Business in Media Industry

Posts Tagged ‘Training’

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 Darrel Chang

We have used the same handyman, Leon, for many years. He can be described as being able to adequately meet our needs but may not the best handyman in the Yellow Pages. We opted not to switch to another better equipped and knowledgeable handyman because Leon knows the names of our children, offers home remedy advice when we are sick and will happily hang a painting on his way out. We are emotionally satisfied with his services.

A satisfied customer does not a loyal customer make

In a recent Gallup study, results showed that emotionally satisfied customers, (how they perceive and feel about their experience) contribute far more to the bottom line than rationally satisfied customers (satisfied with a company’s goods or services, whether a customer thought they received good value), even though they are equally “satisfied.”

Gallup’s research further suggests that for all kinds of companies, fully engaged customers deliver a 23% premium over the average customer in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth.

Training Focus Misdirected

Customer service training typically focuses on developing employee skills to satisfy, meet or exceed customer needs rather than how to create loyal customers. If your customer satisfaction centric training is successful, customers will leave feeling satisfied with your company’s services, but if given a choice, will return to the business to which they are emotionally satisfied and connected.

Contemporary training must go beyond the traditional “smile and be nice to the customer” to teaching employees how to develop meaningful conversations and relationship building skills with customers. Generations Y & Z which constitute a large percentage of customer service givers, communicate in IM’s and Text Messaging languages and approach and define relationship building very differently than preceding generations. The reverse is also true of older customer service givers who sometimes struggle to connect with their younger customers.

Rewards & Incentives

Rewards and incentives motivate employees and direct behavior. The formula, ability + motivation = behavior still applies in today’s environment. This can be clearly seen recently in the performance of Wall Street firms that rewarded and gave incentives to financial managers based on short term profit rather than longer term yield and stability.

How do customer service givers get rewarded or incentivized? Is it by financial performance (sales), customer satisfaction or customer loyalty scores (assuming customer loyalty is measured)? If building customer loyalty is not part of the reward and incentive strategy, customer service givers will focus on practicing those behaviors for which they are rewarded.

Today’s challenging economic environment demands that companies must place a high premium on retaining existing engaged customers and find ways to build long term loyal relationships to keep them returning.

Someone once said…

“In theory, practice and theory are the same. In practice they are not.”

During a cold winter season, smart organizations get busy preparing for spring. One way to prepare is to create (or confirm) a clear and motivating vision of what you want to become. Back this vision up with customer service training and other measures and you can transform your business for the better. Your engaging service vision is one of the “12 Building Blocks for a Superior Service Culture” we teach at UP Your Service! College. This vision can serve as a guiding light for customer service training and to focus your efforts now and in the future.

Article by Reanna Taylor

Customer service training programs will improve the experience of your stakeholders, increase in sales and retain potential customers. As a business man, you know that NO COUSTOMERS – No BUSINESS. The key of success is respecting the customers as the real driver of your business and requisite for profitability. Training for dealing with customers comes into account especially for those businesses where service skills and communication skills aren’t considered while hiring employees. Outstanding customer care certification is something that should never be under-estimate due to its additional benefits.

Customer service training programs will help you to raise the quality and consistency with customer dealing and will help you to attract potential buyers. By using tips and tactics of this training, your staff members can use to deliver amazing Service to every customer at every time.

To improve customer dealing quickly, these training programs have proven skill-building and motivational ideas. These trainings are also conveying mindset concepts plus offering an affordable and convenient way for staff members.

Call center is an example that requires customer service training programs. The call center is still the most common way that customers get in touch with businesses and all business activates that she/he requires. Every business requires continued focus on customer satisfaction, customer retention, and lifetime value of the customer. So it is no surprise that the customer training is just like a primary Hub of a customer’s experience.

Recent communication analysis show that that value of your words count for only 7% of the message you convey and remaining 93% is based on non-verbal communication. 38% of non-verbal communication is transmitted through tone of voice and 55% of communication is based on your facial expression.

Customer service training programs give the special concentration on facial expression because it is the very basic form of non-verbal communication. Even they give a great value of a single smile as a smile conveys a positive message and is appropriated in all but a life/death situation.

Six Principles of customer service training programs:

• Make customers feel valued, comfortable, and appreciated
• Listen actively to be responsive and exceed customer expectations
• Treat customers with respect, understanding, and good efficiency
• Give the value to your customer’s time and effectively resolve the customer’s problem
• Smile and demonstrate good manners. Establish a culture of high quality service and commit to deliver superior service whether face-to-face or over the phone
• Say “Thank you” and “Please” politely

Successful business men empower their staff members by teaching them the above basic six principles of customer service etiquette. Properly trained and educated staff members know that how to deliver superior customer services, interact and communicate with customers, build customer loyalty, cultivate long-term relationships with clients, and differentiate your business from the competition by just taking a part in customer service training programs.

Article by Michiel Van Kets

Some basic training in customer service will help the employee to understand how to obtain information about the customers’ needs, how to listen and inform the customer they are listening, how to confirm their understanding of what the customer is saying, the importance of positive body language and or tone of voice. It will also help the employee to cut jargon out of their conversations to make sure they can communicate efficiently to the customer and deal with angry or difficult customers.

It is not just the frontline staff who deal with customers on a daily basis that can benefit from customer service training. The company’s top team, i.e. managers, can also benefit from some training. By using focus groups and a number of methods of diagnosis, you can assess how customer orientated your business really is and look at solutions for any improvements that need to be made. By conducting interviews and questionnaires with your customers, training can be given to the managers to ensure customer retention. Training will also benefit the higher executives of an organisation, to look at and then define specific company values to support the need for change and focus on the customer. With these, goals and targets can be drawn up to measure and achieve improvements in your company’s customer service.

Getting help with some specially designed service leadership programmes, you can implement the principle of the service value chain from the Harvard business school which focus on the following principles. Service leadership, employee satisfaction, internal service quality, external service value, customer satisfaction and loyalty, all leading to profit and growth of your business. The best thing about seeking help with customer service training is that it is available for all of your staff, from the frontline to the managers and support staff. The training will be customised and tailored to suit your organisations needs and will show results that you can measure.

Not only can you seek training in customer service for staff who are based in face to face customer service, but also those who correspond and communicate with customers via phone, email and letters. Customer care training for staff in call centres or offices will allow them to realise the ever increasing expectations of customers with regards to service delivery. It is now important for an organisation to deliver a service that exceeds these expectations and so the training will be aimed at enhancing the different communication skills that will improve the staff member’s confidence and effectiveness in responding to customer needs. Telephone customer service training will give the staff the ability to state what is considered good customer service on the phone, recognise the effects of poor customer service on the organisation and the customer, list the separate stages of effective delivery, successfully apply listening, questioning and summarising skills to improve the outcome and call time with customers at the different stages and recognise the difference between assertive, passive and aggressive behaviours and attitudes.

Customer service writing workshops are ideal for any staff who are part of e-services and outbound letter’s departments, giving them the skills required to communicate effectively in writing. Staff will learn skills such as how to utilise plain English when writing in a business context, how to structure emails and letters in the most effective way, how to produce documents that are clear and concise and written to suit the customer. Staff will learn what is meant by effective written communication, how to identify your objectives, how to keep the information short and simple, letter layout and email etiquette, punctuation and grammar and will get opportunity to practise these in workshop sessions.

You can also get training for your staff at an advanced level, allowing your staff to understand customer types and emotional intelligence in customer service. The workshop for understanding customer types will equip your staff with the skills and confidence to successfully understand your own customer types, so that the approach and communication can match with the customers in order to successfully build and maintain a rapport and in turn delivering top end customer service. These training sessions allow staff to recognise and describe different customer types and what they expect in terms of customer service delivery face to face, on the phone and in writing. They will also be able to identify their own type and the impact this has on various types of customer. They will also acquire skills allowing them to change their style and pace to give the customer faith in their abilities and the product.

The advanced workshop for emotional intelligence in customer service allows your staff to build better relationships with team members, colleagues and most importantly the customer. It will allow staff to explore new and effective ways of developing interpersonal relationships with all those people they will encounter during their working day. The workshop will allow the employee to describe and understand the cause and effect of emotions on customer service and to identify how social success influences an individual’s ability to manage their emotional states. The workshop will teach recognition of other people’s emotions, creating strong interpersonal relationships, how to manage their impulses and internal states, how to manage stress and techniques to boost optimism and happiness. They will also learn how to put these skills into practise to achieve specific goals and ultimately deliver great customer service. There are many more work-shops and customer services training for techniques available to all levels of staff within an organisation, creating improved customer service that can be visibly measured.

Article by Upyour Service

During a cold winter season, smart organizations get busy preparing for spring.

One way to prepare is to create (or confirm) a clear and motivating vision of what you want to become. Back this vision up with customer service training and other measures and you can transform your business

for the better. Your engaging service vision is one of the “12 Building Blocks for a Superior Service Culture” we teach at UP Your Service! College. This vision can serve as a guiding light for customer service

training and to focus your efforts now and in the future.

1. Why do I need an engaging service vision to assist with customer service training?

An engaging service vision is fundamental. It gives people a sense of purpose, value and meaning. It provides a platform on which to build customer service training programs.

An engaging service vision is inspiring. It arouses feelings of ambition, enthusiasm and commitment that lasts well beyond customer service training.

An engaging service vision gives direction. It provides an unmistakable idea of what is sought, and what is not, delivering valuable customer service training in the process.

Many organizations have some statement of commitment to service. And most of these statements fall flat and do nothing to bolster customer service training.

An engaging service vision captivates attention. It is distinctive, motivating and clear. It is unique, and powerful, and yours.

Customers should hear your vision and say, Yes! That is who you are.

Staff members should read your vision and say, Yes! That is who we want to be.

2. Why should my service vision be different from others?

How do you want to be known? Why are you different from the competition? What makes you stand out from the crowd?

Promising “excellent service” is no longer enough to interest customers or staff. Excellence sounds good, but you intend to be excellent at what? A vision guides your actions, customer service training and can even

mold your future.

Discover the style of service your customers value most, then craft an engaging service vision to address and fulfill their needs.

For example, excellent service in a hospital should be warm and caring, but that’s not what you want at a computer store or car wash. You need a unique vision to guide customer service training for your distinct

business.

Some restaurants are known to be elegant and expensive, but that’s not what most customers want when the whole family goes out for dinner.

A leading Roads and Transport Authority promises “Smooth and Safe Transportation for All.”

Think smooth roads and railways, but also smooth licensing procedures. Think safe travel, but also safe handling of your personal details and data.

The Raffles Hotel has a mission statement that includes this vision: “…delighting patrons with many memorable experiences.” People go to Raffles for good times and great memories, and Raffles staff members are

delighted to make them happen. The vision backs up customer service training for the unique environment.

Wipro, a world class IT services provider from India, who caters to both domestic and international markets, promises to be the “Proactive Value Adding Service Partner” of choice.

Their customers get new ideas from a company they can partner with for the future, not just a low cost vendor who only meets minimum specifications. This vision guides customer service training and inspire staff

to perform.

Singapore Airlines has a tag line that sets an extraordinary standard: “Service even other airlines talk about.” Annual service awards praise those who go beyond the call of duty to make this tag line real. Customer

service training programs back up the vision and help reinforce it.

Xerox Emirates promises to be “Much Better than Expected.” They are always coming up with new ways to surprise their customers and excite their staff.

The Japanese have twenty different words for “quality,” each with a different meaning: craftsmanship, design, durability, efficient use of materials, packaging, power consumption, presentation and more.

Your customers have as many different words and meanings for “excellent customer service”. Which ones are right for you?

3. What guidelines should I follow when writing an engaging service vision?

Create a mantra to motivate your team and incorporate it into everything from daily work life to customer service training. Your engaging service vision must be easy to remember and act upon, even in a crisis.

Mantra means “a tool for thinking”. Make sure yours really works and incorporate it into your customer service training.

Align to the core values of your brand. The service vision of “UP Your Service! College” is: “A world where people are educated and inspired to excel in service, to customers and to one another.” This is consistent

with our core values of Personal Responsibility, Continuous Improvement and Abundant Generosity (among others). Does your service vision match and magnify your values?

Align to your customers’ values. A budget airline says “We make flying fun!” Their customers want safe and inexpensive flights from point A to B. But they value an experience that doesn’t make air travel a chore,

even on a low cost airline. By sharing jokes with passengers, being playful with each other and even singing songs, crew members add value for customers without raising costs. They make their own work lives

more enjoyable, too.

Be clearly understood throughout the organization. An engaging service vision must make sense for those in the front office and the back office and at every level from top to bottom. Use clear and practical

language, not theoretical and intellectual prose. Be sure to reinforce the organization