Suppose your competition wanted to sabotage you, so they hired somebody to infiltrate your work force and destroy your business from within. What do you think that corporate saboteur might do to torpedo your company? My guess is that they would stand around talking on the phone or texting, while ignoring customers when they came into your business. Is there anything that they could do that would drive away customers more quickly? I think not.
On the other hand, if you can train your people to TALK, your business has a huge advantage. And by “TALK,” I mean,
T - Take initiative! Don’t wait for the customer to speak to you. How about greeting him first? And how about saying “hello“ with a little enthusiasm (as in, I‘m grateful you’re here so that I can make a living and pay my bills), instead of treating them like an annoyance (I wish you would go away so I can, like, finish my conversation with Brittany). Throw a hello at ‘em. It doesn’t mater what it is--a buenos dias, a howdy, a hey-HEY-hey. Whatever! I don’t care what you say, just make an attempt. There is nothing that turns the customer off quicker than being ignored.
A - Ask questions. It’s not all about what you have to say. Yes, certainly find out what you can do to help the customer, but beyond that, ask them conversational questions. Let them know that you recognize them as not only a potential sale or problem to solve, but that you see them as a person. How are you today? How’s the weather outside? How ‘bout them Giants? Again, it’s not about the question. It’s about the person.
L - Listen. Yep, shutting your trap and hearing what the other person has to say is a big part of talking. You can’t respond to your customer without first hearing what they’re all about. You would be amazed at the information you can get just by being quiet and letting the other person ramble for a minute. At the very least, they’ll feel like you care and if they feel you care about them, then you are halfway home toward creating customer satisfaction.
K - Keep information from the conversation. Whenever possible, take just a moment to jot down a note or two from your interaction with the customer. In my office, we take notes during every phone conversation so the next time we interact with you, we know exactly where we were in the conversation. Nobody can remember every conversation they have with every customer, so it helps immensely to have a record, so that when your important client walks in the real or virtual door, you can respond as if you just spoke to them yesterday.
It’s not hard to create customer loyalty if you take the time to TALK!
Learn more about Motivational Keynote Speaker Charles Marshall www.charlesmarshall.net
Charles Marshall
Motivational speaker and author, Charles Marshall
Showing posts with label customer service advice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label customer service advice. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Monday, January 10, 2011
What your customer is thinking but won’t tell you (part 1)
#1 If I am paying you my money, then I’m your boss.
Just about every weekend, I hand my credit card to some rental car company for the privilege of using one of their cars for a day or two. A couple of months ago, I showed up at a rental car location to pick up a car I had reserved.
By the way, since I’m about to say some bad stuff about this particular company, I don’t feel comfortable mentioning their name, so let’s just say the name of the company was Schmudget Rental Car. There. That’s obscure enough. No one will ever crack my code and figure out who I really mean.
When I arrived, it turned out that there was a huge disconnect between the car size that I had reserved on the Web site and the car that the rental location actually had for me. It was important that I get a larger car because I had my family with me, and all they had available was the next size down.
In others words, I encountered a problem, which is not that big of a deal. All businesses have problems. The character of a company isn’t determined by whether or not they have problems but by what they do about those problems.
The customer service representative at this particular Schmudget Rental Car location chose to go with the I’m-Just-Working-Here-Until-My-Band-Gets-A-Record-Deal customer service method. It did not inspire great confidence in me.
Two hours later, I am still at the same location trying to get the right size car, and by now, my patience is wearing a tad thin. When I suggest to Beavis that maybe this matter is important to him since I am the reason he has a job, he makes the incredible statement, “You don’t pay my paycheck. The company does.”
Wow. If you don’t see the complete inanity of this remark, then you might also be occupying the same strange universe as Beavis: a strange world where money mysteriously appears in the company bank account and then is distributed to employees who seem determined to destroy the company from within.
After a great while, I finally got the vehicle I had reserved and I was once again on my way, no thanks to my Rock-N-Roll-Wanna-Be friend.
It's extremely important that you take time to educate your employees regarding proper customer service technique and attitude. Every person in your company who interacts with customers is the link between you and the customer, and in a very real way they hold the life of your business in their hands.
In my next post I will continue the story of my interaction with Schmudget Rental Car and pass on a few points that I hope you will use to educate those in your organization who need a little help realizing that when someone hands you their money, he or she is your boss!
Feel free to reprint this article in your organizational publication. We only ask that you use the following attribution blurb at the bottom of the article:
© 2010 Charles Marshall. Charles Marshall is a nationally known humorous motivational speaker and author. Visit his Web site at http://www.charlesmarshall.net or contact him via e-mail at charles@charlesmarshall.net.
Just about every weekend, I hand my credit card to some rental car company for the privilege of using one of their cars for a day or two. A couple of months ago, I showed up at a rental car location to pick up a car I had reserved.
By the way, since I’m about to say some bad stuff about this particular company, I don’t feel comfortable mentioning their name, so let’s just say the name of the company was Schmudget Rental Car. There. That’s obscure enough. No one will ever crack my code and figure out who I really mean.
When I arrived, it turned out that there was a huge disconnect between the car size that I had reserved on the Web site and the car that the rental location actually had for me. It was important that I get a larger car because I had my family with me, and all they had available was the next size down.
In others words, I encountered a problem, which is not that big of a deal. All businesses have problems. The character of a company isn’t determined by whether or not they have problems but by what they do about those problems.
The customer service representative at this particular Schmudget Rental Car location chose to go with the I’m-Just-Working-Here-Until-My-Band-Gets-A-Record-Deal customer service method. It did not inspire great confidence in me.
Two hours later, I am still at the same location trying to get the right size car, and by now, my patience is wearing a tad thin. When I suggest to Beavis that maybe this matter is important to him since I am the reason he has a job, he makes the incredible statement, “You don’t pay my paycheck. The company does.”
Wow. If you don’t see the complete inanity of this remark, then you might also be occupying the same strange universe as Beavis: a strange world where money mysteriously appears in the company bank account and then is distributed to employees who seem determined to destroy the company from within.
After a great while, I finally got the vehicle I had reserved and I was once again on my way, no thanks to my Rock-N-Roll-Wanna-Be friend.
It's extremely important that you take time to educate your employees regarding proper customer service technique and attitude. Every person in your company who interacts with customers is the link between you and the customer, and in a very real way they hold the life of your business in their hands.
In my next post I will continue the story of my interaction with Schmudget Rental Car and pass on a few points that I hope you will use to educate those in your organization who need a little help realizing that when someone hands you their money, he or she is your boss!
Feel free to reprint this article in your organizational publication. We only ask that you use the following attribution blurb at the bottom of the article:
© 2010 Charles Marshall. Charles Marshall is a nationally known humorous motivational speaker and author. Visit his Web site at http://www.charlesmarshall.net or contact him via e-mail at charles@charlesmarshall.net.
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