Customer Experience: Fine Architecture or House of Horrors?
Imagine what would happen if you had dozens of architects and hundreds of contractors all working on your business. Now image if there was no master plan and each individual spoke his or her own unique language. It’s not hard to imagine that you would have something that would resemble the Winchester House - the now-famous 160-room house that was cobbled together over a 38-year span with no master plan. The house is notorious for stairs that go nowhere, doors that open to a 2-story drop, and a maze of rooms, hallways and doorways that can perplex even the most seasoned of navigators.
Losing site of the big picture can happen to even the best of businesses. When short-term business challenges inevitably arise, decisions can be made in haste to address them. Without a master plan, those seemingly innocent decisions can begin to create a burden for the company in the long run. Independent and uncoordinated business initiatives can result in processes that don’t connect, systems that don’t play well with others, and departments that develop their own unique business lingo that is not universally understood by others.
Like the Winchester house, each individual project may seem like the right solution at the time. However, the compound affect of numerous independent and uncoordinated projects and solutions can result in an Achilles heal for the company: True change becomes increasingly hard to accomplish; integration and sharing of key business data slows to a crawl; and enabling cross-functional processes (aka end-to-end processes) becomes nearly impossible to accomplish. Each function may seem content, but the business as a whole can begin to suffer due to inflexibility, knowledge hoarding, and turf wars.
Indicators that your business may suffer from the ‘Winchester House’ syndrome:
1. Process Indicators: Business processes are not well defined or understood and each function prides itself on simply doing whatever is necessary to get the job done, even if it requires winging it now and then. Each functional area designs, develops, and manages its own unique processes with little or no sharing of best practices across functional areas.
2. Technology Indicators: Each functional area has its own set of business applications and data. Applications often don’t work well with others and data is not consistent across departments. Key business information is fragmented and stored in multiple locations and collecting data to conduct company-wide analysis is a long, difficult, and largely a manual process.
3. People Indicators: Individual functional areas have very specialized people, and it takes years to train new employees to learn the ropes of the business. Employees care only about their functional area, have their own set of performance goals and metrics, and don’t understand how or why other functional areas get things done.
Unfortunately, when companies lose sight of the bigger picture and become a victim of the Winchester House syndrome, the customer experience invariably suffers. Customers can be inconvenienced by inconsistencies between touch points, lack of integration between channels, and absence of a meaningful relationship between customer and company. The company’s internal processes, policies, and infrastructure often get in the way of providing the customer with what they want: an emotional connection to the company powered by great service.
SEE THE FOREST THROUGH THE TREES
Businesses that want to avoid this fate can and should establish, adopt, and diligently adhere to an enterprise customer experience blueprint; a holistic model that defines how every component of the company should work together in a seamless and consistent manner to enable and optimize the customer experience. Furthermore, the enterprise blueprint can help a business to develop a detailed master plan for where the business is today and where it is going.
An enterprise blueprint can help any business to avoid the Winchester House syndrome by serving as a detailed model for how the customer experience is influenced and enabled by the compilation of people, process, and technology assets. A comprehensive enterprise blueprint will consist of a detailed definition and model for each major component that comprise the business. This model can be invaluable for identifying any current deficiencies as well as charting a future course for the business.
A comprehensive enterprise customer experience blueprint includes several key dimensions:
1. Customer Experience Lifecycle (Customer): A formal definition of the customer experience lifecycle process from the customer’s perspective. The process includes a complete end-to-end view of how customers are attracted, acquired, facilitated, served, and cultivated well after the point of purchase.
2. Enterprise Business Process (Process): A formal and detailed enterprise process model that defines all major processes, sub-processes, and activities that comprise the enterprise. Ideally, the process model should be defined as a hierarchy to allow both low-level analysis and optimization as well as executive-level roll-up of detailed activities into larger process areas.
3. Enterprise Systems Architecture (Technology): A complete information technology model that identifies and defines key IT capabilities, applications, data, and infrastructure. Ideally, the components of the IT architecture model should be expressly linked to the customer, process, and people dimensions of the blueprint.
4. Enterprise Organization Chart (People): An enterprise-wide organization chart that includes an up-to-date definition of the reporting structure, roles, and responsibilities.
5. Enterprise Business Metrics (Value): A standardized definition of all key business metrics that includes a definition of how the metric is calculated and where key data is sourced from in the enterprise.
6. Corporate Strategy (Strategy): A clear and well-defined strategy that sets the long-term goals and directions for the company. The corporate strategy should include components to define specific strategies for areas such as the brand, market, product, service, price, promotion, channel, and customer experience.
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE BLUEPRINT - IT DOES YOUR BUSINESS GOOD
Businesses that are seeking clarity to their current and future business environment can develop their own customer experience blueprint by identifying and analyzing their key business assets:
1. Assemble available business artifacts: Gather all available customer experience processes, business processes, technology architectures, organization structures, business metrics, and strategies that are available for the business.
2. Identify gaps and inconsistencies: Evaluate the existing business artifacts to identify what is missing, where inconsistencies or duplications occur, or where additional detail is lacking for each of the major dimensions (customer, process, people, technology, value, and strategy).
3. Create standard definitions and assemble the blueprint: Create and agree to a common set of standards to accurately define and describe each dimension of the blueprint and close any gaps that are identified. Consolidate and summarize all artifacts into a comprehensive enterprise customer experience blueprint and keep them up to date. Use the blueprint as a management tool to guide the business going forward.
Developing and using a comprehensive blueprint has its benefits; businesses that define and maintain a comprehensive enterprise customer experience blueprint can improve their return on investments, increase productivity, and improve the customer experience:
* Improved ROI: Initiatives that are better aligned with the enterprise blueprint can result in fewer conflicts and duplication of efforts. Furthermore, short-term efforts can be better aligned with long-term goals so that all resources are rowing in the same direction.
* Increased Productivity: Business can run more smoothly and produce more for the same or less effort by leveraging common resources, speaking the same process and business metric language, and by using a common and consistent set of information. Furthermore, businesses can make better decisions based on a more holistic and consistent view of enterprise-wide capabilities, issues, risks, and opportunities.
* Improved Customer Experience: Businesses that have aligned their people, process, and technology components are better equipped to provide meaningful customer experiences. When aligned and consistent, the business infrastructure can serve as a true enabler - rather than a hindrance - to powerful customer experiences.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Over the course of the lifetime of a business various business challenges, opportunities, and issues will arise and be solved by numerous and seemingly innocent business decisions; decisions that result in new processes, organizational structures, and systems. Without an overarching blueprint to guide these decisions, however, the legacy of various and uncoordinated initiatives can be crippling. As more and more independent decisions are made, the weight of inconsistent processes, duplication of duties, and incompatible systems can burden both the company and the customer.
Business that want to avoid this fate can and should establish, adopt, and diligently adhere to an enterprise customer experience blueprint; a holistic model that defines how every component of the company should work together in a seamless and consistent manner to enable and optimize the customer experience. A comprehensive enterprise customer experience blueprint includes several key dimensions including a 1) Customer Experience Lifecycle Process (Customer), 2) an Enterprise Business Process Model(Process), 3) an Enterprise Systems Architecture (Technology, 4) an Enterprise Organization Chart (People), 5) Enterprise Business Metrics (Value), and 6) a Corporate Strategy (Strategy).
If your business were a house or building, what would it look like to your employees and customers? Would it be structurally sound, open, and inviting? Or would it be cluttered, broken up and difficult to navigate?
Having the right blueprint can make all the difference.
Robert Howard is the Founder and Chief Executive of ClearBrick LLC, a leading provider of customer experience business solutions, research, and advice.
Find out how to develop your own Customer Experience Blueprint.
How Much Help Do Your Clients Need?
If you read my article a few weeks ago, you’ll know that over Easter I painted my living room a lovely cream magnolia colour.
I’m a big fan of the property programs that are on telly at the moment so I while I was feeling all excited about how fresh and pretty my living room was looking, I decided I was also going to do a subtle feature wall.
Now I’ve never used wallpaper before and to be honest, I’m normally not a big fan of it but in the DIY store I saw this cream swirl pattern that looked fantastic next to the cream paint and I decided I would give it a try.
So I did my homework - I logged onto the DIY store’s wallpaper guide and read it from start to finish. I then measured, re-measured and measured the wall again and put all the information into their online calculator and discovered I need just less than 12meters.
So I dragged my boyfriend back to the DIY store, got 2 rolls (20 meters worth) and happily strolled out to the car feeling as if Sarah Beeny would be ever so proud of me. Then very irritatingly our car wouldn’t start and we spent several hours fluffing around trying to get it going.
When we finally got home and got started hanging the wallpaper it turned out that we were 2 entire drops of wallpaper short. So now I’m stuck at home without transport and missing a strip of wallpaper about 1meter wide all the way down the left hand side of the wall. After hours of car problems and with wallpaper paste everywhere I was unimpressed to say the least!
Maybe the calculator malfunctioned. Maybe the calculator doesn’t work properly. Or maybe since I’m a wallpaper novice, I just got it wrong. I thought I had read everything and measured everything twice but perhaps I still got it wrong? Who knows…
What I do know though is that it wasn’t a great experience.
So here’s something for you to think about this week…
- Do you make sure your clients understand the services you offer fully?
- Do they properly understand the benefits and how to achieve them?
- Do they know how often they ought to book in?
- Are they buying the products that will give them best results?
- And most importantly, will they ask for help when they need it?
If the answer to any of these is no, what systems do you have in place to deal with this?
Taking action to make a booking or purchase a product is ultimately only a decision that your clients can make for themselves. But if you are able to ensure you provide them with every bit of help they might need, you are likely to end up with much happier clients as well as a higher income.
Rebecca Kepple specializes in helping business owners massively increase their client base and profits. To get instant access to her free insider secrets report ‘The Top 7 Secrets for Massively Increasing Your Client Base’ visit: http://www.wellbeingbusinesssecrets.com/freereport.
Eye Contact and 3 Other Ways to Build Trust Through Customer Service Training
If you are looking for ways to improve your business and make more profits there is no easier or cheaper way to do it than through customer service training. Here are four simple tools to take your business to the next level and build that customer trust. Once you have read them I will teach you how to change your employees for the better in just 10 seconds.
First, always be on time. When you make a customer wait for you what you are telling them is that your time is more valuable then theirs. It is rude and disrespectful and will never invoke trust from clients around you.
When you are on time and ready for your customer, you set a tone for the rest of the interaction and send a powerful message. That message is that you care about their business. So be on time and set a tone for success.
Second, shake hands with your customers. So much can be learned from a hand shake. Each time we meet a customer they size us up in about five seconds, and many times it is our hand shake that is their first encounter. Different shakes convey a different message of who you are. Learning a proper handshake is easy through proper customer service training.
There is the limp wrist. The double hander. The sweaty palm. Take this opportunity to show them who you are and what your message is. Remember your success is in your hands.
Firm but not over-bearing, standing straight up, great eye contact, a small smile, feet firmly planted, clean spoken words, and the hand straight up and down.
The next step in your customer service training is developing great eye contact. A relationship starts with showing that you can engage with the other person. Eye contact is one of the most important steps in doing that.
When growing a relationship with a possible customer or anyone in your life, it is important that they know they can trust you.
Looking your customer in the eye lets them know that what you’re saying to them is honest and you stand by your statements.
Last but not least you must listen to your customer. Listening is an art form and can be challenging for many people. There is an old saying “you can’t learn anything with your mouth open” and that is absolutely true in the business world.
When speaking to a customer or potential customer the most important tool you have is the ability to listen to their needs. This will allow you to really hear them and reflect back. Only when you truly listen to your customers’ issues can you attempt to improve their situation.
Now take these customer service training tools to the next level. Gather your employees together for a meeting and show them what you expect.
First, be on time to the meeting. Second, shake each of their hands. Then look them in the eye and listen to their ideas about the business.
With customer service training on your side you can make certain that your customers feel appreciated and wanted. These four easy steps will help you to train your staff to offer extraordinary customer service.
Wendy Gillett is owner of ExtraordinaryCustomerService.com, a full service online membership site dedicated tocustomer service trainingspecializing in increasing profits through customer experience optimization.
Performance Appraisals Needs In The Call Center Industry
Encouragement is the key to performance. Reward is even greater source of encouragement when it’s beyond just words. Call centers have over the years developed a performance appraisal system that’s including all the components of good communication. Nowhere else does appraisals matter so much as much in call centre business, as its all about customer experience which sells and is at CSR discretion, he can make it most memorable or the worst at the same time.
Technology has turned the way in the favor of call centers and has reduced the hassle of managers and supervisors who had to listen to live calls to evaluate the performance of CSR, now with advanced software recording option; the calls can be replayed for evaluation of the quality and customer satisfaction.
A contact center should first offer quality training to the staff and then expect high performance appraisal, otherwise all the activity is useless. Whether you listen to live calls or recorded streaming, you should have well-defined standards for evaluation of scores and it should be pre-agreed with CSR, this way you can be in better position to motivate and advocate the CSR to improve his performance. Avoid such digital recording vendors who consider the length of call as a parameter of quality call, set your own professional parameters to evaluate the quality of call.
One of the best possible made evaluations models includes all the ingredients of good communication. The appraisals is made on the basis of one of the basic elements of good communication and it is expected from CSR to demonstrate these good practices to get good results towards the end for themselves and for the company.
The honesty level of the CSR can make real difference and in case the CSR is lagging short of words to depict his honest support, customer experience won’t me very appreciable. Next to honesty, performance is evaluated on the basis of the attention that CSR invest in his overall attendance. His reply will reflect his presence and if he is giving hundred percent, favorable comments will be added out of the overall experience. Interest level is also among the factors that are considered during performance evaluation.
Furthermore, duplication should be avoided and CSR should not ask anything twice, this creates really unpleasant impression on the caller. Refraining from making experienced based assumptions is really very important; otherwise the call will not be converted into prospect.
Sense of responsibility, control of CSR on the call, friendliness and professionalism are some other determinants of a quality customer service call on the part of CSR.
Many other factors need to be considered seriously when making call evaluation, other than just call handling and call quality. No one learns communication skills by birth and for the stuff that has not been able to enter main-stream careers, it’s even further a less realistic expectation. Training and skill development of s can yield considerable results towards the end.
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Your Call Center Trainings
Training is the key for any business success, as it prepares you to take-on the challenges with a lot more skill and belief and when its matter of creating good impression on the customer who is of other nationality, other culture and creed, the role of training gets even more pivotal.
Call centre training is the most crucial part to make the experience of your caller rewarding and to get repeat on sales, otherwise, you won’t get a second chance to create your first impression. The key areas which need strenuous training are product knowledge, technology and speaking soft with skill.
Special soft skills trainings would be highly required for your call center team before handling international customers. Starting with the accent, make the heavy and localized accent affordable for the US or other developed nation caller, who are money rich and time-poor, they do not want to take too longer in understanding the alien accents. You will need to train your call center team through accent-neutralization and by arranging smooth and easy to adopt monikers. With this you can overcome the challenges faced by your call center with your international customers.
The difference in cultures, should be highly considered as it is the most difficult challenge call center team might come across. Customers always have high expectations on the customer service representatives. They are in some sort of problem while they are calling, some credit card payment issue, discrepancy on a bill, want to get assistance for computer problem or are seeking delay in their already bookings for airlines, they are all calling you with high level of frustration and the agent ahs to be trained to handle such situations with cool head and a lot of common sense.
These already offended callers are not ready to relieve anyone who is short of words, solutions and way-out for their everyday problems, all the agents should go strenuous in-house training before they are exposed to callers that how compliance can be achieved. US based customers expects the rep to offer a certain level of empathy, put thoughtful questions across, use relevant words and get hold of the problem smartly. Whereas, reps of under developed countries show sympathy which is offending for the callers who are expecting sincere support.
Training can give customer service raps more word choice and way forward to lead the conversation ahead, they can present a confident gesture about offering sincere responses in the manner that echoes with your customer base. The more technology savvy your customer service reps are, the more their chances of converting a call into long-term relationship exist. Train the reps with all the innovative technologies to make them feel good about everything. This will improve their confidence and they will show better performance.
As a crux, the rep should be given adequate knowledge of the content they are supposed to handle, they should be given ample training in receiving calls in safe-simulated environment to get confidence and skills, a detailed perspective of the country which has most potential prospects for the call centre and last but not the least, an ongoing coaching to make their skill, their excellence.
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Do You Need More Staff For Your Call Center?
Call centre business has a reputation of being one of the industries that has high hiring and firing turnover and likewise, the mindset of the people available in industry is nurtured on the same philosophy. They are not much concerned about frequent switching like other careers where it goes against you. Finding and retaining right people for the call centre is a well known dilemma, as there are certain shortcomings which are attached with this particular business, so, all the measures can only contribute in reducing them and that’s the maximum achievable when it comes to call centre hiring and training.
Retention is highly recommended, go an extra mile to retain an agent who is a part of your call centre, he has prequalified, has got-on with the things and you are also able to evaluate his abilities. Make a correct judgment about the skills of the person and offer all that which the person expects by way of any of your company intelligence. Changing people is a never ending story for call centers; the need of the hour is to change minds of the same people. Recognize their needs and address them instead of preferring aggressive hiring and firing. You have already invested in their training, up gradation and grooming.
If for one reason or another, you are to hire call centre agents, make it a real task for yourself. Do a lot of homework about the interviews and selection strategy. Conduct an in-house meeting with Managers and supervisors to evolve an efficient and effective evaluation procedure that can end-up in picking right people for the job. Look for the accent first of all, that’s the biggest selling-point. Your second priority should be the evaluation of overall personality, find-out the sense of responsibility with the body language and the way of responding to questions. Put some of stupid questions across and detect the patience of the person, if he keeps his nerves cool and come up with respectable reply, go for this person. He/she will sustain.
Regardless of the facts elaborated in the article, time 7 again, the only short-cut to get good call centre agents is the experience. Nothing else can do it for you as good as this. So behave maturely, improve communication, enhance flexibility in overall decorum, and facilitate your agents to maximum extent, so that they can be at peace of mind to make effective sales or to offer quality customer service. Time has changed for the employee and employer, now both have to understand each other to fall into long-term relationship, so care for your agents and get care in turn and it works.
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Call Center Training, is a Must
The remarkable growth of call center industry has ushered to the opening of call center Training schools. Training schools may be accessed on line where all claim to be best in the field. There are two constants in the area of training; one is that training costs and it is actually consuming large portion of call center’s resources; two is the accounting of the result of the training, there must be an improvement in the performance that would justify the resources spent.
Training is made so as to improve and further develop the performance of an agent. The training satisfies two areas such the personal and individual professional growth of the agent and his delivery of good productivity to the company. With good training, the call center should expect the following results:
- Agents could handle themselves more professionally and with confidence.
- New hires could no longer be distinguished from the experienced agent.
- Better customer satisfaction.
- Better productivity.
Training is not a one time deal, it is continuous. It is an indispensable tool that would help to keep the performance of agents on target. Best agents are those that have both the training and the experience. A call center agent is developed as he faces and handles the widest set of situations in the day to day performance of his job. But an experienced and consistently trained agent performs best. Good training provides additional knowledge and confidence to the agent. An effective training is one that derives its training objectives from the business objectives. There are two truths with training; it could only claim to be effective when the results are seen and it is a continuing program.
Training is a part of growth and development resulting to a better performing individual. Here are some good reasons why a call center executive should be an advocate of continuous training:
1. It boosts morale. An agent would feel motivated will the newly acquired knowledge and added skills.
2. It costs less than recruiting and hiring. Call centers have the reputation of having the greatest turn over and this could be reduced if not eliminated through training.
3. Training stimulates the desire of an individual to improve.
4. Training keeps the pace with the rapidly changing technology.
5. It develops teamwork and thus results to better productivity.
6. Training is an investment that returns many times over. Because it raises morale it directly boosts efficiency and therefore productivity.
7. Training raises the rookie to a professional. Investing in training your staff or agents gives the feeling of being valued that could help build their loyalty to the company.
8. It eliminates stress. A good training provides agents with the skills and tools needed to handle stressful situations, especially in dealing with angry customers.
Considering all of these, management and supervisors can rest assured that the call center operation will run smoothly and customers will be satisfied with the service they receive from a motivated call center agent. All center training is not mere compliance to a system; it is an essential part of development and an absolute requirement, just like computers and head sets to a call center.
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Top 5 Benefits of Courier Services in DC
Courier services are a great way to save time and money for your business, especially in a busy district like DC. So what does a courier service do for you? A courier service will provide you with door to door shipping and delivery of all your packages, letters, and other important shipments that your company needs to send or receive. Courier services can be local, regional, or even international, depending on your company’s needs. To be able to select the appropriate courier service for you, you will need to ask yourself a few simple questions. You will need to know the frequency of your shipping needs, the location that most of your packages go, and whether you commonly use such services as overnight or express shipping methods.
Typical mail service and other shipping companies may work for many types of companies, but if there is a lot of shipping between businesses located in the same area or a need for quicker service, a courier service might be the best economical choice for you company.
Why should your business use a courier service? A courier service can ship all types of packages, no matter the size. There are also convenient ways to pay for the service with automatic billing and online interfaces so that your courier service is just as streamlined as your company. Courier services will often offer delivery guarantees, insurance on shipments, and many other perks. For some services, you can easily schedule pickups to save you time. Most services also offer the options of same day, overnight and express shipping. So picking the right courier service for your needs should be easy. If you want to keep a courier service working for you, a consistent relationship with the company will guarantee that you will be saving time and money by using their service. This will benefit you as well as your customers.
You will find that your business will have great benefits from using a courier service. You will be sure that your shipments will arrive to their destinations on time. It doesn’t matter what method you choose to ship your package or letter, the courier service will delivery on time and intact. That is a better guarantee than any other shipping service or standard mail service. When you are choosing your courier service, there will also be benefits that are particular to the company that you choose. Some offer discounted rates while others give out special deals for longer service with a business. Couriers in the same area will often times have different rates, so make sure to compare those as well. Whichever you decide to choose, make sure that the courier service will work well with your company and their needs.
A courier service is a great way to stay fast and reliable to your business associates and to your customers. This way, you will stand out from your competition as a very successful business.
Jordan McPelt is a professional writer specializing in Courier Services and Washington DC Delivery. To learn more about Washington DC Courier Services, visit http://www.washingtonexpress.com
Call Center Assessment Test ,Step By Step
An assessment program is an essential tool that would help improve and organization. It is designed to identify the areas that need special attention. An expert or a professional in the field of assessment is employed to do the job. Call Center Assessment providers provide experts who have call center leadership background and understand fully the operation of the industry. He is expected to identify the specific areas that need attention and provide the organization with an expert solution.
Call center assessment could be likened to an executive medical checkup where early detection of any sign of health problem could be addressed and further problem could be prevented. So call centers health is assessed so that early detection of minor inefficiencies could be addressed and corrected. To effectively assess the call centers performance, each area in the operation is specified and reviewed and these are the following:
- Review the call center structure if and whether it supports the vision and mission of the company
- Customer Relations. The customer satisfaction is assessed through survey forms or customer feedbacks.
- Employer and employee relationships. Satisfied customers are result of good service and good service are result of satisfied employee. The satisfaction levels of employees are gauged.
- Quality assurance and performance. Quality assurance forms and reports are analyzed and study how quality data is applied. The analysis is made to improve the performance level.
- Effective coaching and supervision. Observe if coaching sessions are effective.
- Training. Analyze and identify the ways to improve the efficiency of the training program.
- Hiring and Staffing. Analyze how hiring are conducted and identify the areas which needed improvement.
- Staff Utilization. It should answer the question of having the right person on the right position all the time.
- Work Order Management. These would lead to the study of workforce management processes such as:
1. Forecasting methodology
2. Staffing and scheduling
3. Real time management practices
4. Effective workforce management team.
- Process and Information Management. Observe and analyze call handling.
- Service Level Management and KPI’s. Key Service Indicators of KPI’s shows that the SLM is properly functioning. The weak areas must be improved.
- Call Management. The call routing is observed in the following stages Site by site routing rules Menu choices Prioritization of queue Transfer volumes and protocols Skills based routing rules Technology
- Security Management. Assess the scope of security and disaster recovery (or business continuity) plan and the ability to meet objectives during a crisis. - Interaction Management. Analyze how effective customer interaction is managed
- Web Self Service. Assess how effective this esupport.
- Contact Center Management. It is the central point of contact with customers. Contact center applications are tools that will help improve the critical first impression. Customers should be given access options and alternatives, streamlining customer transactions and creating a system that would facilitate easy follow ups.
- Analysis And Reporting. How effective is the reporting system? Is the system providing the needed data for analysis?
- Technical. Is the system current and up to date? Is the system running smoothly and operating at the peak performance?
The final presentation includes recommendations and risks and input on suggested action plan. All of these is a result of several days of assessment work which is done with in the work area. Assessment identifies and at the same time recommends solution to the problems found.
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Telephone Customer Service Training
Telephone customer service training is probably the most challenging form of customer service because you do not have the luxury of body language to express yourself. You have to rely on other things than just a smile to show the customer that you are happy to be there.
We all have imagined the operator on the other end of the phone doing her nails when she claims to be processing our order. Or the call-taker who is supposed to be getting a supervisor to hear your complaint, but in actuality, is laughing with his buddy in the next cubicle about the annoying lady on line 3.
Without being able to actually see what is going on, most customers will assume the worst. That is why it falls on the employee on the phone to make the customer believe with just their voice that telephone customer service is their top priority. And the way to assure long-term customers is by making customer service training your priority.
Shaking hands
The first way to do this is to start with a clear greeting. Set the tone for the conversation right up front. The greeting is your verbal handshake.
Let customers know right from the start that you take pride in your job and telephone customer service by giving a clear and cheerful greeting, which includes your name. By including your name you have just told your customer that you are so confident with the service you offer, that you want them to spread the good word about you. You have also let them know that if there is a problem, you will follow through with a solution.
Hearing a Smile
Next, always smile while speaking (customers can hear the difference, trust me). This is imperative in your customer service training. If you need a reminder then place a note next to the computer screen or a mirror on the wall.
Whatever you have to do, it is imperative that your customer knows that you enjoy talking with them and do not find it a hardship in any way. So practice smiling while on the phone with everyone in your life either at work or at home and right away you will notice a difference in the way they treat you!
Chew, chew, chew…
Third, never,ever,ever eat or chew gum while on the phone. Ever. This is a sure fire way to let your customers know that you do not value them. It is the same as blowing a bubble in their face as they talk, or chewing with your mouth open at the table. Not only is it unprofessional it is just plain rude.
Alright team, listen up!
Lastly, always listen to them. The same way they are not able to read your body language you are not able to read theirs. You do not have the ability to look at them, so you must really listen.
This is your way of providing good eye contact. And not the kind of listening where your thinking about what you will say as soon as they stop talking. The kind of listening where they really know that they have been heard.
Avoid multi tasking while on the phone like reading, or typing on the computer, or sorting through unrelated paperwork. Just focus on your customer and really listen to their needs. Being a good listener is an art form, and once proficient at it, you are able to address customers issues with ease and effectiveness.
A Clear and Professional Goodbye
Once you are able to accomplish all of the above areas, close with a strong goodbye. It is important to send them off with a positive feeling about you and your business. Be sure to include your name and let them know that any problems should be brought back to your attention. You can even offer them a direct number, if available.
Ask them if there is anything else you can do for them … and mean it.
Telephone customer service training requires more focus and attention to detail but when you are able to master it you will find that you are better at all forms of service.
So put on a happy face and go answer that phone!
Wendy Gillett is owner of www.ExtraordinaryCustomerService.com
A full service online membership site dedicated to customer service improvement.
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