The Unified Group hosted 31 attendees at its Building a Service Mentality Forum, March 15-17, in San Antonio. The session offered new ideas and a peer network to help them continue to improve their customer service skills with both internal and external clients. Leading up to the session, each attendee was asked to read, “Lessons from the Mouse,” a book with 10 easy lessons on how to apply the Disney customer service approach to his or her business.

Speakers included Teri Yanovich, a former Disney Institute keynote speaker and seminar leader, and Jim Bartolotta, managing partner, Unified Group. Yanovich discussed how to look through the lens of the customer to create a wow experience and the importance of building connections versus completing transactions. “It starts with quality,” Yanovich said. “Surround it with an experience that makes it easy to do business with you, and you’ll be unbeatable.”

Bartolotta focused on the process of showing empathy, taking responsibility, apologizing for the situation, resolving the situation, and seeking the customer’s satisfaction (STARS).

“This process definitely helped me think about ways to not be so stressed and reprioritize, rethink, and put these steps into play,” said Jorel Chavez, technician, Yearout Mechanical Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Attendees also met in small roundtables to discuss some of their challenges and stressors. The groups identified communication, teamwork, and getting everyone on the same page as the main stressors. The attendees suggested utilizing a day-in-the-life approach to help individuals understand what everyone does and how it can positively or negatively affect the common goals. Attendees also suggested using mistakes as learning opportunities, and picking up the phone instead of emailing when communication breaks down.

As with every Unified Group session, attendees were encouraged to stay connected with each other after the session. “When you go back, keep these groups together,” Bartolotta said. “You know someone you didn’t last week who’s willing to share a lot of the same challenges and can be a resource.”

Publication date: 5/4/2015 

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