Archives for "Customer Service"
Guarantees Turn Up the Pressure
Guarantees attract customers, but companies should also offer them to improve the organization. Guarantees force an organization to reexamine all its assumptions about how it does business. If a company promises one-day delivery, for example, every impediment to the delivery process is highlighted and can be examined and removed.
5 Tips on Handling Customer Calls
Leaving customers on hold. Transferring a call to the wrong department. Failing to pick up a call until at least five rings. These are common telephone offenses in many companies. But the number one complaint is rudeness of employees dealing with customer calls, often leading to loss of sales. If you think your company is suffering from employee rudeness, follow these tips:
1. Smile. The callers will not see your grin, but they will hear it through your enthusiasm and tone of voice.
2. Be friendly before you know who it is. You only have four to six seconds to make a good phone impression. Don’t blow it by answering the phone with an unenthusiastic tone of voice.
3. Be prepared before the phone rings. Have pen and paper on hand. The caller’s frustration will increase two-fold is he or she is forced to wait.
4. Don’t be too busy to be nice. Learn to handle your workload. A hectic day doesn’t give you an excuse to be rude. Chances are the person you’re talking to is just as busy.
5. Avoid jargon. Don’t assume that your caller understands company lingo. Such phrases will intimidate your customer and foster insecurity.
The Phone, Fax and E-mail Connection
A company’s phone and fax numbers together with support e-mail address should be printed on everything it produces – from order forms to every product and/or packaging that goes out the door. This gives the customer an easy way to find out how to get more of the product – or to get quick service.
The Lifetime Value of A Customer
Next time you catch yourself arguing with a customer and you’re sorely tempted to tell him that you don’t need his business, we suggests that you do this first:
1. Add up all the purchases the customer makes from you in one year, say — $1,000
2. Total your profit on those purchases, say — $400
3. Multiply the total by the number of years the customer is likely to be buying from you, say — 5 years
4. The result is what your business would lose if you lose that customer — $20,000
So is it really worth winning the argument and losing that customer? Before you argue him down, consider his lifetime value to you!
Made by Symmetric Web
Distributed by Smashing Magazine