Rosanne D'Ausilio Ph.D

Rosanne is an industrialist psychologist known as the Champion for the Human in a very high tech world.

If today were my last day on Earth and I could share 500 words of brilliance with the world, here are the important things I'd want to pass along to others...

We, the People

In the customer service industry, the largest percentage of budget dollars goes to the labor force. So naturally companies are looking or ways to economize, and the first place they look is to the people. They say to themselves, 'how can I reduce my labor costs without necessarily firing staff? We'll bring in new software, new hardware, a new phone system, we'll use speech technology, etc. etc.' What I believe they lose sight of is the fact that for simple things we are all willing to push 1 for this or 2 for that. Self service is great for repetitive inquiries, input, or questions.

However, twenty five years from now customers will still be human beings, still be driven by desires and needs. Virtual environments do not create virtual customers. Except for the simplest transactions, customers still need to be connected with, and nurtured by a live person.

And in today's competitive environment, what distinguishes one company from another is not a product or service. These must be up to snuff or you wouldn't be in business. What truly separates one company from another is its relationship with the customer. And who has that awesome responsibility? Not hardware, not software, not a new phone system, but the human, whether it be by phone, email, text chat or web chat. People are who make the difference.

When I'm upset I don't want to hear, "May I have your account number please. You can either say your 15 digit number or press the keys on your phone." I want to hear something like, "Rosanne, I'm so sorry that was your experience. Thank you so much for calling." And you mean it because if they didn't call you would never have the opportunity/challenge to turn them around and take the call into a productive interaction. I want to hear, "My name is _____ and I'm going to assist you right now." Wouldn't that be refreshing?

It certainly isn't what is happening in the world today. Customer satisfaction is at an all time low and services tops the list in terms of dissatisfaction. By all reports, it costs much more to get a new customer than it is to keep an existing one. Then why don't companies take care of their customers better!

So what's missing? For me it's empathetic responsiveness- the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes and see it from their point of view. First, it says that you heard what they said. After all, we all want to be heard, and to be treated with dignity and respect. And then it says that you care. A customer doesn't care what you know until they know you care.

What can we do about this? Hire for attitude, train for aptitude. For instance, train for language skills, basic or advanced. Train for communication and listening skills, rapport building, empathetic responsiveness, conflict resolution, anger diffusion, and other soft skills. Perceive training as an ongoing process, not an event. Take great care of your people and they'll take great care of your customers.

I know the world doesn't necessarily change for the people I interact with, both professionally and personally, but my hope is that their experience of the world will shift or at the very least be positively impacted.

I believe that the more awareness we have, the more control we have. After all, when something is unconscious or subconscious, we're in automatic in terms of our behavior. However, when our awareness is raised, the more control we have, and then the more choices we have. The more choices we have, the more often we'll make the right one.