8 essential Steps to manufacture a customer service Culture ...

Wednesday, 21. March 2012 - 8:15 am

?Every company?s most assets are its customers,
because without customers there is no company,?
?Erwin Frand

During our modern weakened economy, many businesses have seen declining revenues and declining budgets. Declining budgets often lead to reduced staff levels and diminished services. To me, this does not make sense. I believe that it is during the down times, when assistance should be at the forefront and holding of loyal customers even more of a focus.

8 essential Steps to manufacture a customer service Culture

When price wars fail to drive revenues, businesses often look to assistance to give them a competitive advantage. Many big business marketers are returning to a ?service sells? mentality, however, many sell great customer assistance and few deliver. The question is that few marketers have ever truly served a customer.

Throughout my years in business, I have had the chance to interact and establish a customer assistance philosophy. It is inherent that when you are in a service-based business, there will be times when your customer is compelled to offer you their feedback. It is what you do with this feedback that will shape the hereafter and their impression of your business.

Upon reflection, most all of my interactions with displeased customers were not the supervene of a poor product, but rather a disappointing customer experience. Why is that? Because, stock is not personal, customer assistance is. Briefly, I would like to share with you eight significant steps to establish a customer assistance culture.

1. Customers are the calculate for work, not an interruption of work

This sounds unquestionably unavoidable doesn?t it? How many times have you gone into a business only to wait while someone is on the telephone or busy doing some ?non-service? task? Employees often lose sight of the importance of the customer and get consumed in lesser day to day tasks. Sure, there are tasks that need to be accomplished, but you cannot afford to reduce assistance to get them done. Good customer assistance must be a priority for you and your team. Without your customers, you have no company!

2. Train, train, and continue to train.

o Cross train your entire staff to be able to help a customer regardless of their department. When a customer becomes upset they want their question solved not to be shuffled in the middle of employees that are not empowered or enable to help them.

o Offer continuous customer assistance training for your staff and once they are providing good service, continue to train them.

o utilize role play situations to help your staff in recognizing and experiencing both easy and difficult assistance opportunities. If an worker has a level of relieve with a difficult situation, they will be able to best deal with it.

3. Empower your staff to serve

o establish a system of resources for your staff to serve the customer. Allow them latitude to take the significant operation to furnish exceptional assistance and settle any issues should a customer come to be disgruntled. Originate a structured system to allow your staff to serve customers.

o establish a discretionary funds that an worker may entrance to recover a customer before you lose them. I recently learned that a major hotel chain has a monetary fund available per year and per worker enabling them to go above and beyond to ensure exceptional service. This empowers the worker to right a wrong or Originate a ?memorable? customer experience. I am not advocating large sums of money, but with regards to customer service, a small gesture can go a long way.

o Ask your staff what tools would enable them to furnish best service. You would not send a fireman into a burning construction without the allowable equipment. Failing to empower and enable your staff with the significant tools to serve you customer leaves you with few options other than poor service.

4. Make assistance personal

o Greet repeat customers by name, if possible.

o Offer a handshake and introduce yourself. Creating assistance that is personal will not only maintain customers, but help diffuse difficult situations should they arise.

o Thank your customers for their patronage. It unquestionably does make a difference.

5. It is ok to say ?Yes?, even when you should say ?No?

o maintain your staff when they make customer assistance decisions. In my business, it is my course that an worker can act without concern for repercussion, as long as they are meeting a customer?s need. I have found this creates a greater willingness to serve the customer.

o Often times you could say ?no? to a customer, however, ?no? can have huge implications on your business. Ask yourself, ?Am I willing to potentially lose 10 customers as supervene of this interaction??

6. Offer a solution

o Shift from the question to the process for resolution.

o Offer a selection in the middle of some options.

o Put yourself in their place.

o Involve the customer in determining the solution.

o Clearly explain any limitations that exist.

7. Identify your staff members for outstanding service

o Implement a customer assistance awards schedule that recognizes employees for exceptional customer service. Maybe you have tried these without success and do not believe that they work. I would tend to agree if the schedule were like most I have seen. Try something different; break the mold. One of my most successful clients offers spa treatments for his female employees if a customer goes out of their way to Identify them for great service. Someone else client provides his employees with a ?day off with pay? incentive for every five unsolicited, unavoidable customer comments that he receives. These are just a few examples that are ?outside the box.? Be creative and Originate a exiguous excitement in your staff for customer service.

o Take the time to write back employees at staff meetings. Population want to leave their mark and feel that they matter. Taking the time to Identify them in front of their peers can make a real difference.

8. Ask your customers what they think of your service

The best way to find out if you are satisfying customers is to ask them. Formal efforts could contain customer surveys, questionnaires, interviews or comment/suggestion cards. Informally, get out and talk with your customers and your staff. Ask them how they feel about assistance you are providing. Ideally, use a compound of both methods.

You may be thinking, ?Why should I go ask for trouble? Who knows what I might hear if I ask?? That is the point. As you will see in the statistics below, most customers will not voice their frustration with your assistance levels. They will plainly leave and never return. If you do not ask about the capability of your service, you might make the wrong assumptions and feel that you can reduce assistance levels because you get few complaints and lead your assosication into areas that turn off your customers or cause problems that you never intended.

On the other hand, request your customers about their pleasure sends a message to them that you care about your business and about them. While you might hear some criticisms, you might also learn what you are doing right and see what you should modify.

In expanding to the information, you will benefit from the interaction. Every interaction is a customer assistance opportunity. Make the most of each and every one.

Most of us continue doing business with Population and businesses who give good service. We might not say anything, but we reward good assistance providers by persisting to do business with them. If the assistance is outstanding, we will probably tell our friends and colleagues about it. Likewise, when we receive poor assistance most of us vote, not with our voice, but with our feet?we just leave.

In the 1980?s the White House Office of buyer Affairs commissioned a report called the Tarp study. The report revealed the following facts about unhappy customers:

96% of dissatisfied customers do not complain directly.

90% will not return.

One unhappy customer will tell nine others.

13% will tell at least 20 other people

Superior customer assistance is one of the most difficult deliverables facing the business world today. Selling assistance is the easy part, delivering on that promise offers a substantial challenge. So I ask you, what can you do to enhance the assistance you provide? Implement these eight steps and begin to excel at providing a first-rate customer culture today!

?Anthony Mullins ? Elite Coaching Alliance 2005

8 essential Steps to manufacture a customer service Culture

Source: http://www.voteforunity.com/8-essential-steps-to-manufacture-a-customer-service-culture.html

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