the manager for this, and be sure it is not putting on your employer. The key here is to make a light poke of the system itself, so that the client understands that the best way for you to do something, but you realize that it is not perfect. Documents, as the menu of your phone and computer, is another minor annoyance that we all must bear, and so this also helps to identify who frustrations get in tune with the customer might have with the inadequacy of the system.

Surprisingly, the humor in customer service actually is not stupid at all. It 'a serious matter, it costs nothing to implement, and in most cases may show an improvement compared to baseline. You just might laugh at themselves right into a promotion!...