Top 7 Tips to Deliver Exceptional Customer Service Instead of Growing Your Competitor's Bottom Line

With the holiday season just beginning, businesses are scrambling to get more customers and show more sales. However, retail and business to business (B2B) research continues to suggest businesses are failing to deliver adequate to exceptional customer service. Poor customer service dramatically affects the bottom line of every organization. Hence, all that scrambling may be for naught.

The 2005 American Customer Satisfaction Index, a survey conducted by the University of Michigan, is at one of its lowest levels in the past 10 years. IBM survey of 2004 Christmas shoppers revealed poor customer service was second only to long lines. Good customer service is essential in developing loyal customers who are only a click or a few steps from visiting your competitors.

1. Assess Your Organization

Customer service begins with the internal customer also known as your employees. Assess your organization from the top down. In many cases, poor customer service is a symptom of a more serious undiscovered problem. HINT: Incorporate proven criteria such as Baldrige to determine what you do well and where you need to improve.

2. Assess Your Customer Service Training

Poor customer service is not because your employees don't know how to, but probably more often than not they don't want to. If your customer service training focuses only on knowledge and skills, you are draining your K.A.S.H. Box because you are failing to address attitudes and habits.

3. Don't Assume Employees Know What Good Customer Service Is

With the world a far different place than 50, 30 or even 10 years ago, don't assume that your potential and even current employees know what good customer service is. Specifically define what good customer service is. HINT: Good customer service is when a customer comes back, spends more and doesn't visit the competitor.

4. Deliver Customer Service Training in Real Time

Customer service training should extend beyond the procedures and policies. Infuse good communication skills and professional appearance within your learning sessions. Create mentors that new employees can job shadow.

5. Ask Potential or Existing Employees If They Buy From You?

If you are a retail chain, ask employees if they have ever bought from you? What did they like about your store or business? Many businesses ask the "Why do you want to work here?" question. Why not dig a little deeper?

6. Ask Yourself If You Would Buy From You?

This question may sound ridiculous, but would you buy from you?

7. Focus on Delivering Exceptional Customer Service

Exceptional customer service is when a customer brings or directs a new customer to your business.

Customer service is the beginning and the end for any business. All businesses are in customer service because without customers there would be no business. If your customer service is not at the exceptional level, then you are missing incredible opportunities to build your business and you are wasting a lot of money and resources. And,if that isn't bad enough, your poor customer service is growing your competitor's business.

Customer loyalty is the strategic advantage. Receive your downloadable Customer Loyalty Audit at http://www.processspecialist.com/customer-loyalty.htm

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Please feel free to contact me, Leanne Hoagland-Smith, Your Chief People Officer and Business Coach, who works with individuals and organizations that are tired of not being where they want to be and truly want more for their businesses and their selves. 219.508.2859

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From Scowl to Smile: 5 Practical Steps to Instill Exceptional Customer Service

Whether in a restaurant, a retail establishment, or the local post office, we have all experienced a decline in customer service. Rarely do smiling, happy employees interact with us anymore. Instead, the person we are dealing with in face-to-face relationships does not even attempt to feign a smile, but rather greets us with a scowl, completely avoids eye contact with us, and grudgingly mutters responses to our requests and questions.

When did customer service cease to exist? Why is it suddenly so difficult for employees to show customers some common courtesy along with a little friendliness? Have we ventured so far from the service standards of yesteryear and become so shortsighted that we refuse to treat others as we would want to be treated ourselves?

Today, improving customer service is a top priority in organizations worldwide. As a result, company leaders spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually training their employees how to provide exceptional customer service. Unfortunately, the effort is not paying off. Even with such vast resources being spent on this simple and obvious problem, few companies achieve outstanding results. And as their customer service levels plummet, dissatisfied customers take their business elsewhere and company profits suffer. Is there any improvement in sight?

The Importance of Customer Service

Purchasing virtually any goods or services is a process whereby the customer moves from interest to desire to decision. During that process, one of the primary determinants as to whether the customer completes the purchase, as well as his or her level of satisfaction in the sales process, is the attitude of the sales employee. Interestingly, the customer's attitude frequently reflects that of the salesperson. Thus, an employee attempting to close the sale will generally find it much easier to do so if he or she gives the customer a positive attitude and friendly disposition to respond to.

Equally important is the post-sale service experience, especially in today's environment filled with technically complex products and services. This trend is likely to continue as technological complexity increases and as our population continues to age. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by the year 2005 there will be 85 million Americans over age 50, and they will have cumulative purchasing power of $900 billion annually. The combination of technical complexity and the aging population will result in an increased proportion of sales transactions requiring post-sale customer service on a periodic or continuing basis.

Given the customer service problems we face today, coupled with the growing demand for increased levels of pre- and post-sale customer service, we need to begin thinking much more seriously about how our organizations will rise to meet these growing market demands. Adding to this problem will be the demographic reality of a shrinking pool of available younger workers to fill these customer service openings, which frequently are entry-level positions. The following practical steps can help your company stay ahead of this trend so you can meet tomorrow's customer service needs today.

1. Hire happy people. In our haste to find a "warm body" to fill a vacant position, we frequently miss some of the most obvious indicators of a person's likely success or failure. People who are open, approachable, and generally happy are far more likely to respond in a positive manner to our customers' needs. Prospective employees who act guarded or excessively shy, or who show evidence of having a "cold fish" personality during the interview process, probably are not good hires at the outset.

2. Train your people thoroughly. When employees thoroughly understand the organization they represent, as well as its policies, products, and services, they are far more likely to interact positively with customers. Realize, though, that training of this sort is not a one-time-for-life event applicable only to new hires. Today's organizations, markets, products, and services are dynamic and changing constantly. Keep your employees up-to-date with all the latest trends by offering continual training opportunities.

John Di Frances is an internationally recognized organizational legacy expert and keynote speaker. www.difrances.com

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How To Give Exceptional Customer Service

Service is Adding People To The Product

Much of the information in this article came from three video tapes on customer service: * In Search of Excellence * How To Give Exceptional Customer Service from Career Tracks* How To Deliver Superior Customer Service from Inc. Business Resources*

Why is customer service so important? A study by U.S. News & World Report found the average American business loses 15% of its customer base each year. The Forum Corporation found:

68% of customers who stop buying from one business and go to another because of "poor or indifferent service".

14% leave because of an unsatisfactorily resolved dispute or complaint.

9% leave because of price.

5% go elsewhere based on a recommendation.

3 % move away.

1 % die.

So 82% leave because of service related issues.

Customer Service begins at the top level of the company, and it doesn't just happen. Here are three keys for exceptional customer service:

1. Make it clear that nothing less than exceptional customer service is acceptable.

2. Train for exceptional customer service.

3. Be sure your policies and procedures reinforce exceptional customer service.

Make it Clear that Nothing

Less than Exceptional Customer Service is Acceptable

This starts in the interview, before the person is even hired. Include questions in the interview that will lend insight into whether this person believes that good customer service is part of everyone's job. Does she have a basic belief in helping others? You might say, "Tell me a time at your last job when you had to deal with an especially demanding customer. How did you handle the situation?" Her answer may tell you a lot about her attitude towards customers.

You might then ask about where she has received excellent customer service. Did she appreciate it? Did she tend to shop at that store more often? Sure, the applicant knows the answers you want. These are not great questions for making your hiring decision, but they are letting the applicant know that customer service is important to you and the job!

So now, you've tried to find out about her basic beliefs in customer service. You've asked her specific questions concerning customer service. Before the interview is over, tell the applicant her main job... CUSTOMER SERVICE. She might be a dish washer, a bookkeeper or a warehouse worker, but in your business, EVERYONE'S PRIMARY JOB IS CUSTOMER SERVICE!

Train For Customer

Service

You can't just tell someone that you expect exceptional customer service and get it. At ARS, training for exceptional customer service begins on the first day of employment with the new employee's introduction to ARS. To point out the importance of this information, the meeting is led by the president of the company.

The meeting has three parts, and all three emphasize customer service.

1. The history of the company, where we are now and where we are going

2. Customer Service, "In Search of Excellence"

3. TMS's commitment to Total Quality Management.

The first part of the meeting is an introduction to the company. We are sure to emphasize that we feel our past growth and future success is tied directly to the service we provide.

In the second part of the meeting, we watch the video, "In Search of Excellence." We watch and then discuss the incredible customer service provided by companies like Disney and Stew Leonard's Dairy Store. This is an exceptional video and very inspiring.

As inspiring as In Search of Excellence is, for more than a dozen years, I've had a problem with, "How do we implement this in our business?" I think we've found at least part of the answer... Total Quality Management (TQM).

The third part of the meeting shows the new employee our TQM system. It stresses the fact that we will do everything we can to give our customers exceptional customer service. We'll hire and train for exceptional customer service, and we'll make sure our procedures reinforce exceptional customer service; but that doesn't mean much, if the system doesn't work. Our means of continually improving our system is TQM. TQM will be the subject of a future newsletter.

After this initial training, each individual receives continued customer service training in each department. The customer service reps, who talk with customers many times daily, receive extensive training.

Other training that we have found very helpful is the Career Track Video series, "How to Give Exceptional Customer Service." We provide this training every six months to all new employees. This initial training takes six hours and really drives home the value of customer service. We also use parts of the series for ongoing education and training.

Be Sure Your Policies And Procedures Reinforce Exceptional Customer Service

Are your policies created for the 99% of your good customers, or the 1 % of your dishonest customers? We've made major changes after asking this question.

Here's an example. We used to send UPS C.O.D. packages out with a C.O.D. tag on each package. With this, if the customer had three packages in the order, they had three C.O.D. fees.

Why did we do this? One time we sent four packages to a customer. The customer refused the one package with the C.O.D. tag and kept the other three packages. He didn't pay for the three packages he kept until we sent the account to collection.

Our well-meaning warehouse manager, trying to protect our interest, decided to put C.O.D. tags on all packages to be sure we got our money. This continued for a short time until someone asked if this policy penalized the 99.9% of our honest customers because of one dishonest one. Obviously it did, and we no longer put C.O.D. tags on each package.

Here's something that recently happened to me: I bought a latte' and was about to enter the drug store next door to buy a birthday card when I saw "NO FOOD OR DRINK". So I walked down the way to the store without a sign to buy the birthday card. What do you think? Maybe food and drink in this store is a huge problem, but maybe they are penalizing many good customers because of a very few sloppy ones.

Keith Lee is the creator of the "Don't Let Your Business Ruin your Life - Yes, You Can Have It All, Make-You-Happy Management System." Keith developed the system in 1991 when he was burnt out from all of the stresses and time issues involved with running his business. system creates happy customers, happy employees, but most of all gives you back you life. For more information and other articles visit http://www.top-performance-teams.com

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