| |
| |
|
Customer Service Information |
|
|
|
One Critical Question to Ask Yourself Every Day
What happened to the old saying, the customer is always right? I'll bet every one of you reading this article has a "customer service nightmare" story to tell. My most recent nightmare experience took place recently when my business partner and I went in to a wireless phone store to purchase two new pda wireless phones. We told the young man who greeted us that we had only one question: is this phone compatible with the database software we intend to purchase? "I don't know," he said, "Most customers do the research on this before they come in." We politely requested that if he didn't know, he find the answer. He told us we could call the company ourselves, that he didn't have time to be put on hold with them. As you can imagine, we left without spending what we felt was a significant sum of money. And of course we've told at least 10 other people about the disappointing service at that particular store. So here's a question to ask yourself every day: how does our business need to look and act in the way the customer needs it to look and act? What would happen if you thought through and walked through every step of the process from your customer's point of view? Here are a few thought-provoking questions for you and your employees to consider: - What does our customer need, not just in terms of our product - what kind of experience does our customer need? - What is it like to be our prospective customer? - What do our customers see, read or hear about us? - What are other customers saying about us? - What experience our customers have when they call our business? (By the way, women hate layers of voice mail, they want a real person. And there's nothing worse than reaching the voice mail system that asks you to enter "the first four letter of the person's name." What if you don't know the name of the person you need to speak with?) - What if our customers' first experience with us is electronic, through our website or email? What impression do we make? - What is our customers' first meeting with us like? Are they comfortable, are they made to feel welcome? - Do we ask questions to try to understand their needs before trying to sell them something? - Are we asking about their expectations or making assumptions about what they want? - What is our process for giving them a proposal? - How long will they wait for an estimate? - Will the project be ready on time, as promised, and at or under budget? - Is it easy, relaxed, and efficient to do business with us? - Is it frustrating? Where are the points of irritation? - What does our customer experience once they become a customer? - Is it predictable, reliable, rewarding, convenient, and consistent? - What is not just adequate but over the top spectacular? How does that look and feel to our customers? I invite you to play this game in your business?pretend you're a customer. Get your employees, friends and customers involved. See what your customers experience from their eyes. Or better yet, survey your customers and ask them what it's like. And ask yourself this one critical question every day?how does our business need to look and act in the way our customers need it to look and act? Let me know what you discover! © Copyright 2005, Darcie Harris Darcie Harris is co-founder of EWF International®, an Oklahoma based firm providing peer advisory groups for women business owners and executives. EWF International® franchises are available throughout the Southwest. View this article and others at http://www.ewfinternational.com.
MORE RESOURCES:
Court Staff Receiving Customer Service Training - Government of Jamaica, Jamaica Information Service
Customer-Service - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Sorry, No Customer Service After 4:00 P.M. A few months ago, I wrote about ingenious styles of customer service that every business should know about, mostly because their employees were inflicting them on their customers.For instance, I warned about "in your face customer service" and "run for cover customer service", two equally effective opposites. Provide Exceptional Value - Grow Your Business The primary objective of a business is to get and keep customers. Growing a profitable business requires providing exemplary customer service and products or services of exceptional value. Developing A Customer Complaint System Background The company was experiencing an increase in the number of customer complaints and an increase in the cost of processing them and we were hired to analyze the current situation and develop recommendations to increase the effectiveness of the process of administering and resolving the complaints.Identify Customer Requirements A consultant was assigned to the design of customer service systems and complaint processes, and who had done extensive work in QFD (Quality Function Deployment), which is a methodology that analyzes the needs of the customer and integrates them with the company processes to ensure the needs are met. Whatever Happened To Customer Service? Do you remember the last time you went into a shop and the person 'serving' raced over to you, greeted you with a lovely smile, heaps of enthusiasm and said, "Welcome to our store, what can I help you with today?" And then listened attentively to what you had to say?Doesn't happen very often does it? In fact, while I was writing this, I couldn't recall when I had experienced it. I'm sure I must have yet it would have been so long ago, I can't remember. CEM Can Improve Customer Loyalty 'A 5 percent increase in customer retention increases profits by 25 to 95 percent.''The greater the loyalty of customers, employees, suppliers, and shareholders, the greater the profits reaped . Handling Difficult Customers - 8 Strategies In any business our customers are one of our most important assets. Unfortunately there are days when not all customers want to be friendly or pleasant. Listening: The Foundation of Communication Listening is the #1 communication skill for leadership, selling, customer service, and even romance! The problem is, most of us don't listen very well. We're not trained to listen and we don't even realize that listening is a skill. All of the World of Business Is a Stage One of the basics of acting taught to me in grade school was the important principle of "staying in character." Staying in character means holding the image and personality of the character you are assigned to portray without letting your own personality leak through. When a Customer Has Done Everything to Get Your Goat You try to make your customers happy. You sincerely WANT them to be pleased with your products and service. Customer Service, Italian Style Nowadays, we complain nearly all of the time about how few businesses remember how to provide quality service to their customers. But a recent trip to Italy not only reminded me that the art of service is not dead, but that providing outstanding service is the key to almost any successful business. Customer Service and Marketing that Works Go into many businesses today and try and get service, its sometimes impossible! The customer service officer is on the phone talking about personal issues, there is not enough staff, and they are disinterested and distracted.The old days of customer service is where you the customer were viewed as valuable and important and you received service from a person and not a machine. Client Service as a Competitive Advantage As someone who has been heavily involved facilitating strategic planning processes with organizations during the last 15+ years, I often find it somewhat amusing how people answer the questions I pose.For example, if I ask people, "What is your unique differentiation in the marketplace?" or "What does your organization really excel at?" They will almost always reply, "It has to be our client service. Why Passenger Surveys are a Transport Operators Best Friend Public transport operators who already use passenger surveys may not fully appreciate the multiple benefits that surveys can bring. Not only are surveys an efficient method of market research that will help identify areas of passenger dissatisfaction, they are also perfect for measuring the effects of improvements and can, at the same time, help promote new initiatives to customers using the service. How CRM Software Works -- Creating Customer Satisfaction with a Click When people ask, "What is CRM?" the literal answer is, "Customer Relationship Management," but that doesn't really convey much in terms of what all CRM does for a business. This CRM definition is too narrow to really explain everything the system does if it is working to its fullest potential and is user-friendly enough to expand and grow as a customer-client relationship changes and grows. Post Office, Incredible Lady Postmaster There are two Post Offices that I routinely visit. One is the office that delivers my mail and the other is frequently on the path of some daily errands. Customer Service Consultants When all else fails in your company to meet the needs of your customer consider a customer service consultant. If you find that agents in your company are constantly having misunderstanding that result in loss of customers bring in a consultant. Customers Who Rave About You and Your Service According to customer service studies by marketing gurus of the world, here are the following qualities, which must be present in your life and your business in order to develop raving fan customers who are not just satisfied but completely loyal to you over the long haul.1. Create Win-Win Deals With Your Competitors In the competitive world of the 20th century, we generally viewed competitors as the enemy. And a competitor was anyone who sold to the same target audience as us - even if they sold a different item. Foolproof Customer Service Strategies (That Only A Fool Would Try!) Ever notice how customer service varies from store to store? You walk into some stores, and before you can say "Buzz off!" a salesperson asks "May I help you?""No thanks.""May I help you?" asks another. Becoming A Solution To Your Customers Problems Those of us in home based and small businesses are in effect selling our product. So becoming an effective salesperson is very important.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
