|
|
| Customer Service Tip | Skills | Information | Articles |
|
Make An Action Plan To Improve Customer Service
Customer Service is a critical factor for keeping your clients coming back and ensuring they'll refer you to others. Growing your business will be a difficult task at best if you don't perform, meet and exceed your client's expectations, and provide service that creates customers for life.
(c) - Kevin Dervin, KPD Marketing About the Author: Kevin Dervin is focused on helping small businesses that are ready to grow, but struggle with how to consistently attract more clients. Visit http://www.proven-small-business-marketing-solutions.com for more great marketing information you can put to use in growing your business today. Find Kevin's Kansas City based KPD Marketing practice at http://www.ABCDgrowth.com and subscribe to his free ezine called ABCD Grow.
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Boomerang Customers- What You Might NOT Think Brings Them Back! With all of the calendars and PDA's and lists I make I recently did a really dumb thing. I forgot my best friend's birthday and her anniversary. Both special days are back to back and I forgot both of them. After being friends for twenty years I feel old and stupid! The Logic of Emotion! Homebuyers are an interesting study. Watching people make their home buying decisions has brought me to the conclusion that every decision that every one of us makes is based in emotion. You heard me, it's all about the emotion. Before you deny what I am describing to you, let me begin with me. Passing the After-Sales Test Some time ago a major UK food retailer decided to branch out into non-foods. Well, they all do it now, but in those days it was unheard of. Alongside the fruit and vegetables, meat and tinned foods they sold refrigerators that they had purchased at very low cost from an eastern European company (these were the days when East and West Europe rarely traded with each other). These fridges were very cheap ? and they worked! The retailer passed on much of this low cost to grateful customers who purchased them in great numbers. What the retailer didn't consider was that fridges ? unlike tins of beans ? occasionally need spare parts. They sometimes breakdown or are damaged. What the retailer forgot was AFTER SALES. It was entirely understandable the customers would make the assumption that the retailer would have this in hand. Trouble is, they didn't. The parts - and the engineers who knew who to fit them - were in Poland. So, to many customers, what seemed like a bargain turned out to be a problem. This retailer is now very successfully selling non-food goods alongside food products and I am sure they did the decent thing by refunding their disgruntled fridge customers of many years ago. Not all companies are so good with their customers. Some will sell products as a one-off transaction and will not be interested in what happens from the moment the product has been sold. "We don't do repairs and we don't sell spare parts. Contact the manufacturer." This is not a lot of good if you live in the U.S. and the manufacturer is in Shanghai, for example. Of course, some products and are not designed to be repaired or refurbished. The manufacturers simply expect them to be thrown away at the end of their life, even if that life is relatively short. An example is the microwave oven. Who fixes yours? Nobody, I suspect. They are usually repairable, but rarely is one ever repaired. No, they just end up in landfill alongside many other goods that are also thrown away rather than "made good". No wonder many countries around the world are introducing legislation to limit the extent to which such goods can be tossed away so casually. So, next time you are considering a purchase, especially the purchase of an expensive product or a mechanical product, consider the following tests: 1. Is it built to last? 2. Does it come with a guarantee? 3. Is there evidence of the product's durability? 4. Is it designed to be repaired? 5. Are spare parts available? Remember also, that repair is better for the environment than replacement. Of course, old products do need to be replaced eventually, but why replace prematurely just because you have purchased a product that failed the tests above? One group of products that pass these tests with flying colors is Insect-o-Cutor Fly Killers. Have a look at www.flykiller.net and you will see them there. Let's put them to the above tests: 1. Insectocutor Fly Killers are made of steel. Their solid construction is one of their best selling points. 2. They come with a 5-year guarantee 3. Go to any restaurant or commercial kitchen and you will see Insectocutor fly killers that have been there for 20 years ? and still going strong! 4. Insectocutor fly killers are constructed in a logical way making repairs straightforward. Insectocutor also provides support for repairs. 5. Insect-o-Cutor sells a range of spare parts for all of their fly killers ? even for models that are no longer in production. And their best UK distributor, Arkay Hygiene ? at www.eeeee.co.uk - is always happy to provide these spares as well as replacement u.v. lamps and glueboards After sales is just as much about the customer as it is about the product. Making a sale is not the end, it is just the beginning. Insect-o-cutor is a good example of a company that demonstrates its concern for it customers through the long-term support offered for its range of products. Just think on that one when you are next down the municipal dump with your broken down microwave! Basic Levels of Consumer Integrity that Presently Permeates Society Reality is not always pretty. But here is a tad bit of it for you today. Well here is an interesting occurrence that is of interest. And this is in any town middle class USA, mixed races neighborhood, the person in question happened to be white. While standing in line a counter for my turn to order and pay. A lady was talking to what could have been her daughter (teenager) and with her was a young child about 3 or 4, who carried a doll and was messing around with whatever was at her level she could reach. So this little girl picks up a candy cane with a Santa on top, a small doll about the size of a Silver dollar. While her mother is watching her, she breaks the candy cane in two and rips the head off of the Santa. Her mom, Paula, says "oh, oh" and takes the object (broken candy cane and mutilated Santa) from the little girl and pushes it out of the way from the clerk who is now ready to take the mom's order. The Sellers Creed I will not make sales. I will make Customers. Aint We Wonderful! It may come as a surprise to you to discover that customers don't buy your products or services because they feel that you have a right to make a profit. In other words, their motive for doing business with you is not to help you buy the latest Jaguar or put your children through college. You think this is a joke? Recent research shows that something like 60% of businesspeople place more importance on what they will get from a transaction than on what their customers will benefit. Breaking the Ice and Winning Over the Client! Wherever you turn these days you'll find articles covering every business strategy and tactic available to man, from how to make a great presentation to strategies for success all the way to negotiations and prospecting and getting a client to commit. But hardly anyone touches on the subject of breaking the ice with a new client and winning them over. The Importance of Good Customer Service Do you have good customer service? Even for your free giveaways? How to Transform Your Voicemail into an Effective Medium of Communication "Hi this is Randy. Leave me a message after the beep and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks and have a great day." Improving Customer Service Improving customer service starts at the top - with us owners and managers. We need to be living pictures of how we want our staff to treat customers. Having 10 plus years operating, owning and working in the food business and being a customer myself, I know what good customer service looks like. If I don't place a high value on the best customer service possible, then my staff won't make it a priority either. When the Customer Demands: Give a Discount or Lose the Order Periodically every sales person encounters the customer who refuses to buy unless they receive a discount. Sometimes this is driven by the organization's culture or the buyer wanting to look good to their boss and sometimes it is simply the mindset of the individual buyer them self. To some people price satisfaction and their perception of value, is not about the actual amount paid as much as it is their sense that they have negotiated the price down from a higher starting point, thereby obtaining a "better deal." A case in point is the retail consumer who will only buy items that are "on sale," even if the sale price is really no lower than the everyday price at a competitor. Your Number One Asset Customers put you in business, keep you in business, and they can put you out of business. Therefore, your overriding feelings at all times should be: customer love, customer satisfaction, and customer convenience. Listening to Customers - 5 Tips In a strange juxtapositioning of articles, this month's UK 'Management Today' has three pieces, relating to the importance of listening to customers. 5 Ways Customer Service Managers are Implementing to Increase Customer Focus According to a Forum Corporation survey of commercial customers lost by 14 major service and manufacturing companies: Have You Hugged a Customer Today? It all started a couple of weeks ago when a friend asked me if I could scan and print some of her slides. No problem, I said. Accountability The Call Center world is an intense pressure-driven environment continually being shaped by pressure to ensure steady profitability and a secure competitive advantage. Responding to Complaints It's possible that in the course of your business dealings, you may (just may) have to deal with a complaint from a customer or client .... Adjustment DENIED It's just a simple thing ? I bought a new set of shelves for my office. It wasn't a real problem, but when I got the shelves home, I found dents on the front of the shelves where the package had been leaned up on some other object, the shelves had been removed from the original box and put into another box. The dents didn't affect the way the shelves worked, but it did affect the way they looked. Normally, I might have overlooked the problem, and just used them anyway, but I felt I had paid full price for the shelves and deserved a discounted price, so I mentioned it to the store manager the next time I was in the store. Doors by Catering to Your Clients Clients? they are the most important influence in the success of any business. It is vital to keep them satisfied and happy. To Complain and Win! - My Personal Recipe Prime directive: Make sure your claim is reasonable! Otherwise, forget it.
|
|
|
| Home | Site Map | Salesmanship Ebook | Motivational Ebook | Job and Resume Posting| Affiliate program | |
กก |
| 2006 All Rights Reserved. by Mp.sg Term of use and service for the articles and information |