Changing the Outlook on Customer Service

Telephone Etiquette tips for the service industry

2009-09-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

The telephone has become a major communicating tool for many businesses, and the way it is used can make a big difference for a business’s success. For many people, communicating over the phone can mean a lot of time saved. People are so caught up in their busy lives, that they barely have the time to travel to and from locations looking for items. And because of this businesses need to pay close attention to how they handle phone call, because, in many cases this may be their only chance to make a good first impression.

A customer who usually calls in their request, expects that the person that they communicate with is friendly, polite and can help them with whatever questions they may have; this most of the times will determine whether or not they can and will do business with you. So it is very important that every business, incorporate proper telephone etiquette into their practices.

Here are some techniques that you can try:

The first thing you should need to do is to remove all distractions from around you. This way you can give the customer on the other end your full attention and also would allow for you to capture the true essence of the call.

Always greet your caller, make sure to identify the company's name, your name and also the department that you are from. This way they can have someone to refer back to, if they may need any more assistance.

Get a note pad and pen or any writing material, which you may be able to access. Taking simple notes is a great way of keeping track of what the customer is trying to relate to you. This way you wouldn’t look stupid by asking them what was the first thing that they said, it can be a very frustrating thing to keep repeating yourself over and over. Some customers may not mind, but there are those who would become upset and want to think that you were not paying attention to them in the first place.

Clear your mouth of any food or gum that you may have in it. There is nothing more frustrating than to hear chapping or muffled sounds over the phone while communicating with someone. For a business this can be very detrimental to your sales, because, communication needs to be clear and understandable, especially for a first time customer. You wouldn’t want to think that, the reason you lost a sale is because, the message you were communicating wasn’t clear or they viewed your organization as unprofessional.

All calls should be answered by the second or third ring.

Always smile when your answering the phone. This may sound strange, but customers can actually here this in your voice.

The other most important thing you need to do when handling a customer over the phone, is to make sure an follow up. If you have to source information or call back for any reason, make sure and do it within the time frame given to the customer. Not returning a customer's call or calling back with information, will only show one thing " That your not interested in their business". This can mean the difference between future business and no business for your company. So if you have to handle several calls during the day, then you should make a check list of the customers you spoke with during the day and the issue which they may have had and start from the top, one by one addressing their issue, until the list has been completed.

Remember this may be your last chance to make a good first impression, so detail is key when handling your telephone customers.

Customer Service Tips for online customers

2009-09-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

Customer service has changed quite a bit since commerce first began. And in order for businesses to stay afloat and keep the customers coming back, companies must be careful with how they handle customer complaints especially over the internet, because of its impersonal nature.

Handling online customers

The Net is a neutral place to shop. For this, the online clientele feels minuscule loyalty to you or your business. Many internet shoppers will not hold back their anger either. They feel secure behind their unknown email address. So, in reacting to a complaint, you must speedily establish a close relationship with your client. To do this, your telephone skills and email etiquette must be special. You may not have a second chance to make a good impression.

Here are some tips which you can use:

1. Avoid from giving any response on stock, especially when the customer did not request it! The main focus of your email or telephone conversation with the customer should be on the questions or requests made. The worse thing for any customer is to get back a response from a business that does not address any of their requests.

2. Make sure that all conversations or correspondence are ended on a good note. Most customers will remember only the last words that were said. So in other words, you should not end the conversation, that will remind them of the problem, don’t get tempted to apologize again. You want the customer to leave knowing that their problem is being dealt with, and not what had brought about the problem in the first place.

3. Make sure that your email communicates clearly to the customer what you want to tell them, remember this person is not near you, that, they can see your expression or hear your voice. Remember to re-read your emails to make sure of this, if you could, get someone else to read it before it is sent.

4. Avoid from using any phrases that can be considered to be rude or demanding.

5. If you don’t think that you have the patients or that you don’t possess the personality to deal with it, then outsourcing should be considered. Not everyone is capable of handling customers on a day to day business. Nothing wrong with that, but you must be willing to invest on someone who will be able to communicate you and your business properly and effectively to the customers.

6. Pay attention to your customer’s request. Time and again their demands are usually more reasonable than what you were going to do to make it right. It is the solution that they are looking for and not necessarily the solution you may want to give them. And remember, a speedy resolution to the problem (not excluding quality) is always the best way to earn a customer’s loyalty.

7. Whenever achievable, you should give your customers an alternative as to the resolution to their problem. They will view their experience with less pain that way.

Examples of Good Customer Service

2009-08-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

As a business owner, providing good customer service should be at the heart of your business practices. It should be something that is communicated on a constant basis to your employees, whether its through frequent staff meeting, or you investing the time and finances on sending your staff to training courses. Either way it should be made a priority if you are to survive in these gloomy global enconomic times.

It all starts with your employees, making sure that they are equiped and capable to handles any situation that may arise from providing their service. After all these are the first and the last persons that your customers are going to be in contact with, and you need to rest assure that they can represent your company to the fullest. That’s why frequent meetings, focused on showing them examples of good customer service and also to identify bad practices that needs to be avoided can go a long way in assuring this.

Another great way of maintaining good customer service is by, encouraging feed back. You should encourage customers feed, where a customer can express their like and dislikes. This form of information can play a key role in improving your customer service, whereby, the information gathered can help you make strategic decision which can shape your serviceto suite the industries present needs.

One last way that will help you maintain these standards, is by recognising and rewarding your staff when it is deserved. Take note of good practices by staff members and highlight it, so everyone can see and follow. You can even make this an in house competition, where the winner is rewarded either through tangible or non tangible means. But most importantly in all this, don’t forget the weak team player, work one on one with them if needed, because if left alone, it can affect your standards where you may least expect it.

How to recruit a good Customer Service Representative

2009-08-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

Recruiting a new customer service representative for your company is a process, which can become very time consuming and tedious. After all this individual is going to be responsible for taking care of your customers, making sure that they are satisfied and willing to come back; so it is very important that whomever you choose can portrait the image of your business in the best light. You would want to make sure that the person has excellent interpersonal skill, the ability to be empathetic, results driven and also a very good listener, in order to achieve customer satisfaction. Knowing what qualities will best fit your company’s environment would also become an important factor.

When advertising for this position, you would want to be clear on the requirements needed. Be sure to state the age requirements, the qualifications and back ground experience, if applicable. If no experience is requires, be sure to state if training would be provided. There are many options that a company can explore, to select a suitable candidate for it customer service requirements.

The first option would be to look internally, to see if anyone in your staff possesses the required skills to fill such a position. Using resources from within your organization has some advantages and disadvantages to it. The individual would not require any length period to adjust to the company’s operating procedures. You would not have to worry about how they will work together with other individuals within the company; so shorter terms, you can get an operating customer service rep in less time, with little hassle. From a negative point, this individual may not be as enthusiastic about the job, as someone new to the organization.

The second option is to use an agency to do the recruiting for you. They would usually do the selecting process for you. What you would need to do is provide them with a list of your criteria and requirements and they would send you some suitable candidate. These agencies can be expensive, but is worth it in the long run.

Developing a Customer-Oriented Business Culture

2009-08-05T17:06:00.000-07:00

Producing a service oriented culture with in any business is not an overnight activity, where you go to sleep one night and poof, the next morning you’re a well organized and service oriented company. These things take time and a lot of working. It is not only about putting up a fancy vision statement that says “We strive to provide excellent customers service”, because this becomes useless, without the proper strategies and training to support it.

In order to do this you would need to know your customers. Take a look at the number of customers who shop at your establishment, what are the age range, does it consist of more females than males, what are their buying pattern and preferences. All this data would give you a better idea on how you are to formulate your customer service strategies and training.

In order to build a customer service oriented culture, one would need to look at improving or implementing certain policies.

The first step would be to hire the right person for the job. And because it can be a very expensive process as well as the most important period in selecting the right candidate, you need to be very cautious in the methods you choose and how you go about it. This does not mean that any Don Joe who is highly educated, you will just grab at him, to fill the position. It require a little more than that, you need to carefully analyze whether or not this person suites your environment. Ask yourself, what are the criteria of my organization? Is it a fast pace environment, which would require a person to commit a lot of time and energy to. Then would a male or a female suit the position best, if it’s a female, would I need a person without children, because of the demand on time, if it’s a male do I need someone between the ages of 18-30 or would a more mature individual appeal best to my customers.

You may even want to see how well they handle themselves in certain situations, by giving them a scenario and asking them how they would handle it. Or you can even use an IQ test; there are a lot of options. During this interviewing process you would also need to look at their general persona, to see how well they would mesh with other individuals in the organization. There are a number of different interviewing methods that you can use, just choosing the one that suites you requirements is what you need to figure out, based upon your industry. And most important, before you apply any of these test or questions, seek legal advice on it first, you would not want to use any question or any test that may be discriminative in any way.

The second part is training your staff. This again would be determined on you organization and also your financial capabilities. So if you are a small enterprise and you’re working with a small budget, then using the "work with Mary” method can work and it widely used. This way the new employee gains experience through direct “hands on” involvement and also through the company’s cultural methods. But if your don’t mind making the big investments, then you can hire a professional consultancy firms, which will do the training for you. It is also a good practice that you document these operating procedures and makes it easily available to staff for future referral.

The final step is up-keeping these practices. You can make improvements to them but make sure that they are practiced on a day to day basis. Enforcing these practices are only going to make you better at it and it can also open you up to new ideas.

Methods for Dealing with the Difficult Customer

2009-08-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

As a business person you would come across a difficult customer at some point in your career, who just wanted to make your life a living pain; the type of customer that would make anything a problem in hope of getting their own way, or for you to start popping out the freebies. Don’t get me wrong, not everyone is so, there are genuine people with genuine problems and it will be up to you to deceiver who is genuine and who is not.

Every business is unique in its own way and we must be able, through experience to identify the real problems. Usually the first question to ask yourself is, are the claims made by the customer actually possible, if you don’t know research it, ask someone who may know, but at all times be honest. You don’t want to lie in order to avoid replacing the item or correcting the problem, this can only damage your reputation, especially if the customer is not making false claims; sometimes the price to replace a product would be cheaper than losing that customer.

Now that this is said, let look at how we should attend to the problem in the event that it may happen;

Attend to the problem immediately; don’t leave a situation to long before attending to it. This will only make matter worse and it can also send signals to the customer, that you care about them or their problem. You don’t want for this customer to get irritated and cause others to become uncomfortable or irritated them. A quick response to these situations can save you from a situation escalating into something bigger.

Try and move the customer away from your other customer if you can, probably to your office or a quiet place. As I said above, you don’t want this customer to be quarreling in front of your other customers. After you have done this, try and find out what is the problem and then shut up and listen. Yes I said shut up. When you’re speaking and the customer is speaking at the same time, guess what, no one listening. Most time we are so caught up in the heat of the moment that, we don’t take the time to listen and understand what the customer’s claims are, you need to give the customer his or her time to vent. Only then you must respond. This way you will have gotten a clearer idea, as to what the problem really is and the customer would have gotten to release that steam that was built up in them, making them a lot calmer to deal with. And remember one important thing, always keep your cool; even if your burning up inside with anger don’t show. Raising your voice or making rude gestures, will only increase the tension.

Apologize to customer the customer for any inconvenience cause and be sincere. Even if you know that you’re not at fault, still do it, it wouldn’t take anything out of you, but make sure within the same breath, that you explain to the customer your views and what your intentions are. And in the event of you being at fault, make sure to attend to the problem as soon as possible.

Don’t run to the freebies for every disgruntle customer you may come across. This will only set a bad precedent. There are situations that can be resolved, without waving specials in front of a customer’s face. What you’ll find is if this becomes a habit of your, there would be customers who will drain this opportunity for what it’s worth, at any given chance they may have. There are situations where you can say NO, but it’s always how you say the NO that makes the difference. You need to remember that you’re in business, and the main objective of many businesses are to make a profit and constantly doing this can hamper with your growth. So analyze your situation carefully before making those types of decisions.

Customer Service

2009-07-30T17:04:00.000-07:00

Customer service is a variety of techniques used by businesses to ensure the customers satisfaction. This can vary from, showing a pleasant smile to working overtime to assure satisfaction. For many businesses today, this has become one of the key aspects of any business plan, especially for smaller businesses. Since the inception of globalisation, companies have found themselves in an opened playing field with other success driven organisations, who will go to no end, just to make it to the top. Companies brands are no longer chosen because of its indigenous affiliation or its superiority, but based on how well they can appeal to the customers liking.

If you look at it, a business that operates in an industry, with its competitors carrying the same product, with the same or similar features, are most of the times seen by the customer as the same; but what helps either one to succeed would be on how well they interact with the customers. So it is no longer a case of who is perceived to have the better brand, but on how well they are at selling that brand to the customer. The methods are limitless and can vary depending on the industry and the geographical location of the business, what will work for one company may not be so successful for another. One key aspect that determines these methods would of course be, the culture of the people, this in its self is a topic on its own, which will be discussed later on.