10 Tips for Improving Customer Service and Keeping More of Your Customers

1. Customer service is all about customers' needs first and your needs second.

If your customers expect a response from you in 24 hours and you always respond much later, that's putting your needs first and their needs second.

2. Customers are like a spouse, they need to feel special to continually respond to your offers.

You make your customers feel special by over-delivering in every area, especially in those areas they don't expect. Imagine how you'd feel if you sent an email with a question to a merchant and they responded within half an hour with an answer when you were expecting an answer the next day. You would definitely feel special. It's a wonderful feeling. Create this feeling within your customers.

3. Stay in contact with your customers, not only when you need to make a sale.

This could be as simple as sending an online greeting on holidays. It could be giving helpful advice that you researched or offering something free that they really appreciate. Make sure whatever you do the quality is on par or better than whatever you'd sell them. This also means the presentation or packaging. Remember you always want to appear as putting their needs ahead of yours, even if you don't all the time.

4. The service you provide after the sale should be just good or better than the service provided before the sale.

Have you ever called the sales department of a company and the representative was more than helpful, and then once you bought a product and called their customer service department you were greeted by a machine that put you on hold for over an hour? Even worse, when you finally got someone they tried to get you off the phone as quickly as possible. What if their customer service department were to take the attitude of the sales department and be as eager to help you? Wouldn't you would be a loyal customer?

5. The perception of the quality and use of your products and services that you project should be honest.

There are few things more infuriating than to be told the benefits you'll get from a product or service and then to find out you didn't get what was promised. If enough determined customers get angry they could put you out of business. Look at honesty as a service to your customers and prospects that builds trust. Have you ever thought about customer service in this way?

6. Your customer service personnel should be well trained for the job.

There are few things consumers dislike more than a company that have well-trained sales people and poorly trained customer service personnel. You do not want your customers spreading bad publicity about your customer service, since if they do they'd be reversing your marketing efforts. So spend just as much time training your customer service personnel as you do your sales force.

7. Your customer service should be as good as or better than the competition or you won't keep your customers for long.

Reputable companies have the least trouble selling their products and services. The marketplace has developed trust and admiration for how they operate and how they treat their customers. One of the tenets of a reputable company is its excellent customer service. When any company has great customer service even the most difficult customers can walk away feeling better than if they had dealt with the competition.

8. Your customers should receive a consistent service.

Walk into any McDonalds in the world and what you'll find are consistent services. Everyone knows what they'll get when they walk into a McDonalds Restaurant. Fries and hamburgers are prepared the same way. Imagine if one day you walked into a McDonalds Restaurant and got well-prepared fries and another day you got over-cooked fries, you wouldn't like the inconsistency, would you? Your customers expect the same consistency as franchisees are renowned for providing.

9. Give your customers the benefit of the doubt even when you think they are lying.

Remember, only a few customers will take advantage of you. Follow the model of Procter and Gamble, a consumer goods company. A customer once wrote in about a bad diaper and they sent several cartons of diapers to this mother. Can you imagine the word-of-mouth promotion they got from this mother instead of an angry customer spewing out bad publicity? Consider any amends made to customers as a cost of doing business.

10. Create and project an impressive image of your company and the competition will have to work very hard to seduce and steal your prospects and customers.

This is how brands develop. Brands work on the projection of images. "Sony" and "Lexus" both project images of quality and great customer care. If there are two products or services of identical quality and one sells better at a higher price using a different brand and all else is equal then image is the reason for the difference.

These ten tips will improve any company that applies them. And since they improve the customer service function the customer retention rate will be higher as well.

Windsor Pennicott is a marketer and writer who specializes in the business and marketing area. He created the free booklet Power Sales And Marketing Innovations That Automatically Convert More Prospects. Get your copy at UsefulBizTips.com [http://www.UsefulBizTips.com]

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How Customer Service Courses Can Work For Your Employees And Your Customers

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.

Michiel Van Kets writes article about The Stairway Consultancy, a management consultancy dedicated to helping organisations increase their focus on the customer and develop their leadership and employee capability. For customer service training and customer services course The Stairway Consultancy is the place, providing consultancy and training design and delivery in all aspects of customer service. Sign up for their customer service course today.

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Facebook Marketing - How You Can Get an Avalanche Of Customers

Some industry experts believe that Facebook marketing is going to be as big as Google marketing. If you haven't looked into Facebook or any of the other social media marketing sites, you could be missing out.

It seems like every type of business is getting on-board with Facebook marketing. If your business is still sitting on the sidelines, it's time to jump in and play. But before you get started, now is the perfect time to take a look at all the ins and outs of social media marketing.

Will Facebook Marketing Work for Your Business?

Everyone has read the articles, glossed over the tutorials and even watched a few of the how-to video guides on using Facebook marketing, but is there any proof that it will actually increase and improve your business?

Take Your Marketing to the Next Level with Facebook

InsideFacebook.com states the following fact about Facebook:

There are over 500 million active members currently using Facebook. Putting it into perspective, if Facebook were a country, it would have the 4th largest population on the planet.
Facebook has been translated into over 100 languages, penetrating nearly one third of the entire population.
Facebook's most recent quarterly growth rates has shown that active user numbers have increased by over 25% in 47 countries.
Over 85% of American women have a social network profile, with 95% of them on Facebook.
More than half of everyone who shops online has a Facebook profile.

While these numbers are huge you still have to ask yourself whether Facebook marketing can work for your business. The answer is simple: it depends on you and what you do with it.

Unlocking the Potential of Facebook Marketing

Even if you just consider the power that comes with the sheer volume of 500 million users, by bringing your business idea or niche marketing project to Facebook, you will have a huge opportunity to be seen by more users than ever before. You can attract new users to become "friends", and turn those Facebook friends into promoters, supporters and eventually clients just by implementing a well-planned strategy. Here are some examples:

An online publication called "Social Media Examiner" was launched in November 2009 by Michael Stelzner. He decided to not launch his publication using any of the traditional marketing methods. Stelzner instead launched his publication only using social marketing networks and Facebook marketing and achieved a number one rating on Technorati for business blogs. By the end of the first quarter, there were nearly 100,000 subscribers at the Examiner. Sound too good to be true? Yet Stelzner experienced a marked increase in sales and overall business.
Target is another example of moving away from sales flyers and traditional business promotions by launching a Party Planning Page. As a direct result of their marketing efforts, Target saw a 6% increase in sales. In fact, Target's Facebook Fan Page attracted 20% more direct hits by Facebook fans to their store. Additionally, those Facebook fans were found to have spent 33% more than other types of customers.
Morton's Steakhouse ran a Valentine's Day photo promotion on Facebook in 2009. As a result, sales and overall business experienced a large difference.

If You Work It, Facebook Works

Facebook marketing received rave reviews from analyst Kevin Ertell at ForeSee Results who stated that, "Facebook by far is the best place online to reach customers," and he went on to tell business owners, "Get a Facebook page and you will start making money."

So the question at the end of the day is, does Facebook marketing really work? And the answer, which is the same for many other business-related questions is, if you work it it will work.

You can find out more about using Facebook and other social media marketing strategies in your business and watch a free video featuring Facebook Marketing Secrets just by visiting http://myonlinemarketingcourse.com/facebook-a/. Learn how to build a Facebook business to enhance your websites and generate insane amounts of traffic in no time! You won't want to miss our Facebook Marketing Secrets.

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