Business in Media Industry

Posts Tagged ‘Customers’

Article by Ryan Fyfe

Good customer service is the base of any business. Customers are responsible for the recognition and reputation of you company in the market. Satisfying them is the very first priority of any business. The entire setup we have, the business that we undertake, everything is ultimately for the benefit of the customers. A company produces and manufactures products and services by offering promotions, slashing prices, improving quality in order to bring in many customers and making the business profitable.

Good customer service is all about attracting the customers towards your services and bringing them back to you. Making them happy and satisfied is the only aim for the businessmen. Every feedback of the customer is counted; unless and until you do not get maximum positive feedbacks your need to understand that there are areas where your company lack behind and need to be considered. If you are a good salesman, you might confidently sell any product to anyone. But eventually everything depends upon your approach to the customer service, which will determine whether or not you will be able to sell something to that person. The essence of good service to the customers is forming long-term relations with the customers, which the customers himself would like to pursue. Remember, you will be judged by what you do and provide, not what you say. Good customer service training is truly beneficial for a business to be successful. So let’s know what are the steps involved in customer service training:

Answer the phone calls: Customer services usually depend upon phone. Do not ignore the calls made by the customer, instead try to solve the queries and make them feel happy. Hire staff that has good communication skills and the capacity to mould a negative feedback or a cribbing customer into a satisfied one. Make sure every call is attended with courtesy.

Don’t make fake promises to satisfy the customers: Be sure about what you speak, keep your commitments. Fake promises can create a negative reputation of your company. It can put you in trouble and you may suffer losses. Reliability is one of the essential factors taught in a good customer service training program. Be firm on what you say, and say that can be done. Don’t disappoint the customers.

Listen to your customers: It gives a negative feeling and a very bad impression if you are exasperating on certain things and you are not giving attention and ignored. The right thing is to better listen to customer’s grievances attentively and solve their problems, rather than engaging yourself in other work while your customer is talking to you. It’s very important to let the customer speak and listening should be a part of customer service training.

Dealing with the customers complains: You need to be smart and talented enough to handle the customers complain. Learn to please the customers as this will be a great benefit for your business. Pleasing the customers is another skill that should be a part of customer service training.

Train your staff to have a low pitch, and a helpful courteous and polite approach. As part of your customer service training program, practically, make your staff member a customer and show him how to greet and treat the customer yourself. You can also hire a professional trainer to train them.

All these tips should be included to give better customer service training to the employees.

Article by Ed Sykes

Let me share with you the following customer service story on how you can outperform your competition and win customers every day.

On our road trips to New Jersey to facilitate a motivation program for a client, Joy and I make it a habit to order food from a particular fast food restaurant. Although the food is not nutritious, it tastes good and is so famous that there was a movie made about the adventures of two people searching for this restaurant (Hint: Harold and Kumar are the two main characters).

During a recent road trip, as we approached the restaurant, we noticed that the lights were out in several of the businesses leading up to it. Nearing the front door of the restaurant, we noticed a sign that read “Restaurant Closed Due to Power Outage. Sorry for the Inconvenience.” Well, we were not to be denied. We hopped back into the car and drove up to the drive through window and tapped on it. We asked what happened, and the restaurant employee apologized for the inconvenience and explained that a storm had come through the area and knocked out power in their business and they were in the process of bringing power back up.

We explained that we drove many miles and make it a habit to frequent their restaurant when in the area and asked if they could do anything for us. With a smile, she turned to her co-workers to get agreement on what they could do as a team and then explained, without hesitation, shared the following:

* “We have one burner up and running so we can make any type of hamburger for you. What would you like?”
* “Our shake machine is still frosty so we can give you free milk shakes, on the house, for your inconvenience”
* “Our fryer is up so we can make fries or onion rings for you, which would you like?”

We were delighted with the service as the employees quickly and cheerfully put together our order. She could have taken a “can

Article by Michiel Van Kets

And there is good empirical evidence to show that investing in raising service levels and satisfying customers is not a wasted indulgence. As long ago as 2002 Tom van der Wiele, Professor of Business and Management at the Rotterdam School of Economics, along with colleague Paul Boselie and Flecompany quality manager Martijn Hesselink completed a research paper into the links between customer satisfaction and business performance. A key element of customer satisfaction, they argue, is the service that customers experience in their dealings with a business.

One of their key findings was to establish a strong correlation between perceived customer satisfaction and service quality and sales and volume margin. And they also found that service quality had a lasting effect into future year’s sales and margin results.

One key area affecting customer perceived satisfaction was in the area of complaints handling. A fast response to the initial complaint and information on the complaint handling process allied to a satisfactory outcome significantly improved perceived satisfaction levels.

In an even larger study, Professor Claes Fornell and colleagues at Michigan State University conducted a study to correlate the financial results of 200 companies in 40 industries in the USA with the annual survey results from 65,000 consumers. Their research has proven that companies with high customer satisfaction scores outperform other companies by a factor of 4 to 1 over a series of years.

So investing in improving customer service can make a real difference to bottom line performance. And there is no shortage of customer service courses to choose from.

One of the main problems with measuring customer satisfaction is the time lag between experiencing the service and gathering and analysing the data. That can mean a delay of many months between a customer having an experience and the results featuring on any benchmark survey research. Continuously checking the feedback from customers can produce trends that help to gauge whether investments into service improvements are paying dividends. No matter what customer service course is undertaken, an element of faith is required before the empirical results will prove the investment worthwhile.

Whilst most people intuitively know when they have received bad service, defining good service can be subjective. For this reason many employees develop their own sense of ‘service’ based on their interpretation of company ethos, culture and reward systems. Therefore, service definition has to start from the top levels of management and be reinforced through the whole organisation. Every employee has to buy into the same ethos since the customer may well experience interaction at any level from the Chief Executive down to the security guard on night time shift.

So whilst basic customer service courses can address the very basics of courtesy and respect the whole organisation has to be geared to customer service standards if it is to truly portray a common front to the customer. That means that it is not only the sales or after sales staff that can benefit from a customer service course but everyone in the business.

It is essential that the prime customer contact points have a common level of training and systems that support their ability to deliver a defined minimum standard level. However unless the rest of the organisation are aware of what these individuals are trying to deliver it can be impossible for them to provide the correct level of support that would enable them to do their jobs effectively.

Likewise, the business must encourage and reward good behaviour and identify and correct poor behaviour. That means having incentive programmes that are correctly designed to encourage and reward whilst ensuring that dysfunctional behaviour gets quickly flagged to senior management.

So no customer service course can succeed on its own unless the organisational goals and objectives are mutually reinforcing. This requires time and effort on behalf of senior management and a culture in which it can thrive and grow.

Once this environment exists, finding the right customer service course to match the business needs should be relatively straightforward. There are a large number of telephone handling courses as well as conflict resolution and complaints handling programmes to pass on proven techniques and tips to improve the overall level of staff awareness and skill.

One key area that needs to be in tune with the service and satisfaction levels experienced by customers is the marketing team. Having a mismatch between what is being promoted to customers and the actual service level received can be damaging (if overselling and under delivering) or may cause the company to miss out on a valuable differentiator from competitors. If there is a good story to tell then make sure customers and prospective customers know about it. And this communication can start even if the previous service levels were less than satisfactory. Demonstrating that the company has listened, invested and is striving to improve is a powerful message but the actual experience then has to be positive in the eyes of the consumer.

Basic customer services courses are relatively cheap and can be a sound investment. Getting all staff ‘on the same page’ can also be motivational and part of a good team building exercise. customer service course can also reinforce culture and generate ideas for product and service enhancements for the future. The link between providing good customer service and future financial success is as strong as the management could possibly want. The key is to harness the customer feedback and make sure that the business changes to reflect needs, demands, opportunities and competitor pressure.

As has been shown in many studies, customers are prepared to reward those companies where they perceive good service with both repeat business and higher margins.

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Article by Deborah Campbell

How do you get happy customers? Happy and satisfied customers are the people who help you pay the bills by purchasing your products and services. They also provide good feedback, and recommend your products and services to others. So, how do you get them? The easiest way to make customers happy is through customer service support. Of course, creating a product or service your customers want is already a given; but providing good customer service is an added bonus every customer yearns for.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of businesses (especially the startups) that consider customer service support as a nuisance they are forced to deal with. And why not? To maintain an excellent customer service, one needs to deliver fast response, courteous replies and decisive actions to customers. In addition, the process of customer service is demanding and time-consuming; not to mention that customers are hesitant on using or purchasing from new businesses. Can they really provide the quality and service we need? How long will they last? Nevertheless, with great customer service support along with other important business functions, you can assuage such concerns and balance the shortcomings.

So, how do you define a good customer service support?

In business, those that are able to treat their customers well can respond quickly, and with systems that are open and accessible are said to have the highest standard of customer service, among others. Not only that, businesses that use reliable tools in their business are capable of keeping customers satisfied. It’s a good thing that there are call centers today, particularly inbound call centers that can help businesses improve their customer relations programs through live chat support and live answering service. These two fascinating concepts work perfectly for many of us due to their easy access and fast processing. Imagine for a second if businesses have sluggish websites; would customers still be happy if they wait endless hours before getting what they need? Simple logic dictates that people purchase online because it provides quick results with almost everything can be done with a simple click of a mouse. With live chat, customers and vendors can communicate and arrive at conclusion as promptly as they desire. It also ensures after sale services at all hours of the day because of its two key elements-customer care and feedback.

Another service that inbound call centers offer to improve customer service is live answering. Live people have the primary responsibility of providing quick solutions to customers. They receive inquiries, process them, and provide them solutions in a timely manner. Many firms have lost customers because instead of using live people to receive calls on weekends, they use answering machines that often cannot attend to customers’ needs. It’s no wonder that such situations would make customers simply hang up, and bring with them their concerns and purchasing power somewhere else.

So if you are planning to get live chat support and live answering service from an inbound call center, you need to ensure that such partner has a group of live operators who have the skills needed to accomplish their job. After all, anything they do/say directly affects your brand image. Look for a contact center that has years of experience in handling customer service programs to ensure success.

Customer Service Training Video
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