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How To Use Your Current Customers Jay instructed a customer of his to offer a rare coin collection to new customers for just $19. He was actually losing a couple of dollar on every sale! But .... of the 50,000 people who bought the coin collection for $19, nearly 10,000 come back and bought. 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. Complaints Are Actually A Good Thing! Nobody likes to get complaints. They make you question your judgment, they can ruin your day, and they almost always leave you in a bad mood. But what if I told you that complaints are actually a good thing? What Every Manager Should Know About How to Learn from the Complaints of Customers and Employees Listening to complaints, whether they're reasonable or not, is a part of every manager's job. Sometimes complaints can be overwhelming. However, when we take them in stride with an open mind, we can learn much from our employees' and customers' feelings about the workplace. After all, a complaint is nothing more that a person telling you that his (or her) needs have not been met. As dissatisfied customers, they are giving us a second chance to correct something that should have been done properly the first time around. (In some cases the customer might happen to be your employee.) Your Number One Asset Customers put you in business, keep you in business, and they can put you out of business. Therefore, your overriding feelings at all times should be: customer love, customer satisfaction, and customer convenience. 10 Customer Service Quality Statements to Measure up Against It might sound quick and simple, to say how well your business does in satisfying it's customers. Hearing such as:-"We're increasing our turnover by 14% year to date""Our customer complaints are now less than 4% or our transactions"...might sound like music to your ears, but that's just the time you need to be very careful.A regular measurement of where you are as your organisation, not depending on some of the easy-to-fake figures, might just make the difference in how well you are doing now, and into the future.Try these quality statements and set up a mechanism whereby you review them monthly - yes, that's right, monthly. This needs to be thorough and objective. And maybe even the scores made by a cross- section of your people in all areas of your business - then you get objectivity and a true picture of how you are scoring. It is a great activity to score each of these out of 10, make a tracker month by month and each time you review, ask yourself the question:-"What would we need to do to move our score up by 3 points"Do it point by point and then, after you have that 3-point question, work out a monthly action plan, so that step-by-step, you gradually improve. (Note:- If you are too near a score out of 10 to have three points to go - upgrade your statement!).Then and only then will your improvement be sustainable and you can reset the questions over time to a higher standard. Then you truly will be The Best in class!The Quality Statements:- We use a variety of staff to monitor customer service on a regular and consistent basis We know and can clearly state our customer groups We listen to customers about our products and proactively seek to redress issues We notice and congratulate our people and teams when they perform well Senior management are fully and visibly engaged in customer activities Our people enjoy the challenge of changes Our organisation and our people have aligned values Our customers find working with us easy and pleasurable We know how our people feel about working here and always respond to make it better We have teams and individuals who can respond quickly to changes circumstances, whatever they are Keep a track of these - visually represent it somewhere very publicly for your people. Involve many of your them in monitoring, finding solutions and taking accountability for change, where needed and your business, your people and you will thrive.One final point. Starting is good, being able to demonstrate your success in 12 months is another thing - as is still doing this review at that time. Importance of Good Customer Support in Online Computer Peripherals Shops Looking for hi-fi computer peripherals? Finding it tough to decide on the product you need to purchase? Not sure about the models that are available? Not sure about the configuration that would best suit your need? Worried that your budget might not fetch you your long dreamt hi-fi? Just relax!! There are many great world class online computer peripherals shopping centers. They offer you not only the best computer peripherals but also friendly online help in their world class online computer peripherals shopping sites. All that you have to do is to avail all the help you need in terms of the counseling you would require on the purchase of the right computer peripherals. These websites have always-available customer support agents' usually just one click away. The ones that are successful have provided exceptional customer support available online which is dedicated to make their customers feel delighted and satisfied. Because they have learnt the business mantra very well - Their success lies in their customers' satisfaction. The Added Value - Is YOU! If there was a restaurant in your town that was physically attractive and clean, had a pleasant variety of entrées on the menu, served food that was prepared in an attractive manner, and the service was outstanding--the maitre'd greeted you by name, remembered which was your favorite table, stopped by later to inquire about your needs and satisfaction, the waiters and waitresses bent over backwards to make your dinner a pleasurable experience and always treated you as if you were their most important patron--would you be willing to pay a little more than other restaurants charged? What Type Of Software Is This? The other day while at the book store, I came across some accounting software CDs strewn with other CDs and books in garage sale box. Hook Me Up With A Human Oh, what has happened to the carbon-based organizational interface? Many organizations have digitized humans ? aka carbon-based units - out of existence in their customer service operations. Now, I love digital technology as much as anyone, but it is time to bring the people back into their appropriate customer service roles, don't you think? 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. Here are a few well-worn but important principles that I was reminded of during that trip: Businesses Need to Rehumanise Big companies and corporations have lost the human touch. The question is, when will humanity catch on, or like robotic sheep will we do whatever the business shepherds tell us, no matter how bad we are treated? I am talking from firsthand interaction here. Aren't you tired of having to talk to machines and sit waiting in queues that may not even really exist, while horrible music repeats itself over and over for eternity? How about having to talk to person after person as they try to find someone else who 'can' do the task that you need done? What about the machine that tells you to speak into the phone but can never properly interpret what you are saying? Or pushing buttons, how many numbers have you had to push before finally being told that the section you are looking for is vacant? Vacant, how about the humans you do finally get in contact with but for some strange reason know less about their job than you do? What Do They Want Anyway? You want customers. I want customers. We all want customers. And traffic alone is not enough. We need "interested" customers. Customers ready to listen, ready to buy. So you may find yourself asking, what do they want anyway?.... and how can I get them to buy? One of the Secrets of a Great Customer Experience A few weeks ago we conducted our annual "Customer Experience Study Tour" in London England. This is where we take delegates to visit a number of leading Customer Experience companies for a behind-the-scenes look at how they approach the task of building a great Customer Experience. Companies include Prêt-a-manger, Virgin Atlantic, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, Dell Computers, T-Mobile, Lexus Cars, AOL and Microsoft. As we travelled around these companies on the luxury coach, I pondered what the common traits are of companies who provide a great Customer Experience. Undoubtedly one of these traits is "attention to detail". Whats The Customer Service Buzz About Your Business? If you're a regular reader of my column you know that my number one pet peeve is bad customer service. Nothing chaps my backside more than paying hard-earned money for a product or service only to have the provider of said product or service become apathetic, obnoxious or just downright rude after the transactional smoke has cleared. Managing Your Business When One Client Takes Alot of Your Time How often has your schedule been thrown out of whack because of a client's needs? Customer First Customer Service The world of customer service is rapidly changing. Thirty years ago, telephones and mail services were the norm for most companies. Now, faxes, email and web sites offer more options to customers than they've ever had before. It takes a dedicated team to keep loyal customers coming back and new clients coming in. What Every Manager Should Know About How to Prevent Customer Service Conflicts There are five techniques that have been proven to be effective in resolving, minimizing, and preventing conflicts. And by conflicts I am referring to any of the following that may take place between two or more people: misunderstanding, miscommunications, arguments, disagreements, mixed messages, fighting, etc. Customer Service A Chickens Way Anyone who knows me knows my favorite fast food restaurant is Chick-fil-A. Aside from the fact their chicken is especially good and I can always get sweet tea, I have a valuable business reason for eating there ? they serve up amazing customer service. And these lessons aren't just served in my nearest location. But in any city, any town, any time I have been to a Chick-fil-A, I have left feeling like the most valuable Customer. Say It With Humor When you own a business, you may find yourself in situations that may be a little tricky to handle. Dealing with customers who steal is one of them.
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