Talkin' Customer Service w/Jeremy Mifsud (Episode 96)

[00:00:00] what you do matter more than what you think of it at the surface level.

[00:00:04] You have to think at what the best impact that it has.

[00:00:08] I think that can motivate you so much more because you don't focus on us,

[00:00:14] but focus on the impact.

[00:00:16] Welcome to our podcast.

[00:00:18] It's about payroll.

[00:00:20] We're your host Brian Escobar and Walter William Duncan, the third.

[00:00:24] Whether you're new to the payroll of the payroll pros, like I was like, what? I don't need to do that. I don't have to deal with anybody. I'm back here plugging away, making batches and doing reports and an analyzation. I don't have to do that. No, you might want to try to fold these things.

[00:01:41] If you're already working on it, you want to get better?

[00:01:44] Do some tips.

[00:01:45] So the first one is? With with communication.

[00:03:01] So meaning you want to, if you have, if you guys have a company newsletter,

[00:03:05] send the newsletter, right?

[00:04:01] got feedback from your customers, and then now you're elevating your game.

[00:04:05] Wolf's gonna take us through some stuff too.

[00:04:06] Yeah, I just have five questions that we could go over

[00:04:09] and before we have Jeremy on to talk,

[00:04:12] to help us talk about customer service and payroll.

[00:04:15] Number one, what is the impact

[00:04:18] of poor customer service on employees?

[00:04:21] How does experiencing poor customer service,

[00:04:24] particularly in HR and you take care of the people that you serviced, that will incentivize them to not have to worry about their pay. And they'll be able to focus on the things that they have to do. It's because there's downstream impact.

[00:05:41] Yeah.

[00:05:42] Number three, financial implications of poor customer service.

[00:05:47] Oof, yeah. tribute to the overall well-being and peace of mind of employees, especially regarding financial matters. If we pay them correctly and their bills are able to be paid because most of us who have directed positive have our bills on auto pay in certain situations where our mortgage or rent comes out automatically and car note and insurance comes out automatically. And if we

[00:07:01] don't have to worry about those things, we'll be like I said earlier, we'll be able to focus relationship. So when we mess up and we do mess up in payroll, right? We will make mistakes. HR may enter in somebody's rate incorrectly or enter in their own frequency. These things happen. But how do we respond and how do we combat complacency and combat? So there's been situations where employees

[00:08:20] have called you and I and they're irate. You didn't pay me right? Oh my God,

[00:08:24] I did everything correctly. Oh my God, like, like, what's going on? And the

[00:09:22] There's a scripture that my mom loves in the Bible. A soft answer turns away raft.

[00:09:25] If you speak softly, if you respond softly,

[00:09:28] even though this person's angry, it'll deescalate them.

[00:09:30] And next thing you know, hey, they'll be appreciative.

[00:09:33] Thank you for listening.

[00:09:34] Thank you for taking care of me.

[00:09:35] Thank you for giving me squared away.

[00:09:38] And that will help maintain that healthy, in my opinion,

[00:09:42] the healthy employer and employee relationship.

[00:09:46] That's amazing.

[00:09:46] As we talk about customer service, employee time clock software that is going to make your life easier. In addition to the unique Graphical Employee Time Card that helps you quickly identify and fix mistakes. TimeTrackGo is excited to announce it's now compatible with QuickBooks Desktop, providing effortless data transfer and reduced errors.

[00:11:01] TrackGo will not only save you on and learn more about your experience. Our first question is, of course, how did you get into payroll? Yeah, so it was purely by coincidence. You mentioned that Jonathan is my brother. He's the city of Buddy. And basically, I was finishing up my master's in cognitive science. I was looking for a job. They had an opening and submission queries. So I would answer some of the emails and chats related to that. But kind of within two, three weeks, I was really good with the customer service front. So I took that on as well. Wow. And yeah, what was supposed to be just a temporary thing

[00:13:40] until they find someone.

[00:13:41] And until I find a different job,

[00:13:43] like more in my field that I was expecting,

[00:13:46] it ended up being a fit for both body and myself. ask this to payroll people but it's really interesting to ask a customer service person. Do you have any like good and or bad stories? Did you help somebody out one time that just brought you a lot of joy? It helped them like you can tell it was impactful to them? Yes. Good experiences happen pretty much every week.

[00:15:02] Oh that's awesome.

[00:15:03] Yeah and we're very like because like our customers are very appreciative

[00:16:05] moment. I think usually it's not necessarily the situation. It's the attitude because there are people who make user mistakes with the software and they're very understood and

[00:16:10] I messed up helping out. And there are people who take it very differently. Like the worst

[00:16:14] would have been like the much four months after starting back in like 2020. And it was when we

[00:16:20] used to offer phone support. But this person was like death threats on the Right. So it is important. So what so how can the attitude impact the customer service? Well, I think it's pretty much about setting the expectations by showing empathy from the start. Listen, I'm not saying it's you that made the mistake or I made the mistake or anything. Listen, a lot of our experiences were things that were very simple. Like, how do I do this? And it's something that you can find. We have like over 100 articles on how to do things. So with live chat, I can link the instructions I can follow you step by step with phone that takes me away from other clients. It's a bit of a

[00:19:04] how did you guys get? No, I love it. And it's a great service, but everyone overuses that when they don't need it. Unfortunately, it's not sustainable. So I had to shift to just live chat and email. Wow. I like it. No, I think that was a good shift.

[00:20:20] And so did you see any type of uptick?

[00:20:25] I'm sure because like the customers, wow. I would say I am confident in speaking. Wow, really? What are they? Yeah, multi-s and English, they're native from Malta. So when we grew up, I studied Italian and French and Walt included, and there are not enough young people backfilling, getting into payroll, like 80% of payroll pros right now are over

[00:23:04] 40, 40 and over. numbers. So I mentioned I said the maths and so that made it a bit simpler to get into it. Okay. But you have to recognize that payroll is way more than just the numbers and the certain calculations. I've encountered a lot of situations where I had to go and read the legislation. No, it has to do a lot with employment rights. And when you see that you're impacting

[00:24:23] people by paying them fairly and accurately and in job and blah, blah, blah. So that's, and that's really mature of you, I think as a younger person to, to, to realize that connection on such a personal level.

[00:25:42] And I commend you for that. That's awesome's life better, that can give you real value to your life. Because I've seen professionals like looking into fringe benefits,

[00:27:00] what they can give to the employees,

[00:27:03] what they can do to use the burden on the employee stacks, how what you do from a customer service payroll standpoint, right? Because you have the impact and it provides, and correct me if I'm wrong, it seems like it provides fulfillment for you by making sure that these people are happy. Yeah, no, it definitely provides fulfillment. And like the cognitive science aspect helps me from a very set of levels because

[00:29:25] But they also feel heard and listen that we actually care for or what they say

[00:29:28] Absolutely, that's amazing

[00:29:35] See it for me when I think about buddy and you think about what buddy means like that's my buddy That's my that's my friend. That's somebody who cares for me. Yeah, and so it's makes so much. It's perfect sense now

[00:29:41] This is amazing. So thank you for that Jeremy. What did you initially wanted to do?

[00:30:48] to your work. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, and I love numbers. I love data. So even anything to do with customers, even just like numbers, how many customers they have, how they're doing. And

[00:30:54] especially if it comes in play when you're onboarding new clients and see how they're doing. They're

[00:30:58] still using the software, all that, you know calls here and there with some of the bigger summers. We're so blessed to have great guests on our show. Thank you for coming on because we keep learning. We keep learning from y'all and it just helps us grow. And we hope we help you grow.

[00:32:21] Yeah, I'm not sure.

[00:32:23] Before we let you go, we have a quick game that we play.

[00:32:27] And did you see the episode with your brother?

[00:33:22] Italy or England? Italy?

[00:33:24] Italy?

[00:33:25] Okay.

[00:33:26] Alright, here's my four. Excel or Google Sheets?

[00:33:30] Google Sheets.

[00:33:31] Oh, okay.

[00:33:32] Okay.

[00:33:33] Okay.

[00:33:34] Here's a good one. Spain or Malta?

[00:33:36] Spain.

[00:33:37] Oh, really?

[00:33:38] Okay.

[00:33:39] Okay.

[00:33:40] Malta. He's joking. He's joking.

[00:33:42] He's joking. He's joking.

[00:33:43] He's joking.

[00:33:44] He's joking.

[00:33:45] No, I'm not.

[00:33:46] No, I'm not.

[00:33:47] No. I don't know. I never liked the idea of driving and even like with my environmental values, it's very important. You trade doesn't. I know America is also very car centric.

[00:35:00] Oh, God.

[00:35:01] It's heavily car centric.

[00:35:02] Unless you're in a city.

[00:35:03] Yeah, you have to have a car.

[00:35:05] Yeah. Jeremy go. Yeah, so what advice would you give someone who's just getting into payroll or customer service? Like what key point would you give someone who's thinking about it? I think the key point is that what you do matter more than what you think of it at the surface level.