Positive Impressions Help To Build Customer Relationships

Positive Impressions Help To Build Customer Relationships

Customers often judge an organization aPositive Personal Impressions Help When Building Customer Relationshipsnd the people who work for it based on the first impressions made by front line employees with whom they come into contact face-to-face or via technology.

It is crucial that you and those who serve customers take time to prepare for customer encounters and to prepare yourself to send positive messages through your appearance, voice and nonverbal cues. This will help in building strong customer relationships that can lead to increased customer satisfaction and customer retention.

Here are 5 good positive body gestures:

  1. Relax your shoulders to avoid looking tense
  2. Be pleasant and friendly
  3. Make good and strong eye contact when talking to people
  4. Lean forward slightly to get engaged in a conversation
  5. Share your body between both feet

To learn more about making positive impressions on current and potential customers, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert W. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Customer Relations is Directly Tied to Keeping Your Word

Customer Relations is Directly Tied to Keeping Your Word

Customer service training for employees must cover basic customer service skills (i.e. verbal and nonverbal communication, how to build and maintain customer relationships that can lead to customer and brand loyalty and overall customer satisfaction). It must also emphasize how to handle situations when something goes wrong and teach how to implement sound service recovery strategies.  This last topic is crucial since some customer situations can quickly escalate when people perceive that they have been lied to or that a service provider failed to meet a commitment to them.

An example of the importance and severity of what might happen if employees fail to meet commitments to a customer was provided in an article in USA Today newspaper on February 28, 2014. Four people were shot in a tax preparation business when a customer became disgruntled when her tax return was not ready as promised. Read more at http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/01/detroit-shooting-tax-refund/5919971/.

For more ideas and strategies on building better customer relationships and implementing service recovery strategies when customers are dissatisfied, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

Customer Relations is Directly Tied to Keeping Your Word

About Robert W. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Strengthening Customer Relationships With Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication Skills

Strengthening Customer Relationships Through Strong Verbal and Non Verbal Communication Skills

Strengthening Customer Relationships

Strong Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication Skills Can Make the Difference!

We live in an era in which people from all over the world come together in various situations throughout any given day. They bring with them individual experiences, education levels, cultural and personal backgrounds, preferences, opinions, and perspectives. Any or all of these elements can impact the way they approach and receive others or the manner in which they communicate.

An old adage goes: It is not what you say, but how you say it that counts. Nothing can be truer than when you are dealing with customers from diverse backgrounds. For this reason, customer service representatives should always take their time to “read” their customers and think of their response (verbally and non verbally) before jumping into any situation where verbal and non-verbal messages communication might be misinterpreted.

Likely, the last thing that a customer service representative, or another employee from an organization, wants to do is falter in their efforts of building customer relationships.

To help reduce the potential of a customer-provider relationship breakdown; service providers should focus on building and practicing their positive communication skills (e.g. smiling, paying compliments, using open body movements and gestures and finding things to agree with when interacting with their customers).

For ideas on how to more effectively communicate verbally and non verbally in order to improve customer loyalty and enhance customer retention, get copies of my books: Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures, Customer Service Skills for Success, and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

About Robert W. Lucas

Robert ‘Bob’ Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Preparing Customer Service Representatives

Preparing Customer Service Representatives in the 21st Century Preparing Customer Service Representatives

Preparing customer service representatives in the twenty-first century has become a prime strategic initiative in many organizations. That is because they face many challenges in achieving customer satisfaction, increasing customer retention and building customer loyalty that their predecessors did not experience. Technology continues to move at a break-neck pace, while the world economy shifts continually and causes companies to regularly re-evaluate how to best deal with competition. Add to this mix changing customer demographics with culturally-based needs, wants and expectations, and you have a potential prescription for failure.

Customer service representatives in the twenty-first century face many challenges in achieving customer satisfaction, increasing customer retention and building customer loyalty that their predecessors did not experience. Technology continues to move at a break-neck pace, while the world economy shifts continually and causes companies to regularly re-evaluate how to best deal with competition. Add to this mix changing customer demographics with culturally-based needs, wants and expectations, and you have a potential prescription for failure. The concept or practice of customer service is not new throughout the world. In fact, customers are the core of every business. As such, they should be the top priority for every organization. This includes internal Preparing Customer Service Representatives in the 21st Century(employees) and external customers.

The concept or practice of customer service is not new throughout the world. In fact, customers are the core of every business. As such, they should be the top priority for every organization. This includes internal (employees) and external customers.

Successful managers recognize the need to reduce their customer churn rate and realize that if their customers go away, so do their jobs and organization. This is why truly customer-centric organizations strive to attract, hire, and retain the best qualified and capable customer service representatives (also known as customer care professionals) that they can find. They also pay competitive wages, provide industry-comparable benefits and continually train everyone in the organization. This training includes product and organizational culture information, as well as, the customer service skills necessary to effectively interact with all types of customers face-to-face and via technology.

In addition to effectively training employees, customer-focused organizations also ensure that all supervisors and managers have been trained in ways to effectively coach and mentor staff members. They also ensure that written policies and procedures are in place to provide guidance on expectations and processes so that all employees know what is expected of them. Also, to help employees deliver the best customer service possible, organizations must provide the most up-to-date software and equipment available, if it is required to help deliver stellar customer service.

Preparing Customer Service Representatives in the 21st Century A final means of preparing customer service representatives for the challenges that they will likely face on any given day is to empower them to make decisions, when necessary to satisfy a customer or resolve and issue that arises.

For ideas and strategies on better preparing customer service representatives and other employees for the tasks required in their jobs, check out two of my books – Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures, Customer Service Skills for Success and the American Management Association self-study course, How to Be a Great Call Center Representative. This latter resource results in a certificate of completion from the American Management Association once a final exam is taken and submitted to the association.

Three Proven Strategies that Build Customer Loyalty

Three Proven Strategies that Build Customer Loyalty

Three Proven Strategies that Build Customer Loyalty

Most organizations struggle to find ways in which they can build customer loyalty and reduce customer churn. Many of these companies spend large amounts of money and time creating costly reward programs, sending out expensive marketing materials, and investing in expensive customer relationship management systems. While each of these components has value and contribute to customer satisfaction; the following are three proven strategies that build customer loyalty can be used by customer service representatives.

1.  Become a trusted customer resource. Customers often encounter life challenges that require expertise beyond their capabilities. For example, an electrical light switch stops working, a toilet starts leaning, their computer starts giving error messages, or they start experiencing problems with their car. In each of these instances, people will often turn to a reputable source for assistance to help resolve the issue. If you are that source, take the time to listen empathetically and then demonstrate that you have the knowledge and expertise to assist them. By effectively and efficiently helping navigate the problem and coming to a speedy and cost-effective resolution, you can show value for the products and services that you and your organization provide. You can also increase customer satisfaction and help ensure that they will return to you again in the future.

2.  Demonstrate integrity. In a world where stories of unethical or illegal behavior from businesses and service providers are commonplace, you have an opportunity to excel in demonstrating your own integrity. You can do so by:

  • Keeping your word and meeting agreed to timeframes and commitments.
  • Being honest.
  • Being consistent and reliable in your service delivery.
  • Providing quality products competitive warranties and guarantees.

3.  Address service breakdowns professionally.

Things do not always go the way you plan. An unexpected delay may necessitate a schedule modification or a product may fail to perform as expected or promised.  When such glitches occur, take the opportunity to listen to your customer and immediately take the appropriate action(s) to address the situation. Work professionally to identify the issue and cause, and then negotiate an acceptable remedy. By showing that you are committed to resolving the issue to the customer’s satisfaction in a timely manner, you can retain their trust and confidence that you are working in their best interest.

By taking these three simple steps as a customer service representative, you can assure your customers that you are interested in meeting their needs, wants and expectations. You also show that you will put forth the effort to ensure that they are satisfied.

What are other customer loyalty strategies that you use, or have experienced, related to building customer loyalty?

In addition to the three proven strategies that build customer loyalty listed above, you can find many additional ideas for building and maintaining strong customer relationships in these resources – Customer Service Skills for Success, Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

Do You Feel That Fast Food Chain’s Prices Are Reasonable?

Do You Believe That Charges At McDonald's And Burger King Are Reasonable?

Do You Feel That Fast Food Chain’s Prices Are Reasonable?

Have you ever suspected that what you pay is not what is always advertised on the menus at McDonald’s and Burger King restaurants? In recent weeks, I have visited several McDonald’s and Burger King fast-food restaurants. Generally, I have not had a problem, but on two occasions (one at each company’s locations), I have received an item on which the cost was more than what was listed on the menu.

In the case of McDonald’s I explained to the cashier that I wanted a hamburger the size of the Quarter Pounder, but I did not want all the normal items (e.g. American cheese, ketchup, mustard, pickles, and onion) on it. Instead, I specified “lettuce, tomato, and mayo only.” I asked if there was anything like that on the menu and she said they could just switch items on the Quarter Pounder.  Obviously, they saved money because the sandwich no longer had all the add-on and instead substituted the three items I requested. When I went to pay for the meals, I found out that there was actually a .50 upcharge because I added tomato. I did not see this charge indicated on their menu, nor did the cashier mention it before ringing the item upon the register. Interestingly, they do not give credit for the items they do not supply on sandwiches in such instances.

To McDonald’s credit, when I went online to complain through their website, the district manager did call me back later to discuss the issue. He was very apologetic and said they would address my concerns since customer satisfaction is a major goal for the franchise. He even mailed me a coupon for a free meal.

On a second occasion, when I visited the drive-through to get a Whopper less than a week later, I ordered a sandwich with mayo and tomato only. The cashier asked “do you want cheese?” and without thinking, I said yes, since it was for my mother who likes American cheese. Again there is no notation on their menu that there is an additional charge and the cashier did not mention it. When I got the receipt and realized that there was a .50 cent upcharge, I asked why they had not indicated so on the menu. The cashier’s response was, “I guess they should add that.” Since I had gone through the drive-through and did not feel like wasting time to complain, I have no idea how it would be handled. I can tell you that several years ago, I had another issue with the same location and did complain but nothing seemed to change. I guess I should have learned my lesson then.

Maybe it is just me, but in a competitive business world where the fast-food companies vie daily for customer loyalty, brand loyalty, and customer retention, it seems that these little add-ons might be just the thing to make customers think about going to a competitor that does not upcharge for everything (e.g. Chic-Fil-A or Checkers). I know that when I consider either McDonald’s or Burger King as a possible source, I pause. Also, if I owned a fast-food restaurant, I know I’d certainly list all costs on the menu and provide customer service training to my employees in order to ensure that add-on costs are pointed out during the order process.

Have you had similar experiences? Let’s hear them.

Gaining Customer Loyalty

The Secret to Gaining Customer Loyalty

Gaining Customer Loyalty

Gaining customer loyalty and getting repeat business is crucial for organizational success in today’s global business world. Too many managers and small business owners do not recognize that customer loyalty are not just about competitive pricing and product line offerings. With competition being literally a mouse click away, the differentiator between companies is often the level and quality of customer service that they provide. If companies fail to personalize service, empower customer service representatives to effectively and efficiently serve customers, and invest in the latest service technology, they are likely to suffer from customer churn.

Unfortunately, many organizational leaders have not recognized the need to adopt customer service as a strategic initiative. They also fail to identify consumer trends and go to the effort of meeting changing customer needs, wants and expectations. According to the 2014 American Express Global Customer Service Barometer, 62% of 1,000 American consumers surveyed believe that companies “meet customer expectations.” Only 5%  of those surveyed said that interactions that they had with companies “exceeded their expectations,” while 29% thought that companies usually “miss their expectations.” Companies, such as Radio Shack, Borders Books, Blockbuster and Circuit City have paid the price of failure for failing to read and meet customer needs and expectations. Other organizations that are teetering and struggling to regain or maintain market share include Sears, JCPenney, Best Buy and the U.S. Postal Service.

The simple solution for gaining customer loyalty and getting repeat business is to make every customer experience positive. By investing in customer service skills and communication training for all employees, upgrading equipment, processes, and policies regularly, and looking at service through the customer’s eyes, customer loyalty and satisfaction is attainable.

For additional ideas on ways to improve customer service in any organization, check out Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service across Cultures, Customer Service Skills for Success, and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

4 Customer Service Skills That Can Help Enhance Customer Satisfaction

4 Customer Service Skills That Can Help Enhance Customer Satisfaction

4 Customer Service Skills That

Can Help Enhance Customer Satisfaction

Effective customer service skills that can help enhance customer satisfaction are important for every employee in an organization. However, they are crucial for front-line customer service representatives who are the first contact point for customers. Today’s customer contacts come from many sources:

  • Face-to-face.
  • Over the telephone.
  • Via electronic technology (e.g. chat, Facebook, Twitter or another online platform).

Customer service representatives must have the knowledge and skills required to respond appropriately in a timely manner. Anything less can negatively impact customer satisfaction and could lead to disgruntled customers, increased customer churn and negative word-of-mouth publicity. The latter can be deadly for an organization because in the past research found people with negative experiences often told nine to sixteen of their friends or acquaintances about their experience. With social media and mobile technology, that number jumps exponentially and can be worldwide in a matter of seconds via customer feedback sites like Yelp, Amazon, Facebook, and TripAdvisor. Such websites provide a forum for customers to exchange information and feedback or offer product and service reviews.

What Customer Service Skills that can help enhance customer satisfaction are crucial for organizational success? 

The following are four customer service skills that can help enhance customer satisfaction and increase customer loyalty.

  1. Solid product and service knowledge. Few things are more frustrating for a customer than a customer service representative who lacks the knowledge or available information to answer a question or help resolve an issue with products or services that the customer either has or wants. Successful organizations invest time and money in customer service training for all new employees on all aspects of the organization and what it provides to internal and external customers. If training is not provided, employees should take the initiative to ask questions of peers and supervisors and read available information and manuals. This demonstrates initiative potentially prevents an embarrassing situation in which the customer service representative cannot answer a customer’s questions.
  2. Active Listening Skills. Listening is the most used sense that most people have to gather information in order to formulate a response or make a decision. It is also a skill that is typically not taught in school or on the job, practiced effectively in life, or thought about as being important enough to strive for improvement by most people. Many people assume that they know how to listen simply because they have a normal range of hearing. This is a huge mistake. Hearing is an inactive physiological process of gathering sounds. Active listening involves actively focusing on what is heard and processing that information before formulating an appropriate verbal or non-verbal response. In a customer environment, active listening is a crucial skill and service representatives should continually work to hone and update this talent.
  3. Effective Communication Skills. All customer service representatives must possess effective communication skills and be able to effectively communicate verbally, non-verbally and in writing in order to interact appropriately with customers. These skills take training and practice. In addition to learning how to communicate in different forms, employees should seek feedback on how well they are doing in communicating with others. A simple means for them to find out how others perceive their skills is to ask people who know them and have seen them in action working with customers. By soliciting feedback on their communication skills, they can quickly identify strong and weak areas. In addition to formal communication training in the classroom or via technology, peer and supervisory coaching are two good ways that many organizations provide feedback to employees.
  4. Patience. Some people say that patience is a virtue. That may seem true when dealing with a frustrated, irritated or angry customer. A customer service representative who lacks patience in dealing with customers is likely to encounter more than one situation in which customer-service provider emotions escalate. The result of such encounters can be yelling (verbally or in writing through the use of all capital letters), threats, escalation to a supervisor, negative comments about the organization and employee(s) to others, and potentially, even violence. To ensure that this skill is exercised, many companies train employees to address frustrated or angry customers through roleplay scenarios and offer stress management training. They also empower employees to make decisions so that they do not always have to summon a supervisor in situations when customer issues arise. This can go a long way in helping keep emotional levels low.

There are many things that affect the outcomes of any customer situation. If a customer service representative possesses and uses these four customer service skills that can help enhance customer satisfaction, he or she is likely to be more effective in working with customers.

For more information on effective strategies customer service skills that can help enhance customer satisfaction and help build customer loyalty, research the topic on this blog. Also, check out Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service across Cultures, Customer Service Skills for Success and American Management Association’s self-study course, How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

Effective Listening and Interpersonal Communication Skills for Customer Service Representatives

Effective Listening and Interpersonal Communication Skills for Customer Service Representatives

Effective Listening and Interpersonal Communication Skills

for Customer Service Representatives

Effective listening and interpersonal communication skills for customer service representatives are crucial in ensuring that customers are satisfied and less likely to desert an organization. Many customer service representatives assume that they know how to effectively listen to their customers. After all, don’t they do it every day? The response to that question for many of them is a resounding NO!

What a lot of people who deal with customers think of as listening is actually the physiological process of hearing. In that process, sounds are gathered through the ear and transmitted to the brain. Unless the person then takes time to focus on the context of the message, analyze it and respond appropriately, listening has not occurred.

The following tips can increase customer service effectiveness, help build customer loyalty and satisfaction and aid customer retention.

Learn how to effectively listen to your customers. You can do this by taking the time to read articles and books and attend listening training sessions on the topic.

Identify your own listening abilities and limitations. An easy way to accomplish this is to record yourself interacting with people who you know (e.g. family and friends) in order to hear what they hear during a conversation. If you are not listening and responding appropriately in such instances, you won’t do so with your customers either. Also, ask people you know well to rate you on various aspects of listening (e.g. attending to their messages and responding appropriately to what they said).

Recognize the verbal and nonverbal cues sent by customers. The majority of meaning in a message between two people is derived from the subtle unspoken cues that they send. If you are not familiar with such messages, study the topics to increase your awareness. Then make it a habit to focus on the “whole” message a person is sending to you when interacting face-to-face with them. On the telephone, learn to identify unspoken messages based on rate, pitch, volume, and inflection of their voice or their word choice and emotion.

Use paraphrasing throughout the conversation. By repeating back or summarizing in different ways, what your customer has said periodically, you can ensure that you understood their need or concern correctly before you offer a response or try to assist them. For example, if a customer calls about a defective product that they received, you might paraphrase with something like, “If I understood you correctly, you ordered _____ and when it was delivered, there was a missing part. Is that correct?

Get feedback from the customer. Do not assume that you responded correctly or that the customer is satisfied with your level of service. You want to be known as a person or organization that delivers excellent customer service. To make that happens, pause and ask for validation and approval throughout your interaction with your customer. Use closed-end questions that start with an action verb to get agreement or verification. Examples are:

  • Did I summarize your concern correctly?
  • Does what I said help you with this issue?
  • Is there anything else that I can help you with?

Realize that each culture communicates differently. There are entire books, training programs, higher education courses and conferences designed around the topic of intercultural communication. Take advantage of these resources if you plan to be successful in working in a diverse workplace or communicating effectively with others in your daily life.

Effective listening is about focusing on your customers and using effective interpersonal communication skills that will make them feel welcomed, cared for and served well. For you to perform your duties effectively as a customer service representative, you have to continually strive to learn and hone your listening skills and other people skills, especially when it comes to dealing with a diverse customer base.

For additional listening and interpersonal communication tips and hundreds of other customer service strategies that can aid in developing the best customer service culture possible, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success, Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures, and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

Customer Relationship Management Initiatives Focus on Customer Loyalty and Retention

Customer Relationship Management Initiatives Focus on Customer Loyalty and Retention

Providing Effective Customer Service in a Diverse WorldAt one point in history, business owners knew their customers personally. They knew their customers’ families, what their religious affiliation was, and what was happening in their lives. Customers dealt with the owners of a business and had personal relationships with them. That was then, and this is now. That is why many customer relationship management initiatives focus on customer loyalty and retention.

Our current society is more mobile; people live in large metropolitan areas where customer relationships are distant, and families live miles apart from one another in many instances. Large multinational organizations provide the products and services once provided by the neighborhood store. All this does not mean, however, that the customer-provider relationship can no longer exist. Many successful organizations, and those who want to become successful, spend a lot of time, effort and money on building and maintaining strong customer relationship management program.

Why bother building relationships with customers? The answer would seem obvious—so that you can stay in business. However, when you examine the question further, you may find that there are more reasons than you think. This is where the customer relationship management (CRM) concept comes in. In effect, such initiatives strive to create ongoing friendships with customers and focus on making them feel comfortable with the organization and its service providers in order to enhance customer and brand loyalty. By training all employees, especially frontline customer service representatives, to more effectively interact with customers and deliver excellent customer service, organizations are more likely to gain and retain a loyal customer base.

To learn more about effectively creating a customer-centric organization that continually strives to improve service to internal and external customers while working to achieve customer satisfaction, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

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