Customer Service Ideas

[pitzerwm]

I know that we all know this, but have we practiced it and do we take the time to train our employees.


When handling complaints, employees can win customers’ loyalty by following these six steps:

• Listen carefully and with interest to what the customer has to say. Don’t get defensive, either with your words or your body language. Remember that the customer is not attacking you personally; he is merely describing the problem and hoping you can solve it. Also, don’t let the conversation wander. The goal is to solve one specific problem, not to find more problems.
• Put yourself in the customer’s place. Make responses that show you care about the customer’s problem. You might say, “I don’t blame you for being upset.” When you show empathy for a customer’s situation, you defuse the situation and have a calming influence on the customer. Never directly challenge the customer. Even if the customer is wrong and you’re right, don’t attempt to prove it. The goal is to solve the problem, not debate who is at fault.
• Ask questions in a caring, concerned manner. The more information you have, the better armed you will be to solve the problem to the customer’s satisfaction.
• Suggest one or more alternatives to address the customer’s concerns. Ask the customer what she feels would be an appropriate solution. Then make some suggestions on your own. Become a partner with the customer in solving the problem.
• Apologize without blaming. Nothing defuses a potentially volatile situation better than a sincere apology. When a customer sees—and hears—that you are sorry for the problem he is experiencing, he will respond in a like manner. Don’t participate in fault-finding. It doesn’t help anyone to shift the blame to another person or department.
• Solve the problem or find someone who can solve it. When complaints are solved quickly, it saves the organization money because, every time a complaint is moved up the ladder, it becomes more expensive to handle. Solve the problem and then work with the organization to make sure it doesn’t occur again.

Compliments to John Tschohl http://www.autocareforum.com/johnthm.html

 

[MEP001]

These shouldn't be "ideas," they should be "standards." I for one can't stand when a company's employee goes off on a fault-finding mission.

 

[pitzerwm]

Words and why we should think about problems and responses before they happen

The power of words. It's true, some words excite while other words incite. I would much rather excite people I talk with than incite them. Wouldn't you? The wrong words can destroy trust, increase fear, create bitterness, tear down morale, reduce creativity and productivity, drive a wedge between colleagues, friends, and family ?and push customers away.

• The HMO member, who'd phoned the emergency line two hours earlier in pain, hears this from the nurse returning the call: "Sir, we have up to 4 hours to get back to you."
• At a noisy fast-food place, the customer seeks to clarify the price by repeating the amount back to the counter person who then snaps, "That's what I said."
• Teen son comes to dad to express difficult words?especially for teenagers: "I'm sorry, Dad." Father retorts: "Well, maybe next time you'll know better."
• The hostess is asked by the patient patron, who's waited half an hour to be seated, "When will our table be ready?" The response? "We did give you a pager, didn't we?"
• An electronics store customer, angry over the slow repair of his one-week-old laptop, gets the technical dep't manager on the phone and is greeted with, "Yeah, what's up?"
• The spouse reacts to the mate with: "You never .... !" and "You always ... !" (It's pretty darn rare that any of us ALWAYS or NEVER do something.)
• The customer, when finally getting an airline rep on the phone, vents about the just-endured 33 minute hold time and is told, "We're busy."
• An insurance agent tells a policyholder, who didn't report a fender-bender immediately, "I'd better come sit down with you and your wife again to go over the rules."

As a salesperson hired in 1986 by a "word master" who became my mentor?Jim Strutton of Atlanta, GA?I was taught the power of words. And the power of using the right words. Trained to cold call senior executives by phone to secure face-to-face appointments so as to offer their firm leadership training, I was taught to never ask for an "appointment." Why? Because we have appointments with our dentist, our doctor, our banker, and our attorney. Who wants another appointment?! The words "visit" or "get together" are far less painful. Thanks to those more palatable words, I was able to persuade many a prospect to swallow a meeting with me.
It was 1970 (yeah, I know, pre-indoor plumbing!) when Mrs. Ross, my 6th grade teacher, reprimanded all the boys in the class for bad behavior. Stunned at the unfairness of it all, it was just too much for this 12-year-old to take, I decided to speak up?pretty much without thinking. My chosen words?
"And what do you think the girls are, little angels that just floated down from Heaven?!?!"
[FONT=&quot]Uh oh.[/FONT]