Customer Service

Interpersonal Communication Self-Assessment for Customer Service Representatives

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Interpersonal Communication Self-Assessment for Customer Service Representatives

In many instances, customer service representatives do not know how they are coming across to their internal and external customers during interactions with them. Often this is because they fail to consciously monitor their verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors. In other cases, they do not ask for feedback on their communication style because they are afraid of what they will hear.

Interpersonal Communication Self-Assessment for Customer Service Representatives

If your goal is to provide the best customer service possible, you must take the time to gather information on your behavior and develop a plan for improvement. Like other life and customer service skills, effective communication must be developed, honed and improved upon regularly.

To find out how people perceive you and the way that you communicate with others, ask friends, relatives or customers whom you know well and trust to give objective feedback by asking them the following questions.

  • Do I tend to smile when I speak?
  • Do I spontaneously smile and greet people who pass me in the workplace?
  • What body cues (nonverbal signals) do I use regularly when I speak?
  • How would you categorize my overall presence when I speak (e.g. confident, uncertain, timid, intimidating, assertive, or relaxed) and why do you perceive that?
  • What “pet” words or phrases do I use regularly?
  • Do I actively listen when others speak? Ask for examples if they tell you “no”.
  • When I speak, how does my tone sound (e.g. assertive, attacking, calming, friendly, or persuasive)? Ask respondents to provide examples.
  • How do you think I might improve my overall communication style and professional presence when dealing with customers?
  • When I am frustrated or irritated how do you know it?

Once you hear their responses, take some time to reflect upon what you learn, decide if their feedback is valid (e.g. did several people tell you the same thing) and then begin working to change any negative behavior that you identified.

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.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

In my book Customer Service Skills for Success, I define customer service as “the ability of knowledgeable, capable, and enthusiastic employees to deliver products and services to their internal and external customers in a manner that satisfies identified and unidentified needs and ultimately results in positive word-of-mouth publicity and return business.”

Delivering Customer Service to a Diverse Customer Base

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Delivering Customer Service to a Diverse Customer Base

Personal awareness on the part of customer service representatives is the first step in delivering customer service to a diverse customer base.

The word diversity encompasses a broad range of differences. Many people only associate the term diversity with cultural diversity, which has to do with the differences between groups of people, depending on their country of origin, backgrounds, and beliefs. They fail to recognize that diversity is not just cultural. Certainly, diversity occurs within each cultural group; however, many other characteristics are involved. For example, within a group of Japanese people are subgroups such as different generations, males, females, children, athletes, thin people, gay or lesbian people, Buddhists, Christians, grandparents, married and single people, to mention just a few of the possible diverse characteristics, beliefs, and values.

Diversity is not a simple matter, yet it is not difficult to deal with. Start your journey to a better understanding of diversity by being fair to all people and keeping an open mind when interacting with them. In fact, when you look more closely at and think about, diversity it provides wonderful opportunities because people from varying groups and geographic locations bring with them special knowledge, experience, and value. This is because even though people may have differences or potentially look different, they also have many traits in common. Their similarities form a solid basis for successful interpersonal relationships if you are knowledgeable and think of people as individuals; you can then capitalize on their uniqueness. If you cannot think of the person instead of the group, you may stereotype people—lump them together and treat them all the same. This is a recipe for interpersonal disaster, service breakdown and organizational failure.

Some diversity factors that make people different are innate and they are born with them, such as height, weight, hair color, gender, skin color, physical and mental condition, and sibling birth order. All these factors contribute to our uniqueness and help or inhibit us throughout our lives, depending on the perceptions we and others have. Other factors that make us unique are learned or gained through our environment and our life experiences. Examples of these factors include religion, values, beliefs, economic level, lifestyle choices, profession, marital status, education, and political affiliation. These factors are often used to assign people to categories. Caution must be used when considering any of these characteristics since grouping people can lead to stereotyping and possible discrimination.

The bottom line is that all of these factors affect each customer encounter. Your awareness of differences and of your own preferences is crucial in determining the success you will have in each instance.

To learn more about providing quality service to all your customers, explore Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and other current books on the topic of the Delivering Customer Service to a Diverse Customer Base.

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.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Successfully Addressing Diversity as a Service Provider

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Successfully Addressing Diversity as a Service Provider

As the world grows smaller economically and otherwise through world trade, international travel, outsourcing and off shoring of jobs, worldwide Internet access, international partnerships between organizations and technologically transmitted information exchange, the likelihood that you will have contact as a customer service provider with people from other cultures, or who are different from you in other ways, increases significantly. This likelihood also carries over into your personal life.

Diversity is encountered everywhere over the telephone and Internet, in supermarkets, religious organizations, and on public transportation and virtually anywhere that you come into contact with others. It is an important aspect of everyone’s life. Although it presents challenges in making us think of differences and similarities, it also enriches our lives. Each encounter we have with another person gives us an opportunity to expand our knowledge of others and build customer relationships while growing personally.

One significant impact that diversity has on customer service is that people from varied backgrounds and cultures bring with them expectations based on personal preferences and the “norm” of their country or group. Whether this diversity pertains to cultural or ethnic differences, beliefs, values, religion, age, gender, ability levels or other factors a potential breakdown in customer satisfaction can occur if people get other than what they want or expect.

In order to provide excellent customer service rather than good customer service, you will need to raise your personal awareness about others and focus on addressing the needs of a diverse customer base.

Part of creating a positive diverse customer-centric business environment is to train each service provider on the nuances of dealing with people who have backgrounds that are different from their own. Additionally, this effort involves each employee taking ownership for enhancing his or her knowledge and skills related to working with a diverse customer base.

To better prepare for the inevitable opportunities, you will have in serving others who are different from you, ask yourself the following questions. After thinking about them, set out to do some research in areas where you feel deficient.

  • How do you define diversity?
  • What do you already know about diverse cultures around the world?
  • In what ways do your cultural beliefs and values differ from those of cultures with which you have contact as a service provider?
  • In what ways are your cultural beliefs and values similar to those of cultures with which you have contact as a service provider?
  • How do the beliefs and expectations of people from a gender other than your own impact your ability to serve them effectively?
  • How do the values of other generations differ from your own?
  • What accommodations might be necessary for customers who have special needs?
  • What is your personal interest in learning about other cultures or diverse groups?
  • What training or research have you done on diversity and how has that impacted your views or perspectives towards others who may be different from you?

Successfully Addressing Diversity as a Service Provider For ideas and strategies on providing quality customer service to a diverse population, check out, 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.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Customer Attitudes Are Affecting Service Delivery

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Customer Attitudes Are Affecting Service Delivery

Companies today are struggling with not just providing a good or excellent customer service. They now are searching for ways to provide the best customer service possible in order to stay competitive in a globally competitive marketplace.

One of the biggest challenges for many organizations is that customer behavior continues to evolve as society has become more mobile, technology-driven and frugal following the recent recession. Add to the mix a more diverse consumer base that, in many instances displays needs, wants and expectations that differ from the past and you have a situation in which customer service representatives or service providers in all industries are rethinking the way that they deliver customer service.

Customer Attitudes Are Affecting Service Delivery

Here are some recent study findings that indicate a changing consumer environment:

“Channel usage rates are also quickly changing: we’ve seen a 12% rise in web self-service usage, a 24% rise in chat usage, and a 25% increase in community usage for customer service in the past three years.” Leggett, K., Forrester’s Top 15 Trends For Customer Service In 2013, January 14, 2013.

“…speed of service more important now, regardless of whether they are on the  phone, web, or at the service location:

In essence, people are more likely to use technology to obtain products and services and less likely to tolerate substandard or slow levels of service in today’s fast-paced world of many choices. When your competitor is literally a mouse click or touchpad away, you cannot afford to be complacent or view the customer at the same level you might have in the past.

About Robert C. 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.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Strategies for Providing Professional Customer Service

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Strategies for Providing Professional Customer Service

Many customers typically like the comfort of know that they can depend on service providers to provide timely, accurate and professional service whether it is face-to-face, over the telephone or via other technology.

As you work with customers, do so positively and assertively and take the following actions in order to help put them at ease and to build a strong customer-provider relationship.

Strategies for Providing Professional Customer Service

  • Assure them. Do this through your words and actions to show that you are confident, have their best interests at heart-and are in control of the situation.
  • Provide timely service. Let them know that their calls/messages, questions, needs, and issues will be addressed professionally and in a timely manner.
  • Reassure them. Let them know that what they purchase is the best quality, has a solid warranty, will be backed by the organization, and will address their needs while providing many benefits.
  • Reinforce them. Ensure that they understand that their requests and data will be processed rapidly and promises will be kept.

All of these things can lead them to the belief that they made the right decision in selecting you and your organization and that you will take care of their needs.

About Robert C. 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.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Impact of the Recession on Customer Loyalty

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Impact of the Recession on Customer Loyalty

Impact of the Recession on Customer Loyalty

Many business owners and managers will tell you that they are struggling to maintain market share and service levels to guarantee customer loyalty. This has been a trend for a number of years and particularly became difficult once the recent economic downturn kicked into full swing. To off-set the trend, companies are striving to provide excellent customer service, create moments of truth that make the customer feel special and encouraging customer service representatives and employees at all levels to exceed customer expectations.

A big challenge is that companies realized that in addition to losing customers, they were also losing profits as many middle class and some higher-income customers retrenched on spending. To offset their reduced disposable capital, consumers have changed their spending habits, stopped eating out and traveling as much, limited their entertainment budget, shopped less for non-essential items, and cut services that they considered a luxury (e.g. grass, pool, and pest control services) and started handling those functions personally. They also started doing more comparative shopping, spent more time bargain hunting, attended yard sales and consignment shops, clipped more coupons, and in many instances traded down to less expensive store items or those that were not in the “status symbol” or name brand categories.

The result of all these cultural and societal changes has been that now that customers are accustomed to the “new economic normal.” They realize that they can actually live well and be comfortable at a lower spending level and using lower quality products. They even realize that in many instances they actually happy with their new lifestyle and spending habits. As a result, even though the economy has started a slow upward movement, consumers are now remembering the economic pain they suffered and are stashing away as much as they can in the event the recession comes back.

What all this means for retail businesses,  service providers and product manufacturers are that they must retool their marketing and production mentality. They are reducing on-hand inventories, minimizing staff hiring and using part-time employees or outsourcing services and re-examining the way they deliver customer service in a changing world. In particular, they are changing the manner in which they show added value to their customers in an effort to gain and retain new ones.

The changing business environment has resulted in a winning proposition for many consumers who now feel that they are in a power position related to making purchases. This is especially true in instances of major buying decisions (e.g. cars, houses, property, recreational vehicles, and other higher-end items).  Many realtors and dealers have experienced a large inventory surplus due to a slowdown in purchases and tightened lending policies from financial institutions. This has created a buyers market.

By doing adequate research and coming to the sales environment with knowledge of manufacturing costs, competitive pricing, and product and service details, the consumer is now often in a position to negotiate strongly and get pricing that is not only fair but also better than they could have gotten in the past. Retailers in nearly every type of product line and business are willing to negotiate and offer discounted prices when pressured by the customer to do so. They do this because they realize that their competitors will discount if they do not and the customer is likely to walk away, if not satisfied with an offer they receive. In addition, with a global economy and access to products from around the world only a mouse click away, companies realize that they must deal or die.

Impact of the Recession on Customer Loyalty

From a customer service perspective, it is imperative that managers develop a customer-centric mindset and that customer service representatives and everyone else in the organization adopt a can-do/must-do attitude when it comes to communicating effectively and working with customers. They must provide the best customer service possible in any instance where there is a of customer-provider interaction. Only through such initiatives will organizations be able to show customers that they offer the best value, care about their wants, needs, and expectations,  and are willing to put forth the effort to help achieve customer and brand loyalty.

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.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Two Tips for Building Strong Customer Relationships

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Two Tips for Building Strong Customer Relationships

Customers like doing business with those who understand them and their needs and go out of their way to deliver timely and quality services and products at a fair price. This can lead to consumer satisfaction and that is a big factor for many customers in remaining loyal to a brand or organization.

Two Tips for Building Strong Customer Relationships

Here are two simple tips that can help enhance customer retention and provide quality service to customers.

1.  Pay Attention

As you listen to your customers, focus all your attention on them so that you can identify and address their needs. If you are providing service face-to-face use positive nonverbal cues (e.g. face the customer, smile, use open body gestures, make eye contact, stop doing other things, and focus attention on the customer) and language. Ask open-end questions to determine the customer’s needs. Also, use the active listening techniques to ensure that you get all the information you need to properly address your customer’s needs or concerns.

2.  Deal with One Customer at a Time

You cannot effectively handle two people (on the phone or in-person) simultaneously. When more than one call or customer comes in at the same time, seek assistance or ask one of them to either wait or if you might get back to him or her at a later time. Then, give personalized attention to the other customer.

Providing stellar customer service is not always easy, but if you strive to gain and use positive customer relationship management knowledge and skills, you can effectively identify and satisfy customer needs.

For additional strategies on effectively providing stellar customer service, get a copy of Please Every Customer: Providing Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. 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.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Nonverbal Communication That Can Impact Customer Relationships

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Nonverbal Communication That Can Impact Customer Relationships

There are many ways in which customer service representatives communicate with customers face-to-face and via technology. One of the most powerful techniques is through nonverbal cues or messages they send subconsciously. Often these unspoken messages are more powerful than those delivered through words.

The following chart indicates some common positive and negative nonverbal communication behaviors that customer service representatives might exhibit that can lead to misunderstandings or service breakdowns if you are not careful.

Positive

Negative
  • Brief eye contact (3 to 5 seconds)
  • Yawning
  • Eyes wide open
  • Frowning or sneering
  • Smiling
  • Attending to matters other than the   customer
  • Facing the customer
  • Manipulating items impatiently
  • Nodding affirmatively
  • Leaning away from customer as he or   she speaks
  • Expressive hand gestures
  • Subdued or minimal hand gestures
  • Open body stance
  • Crossed arms
  • Listening actively
  • Staring blankly or coolly at customer
  • Remaining silent as customer speaks
  • Interrupting
  • Gesturing with open hand
  • Pointing finger or object at customer
  • Maintaining professional appearance
  • Casual unkempt appearance
  • Clean, organized work area
  • Disorganized, cluttered work space

About Robert C. 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.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

The Role of Gestures in Positive Customer Service

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The Role of Gestures in Positive Customer Service

The use of nonverbal communication with your head, hands, arms, and shoulders to accentuate verbal messages can add color, excitement, and enthusiasm to your interactions with customers. Using physical movements naturally during a conversation may either help make a point or result in added credibility.

Typically, movements or gestures are designed to gain and hold attention (e.g. waving a hand to attract the attention of someone), clarify or describe further (e.g. holding up one finger to indicate the number 1), or emphasize a point (e.g. pointing a finger while angrily making a point verbally).The Role of Gestures in Positive Customer Service

Open, flowing gestures (e.g. gesturing with arms, palms open and upward, out and away from the body) encourage listening and help explain messages to customers. On the other hand, closed, restrained movements (e.g. tightly crossed arms, clenched fists, hands in pockets, hands or fingers intertwined and held below waist level or behind the back) could send a message of coolness, insecurity, or disinterest.

One important point to remember in a multicultural world is that nonverbal cues are not universal and a gesture in one country or culture could take on an entirely different meaning in another. Take some time to research common nonverbal cues around the world before using them in public.

The key to effective nonverbal communication is to make gestures seem natural. If you do not normally use gestures when communicating, you may want to practice in front of a mirror until you feel relaxed and the gestures complement your verbal messages without distracting.

For additional ideas and strategies on using nonverbal communication effectively when interacting with customers, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success. For suggestions on interacting effectively with customers from different backgrounds, check out Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert C. 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.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Recovering from Customer Service Breakdowns

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Recovering from Customer Service Breakdowns

Customers are better educated and have access to a more competitive product and service information that at any time in history. The result is that when they contact a customer service representative, they have specific wants, needs, and expectations. When their preconceived ideas are not met, service breakdowns are likely to occur.

The following are three common situations that can lead to customer dissatisfaction and potentially cause defection to a competitor when customer service representatives fail to create positive customer experiences. Strategies for preventing customer service breakdowns are also provided.

Recovering from Customer Service Breakdowns

Service breakdowns often occur when customer service representatives:

Are preoccupied when customers call or are present. If you have ever called or visited an organization only to have them put you on extended hold, disconnected you, or failed to acknowledge your presence and serve you right away while they performed some task, you know how your customers might feel under similar circumstances.

If you are a service provider and must put someone on hold while on the phone, do so only if you are currently serving another customer or you have no other option. If you must put them on hold, ensure that you explain why they are being asked to wait and how long it will take to get to them. Remember that effective telephone etiquette is crucial for service success.

When providing face-to-face service and a customer arrives while you are performing an administrative function, such as filing, calculating, writing, stocking, completing a task, or other such function, quickly get to a point where you can pause and serve the customer. In the meantime, take a moment to make eye contact, smile and either tell them or non-verbally (by holding up a single index finger) that you will be with them as soon as possible. Effective nonverbal communication such as this is especially important when dealing with someone from a culture in which relationships are an important aspect of business (e.g. the Middle East, Hispanic cultures, and Asia). Your efforts may not satisfy everyone, but they work with most customers who understand that many service providers are doing more with fewer human assets these days.

Project an uncaring attitude. You may experience instances when customer service or communication is strained when dealing with a customer. This can occur if they perceive that the products or services they received did not meet their needs or expectations or were not delivered as promised. An uncaring perception can also be projected if you are not focused on delivering quality global customer service and through your actions, words or non-verbal cues send messages that the customer is not a priority.

To avoid the potential perception that you are uncaring, strive to make sure that you are always prepared for customers. Put other tasks aside, clear your head of previous issues or events and focus on your current customer and their needs or issues. Also, listen to and show interest in what your customers have to say.

Fail to assume responsibility. A big complaint that many customers have, especially when dealing with web-based businesses, is that they cannot find a “real person” to talk to when they have a question or a problem arises.

Many organizations intentionally make finding their contact information (if they even list it on their website) difficult to locate because they do not want people calling their representatives.  They do this under the guise of making service delivery more efficient for customers through the technology they offer. When customers do finally locate the contact information, they often encounter an automated attendant system that requires numerous choice selections and often ends with a message saying something like, “You are important to use. All of our agents are currently helping other customers; your estimated wait time is ___.”

To prevent being part of problem situations, continually look for ways to make yourself accessible to your customers. Also, make recommendations to your supervisor for improvement to your system whenever you identify a glitch. Whether you are interacting with customers in person or via technology and a service breakdown occurs make sure that you apologize, when appropriate, assume responsibility for delays or service breakdowns and offer to assist professionally.

Possible strategies for preventing service breakdowns include avoiding fault deference to technology, your organizational system or other people. For example, avoid using statements like:

“I am unable to do (whatever the customer is requesting); they/our policy won’t let us…” or “Our system is down right now; can you call back later?”

Instead, work toward positive and immediate service recovery by telling your customer what you can do; not what you cannot. For example, “I apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with _______ Mr./Ms. _____. While we cannot do _____, what I can do in this instance is to ____.” or “My sincere apologies for the inconvenience Mr./Ms/ _____, however, I cannot get that information at the moment because our computer system is down. Can I take your phone number or email address and get that information for you as soon as it comes back up?”

Ultimately, be a problem solver and resource by taking responsibility and working to assist your customers; not an obstacle to good service and satisfaction.

In order to prevent service breakdowns from occurring, take time to review your current policies, procedures and service environment to ensure that they are ready address the needs and expectations of your customers.

For additional ideas on strategies for preventing and addressing service breakdowns, check our two books by Robert W. Lucas – Customer Service: Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert C. 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.

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The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

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