Because the business world is presently entrenched in a too-many-suppliers-chasing-too-few-spending-customers death spiral, there has been a renaissance in Business Media about Customer Service. This proves, in one fell swoop that every cloud does indeed have a silver lining. However, what is often overlooked (and what is certainly being overlooked at present) is that great customer service, like charity, begins at home.

The critical component in any Customer-centric strategy is your people, they are the point of delivery, where ‘the rubber meets the road’ as it were. So in order to make customers happy, we must first ensure our people are happy, demotivated employees make lousy brand ambassadors, highly motivated and enthused employees will provide a sustainable strategic edge (no mean feat in a world where differentials are eroded hourly). Consequently, leaders should make it their business to ensure that the troops are fed, watered and enthused.

So, assuming that we have good systems and processes in place for firing up our people, what about the customers themselves? Who are they, where are they? what do they like? what are they like? Do you have internal as well as external ones (we have written about the internal supply chain before, often hugely overlooked and a must-have component in any customer service strategy).

Much has been written about ‘under-promise and over-deliver’ and, whilst it has merits, it can be dangerous because it can lead companies to assume they know what the customer wants and assume the customer will be delighted when we exceed that expectation – this is not always the case. As a default, keep your promises, do what you said you would do, when you said you would do it and do it with the minimum of fuss and hassle to the customer – that will be enough.

So how to provide world-class customer service? Follow the 10 steps below and you will not be far off;

1. Take the customer seriously. He is always right, especially when he’s wrong! He is right about how he feels and he is right in that he can leave your premises and tell the world and his wife that you and your company suck, so – take the customer very seriously!

2. Communicate, communicate, communicate. If things have gone wrong say so. Do not lie (this is insulting and sends a message you do not want to send). It insults your customer’s intelligence. Customers understand that people make mistakes, they do not expect you to be perfect, they expect you to care when you screw up..

3. When things go wrong, do not despair, complaints are gifts. Customers are so used to flawless service now it is taken as standard. When things go wrong your responses may be the only chance you will get to show just how special you are. I will say again, A complaint is a gift – treat it as such.

4. Be available, if you cannot deal with someone immediately at least acknowledge them immediately. People do not mind waiting, what frustrates them is feeling ignored.

5. Respect – should be a given, often (in a depressingly large number of cases) isn’t.

6. Listen don’t talk. Do not assume you know what the customer wants and do not answer them from your own perspective. The solution that will work in the long-term is the solution the customer wants, not the one you do.

7. Know your stuff. It is not acceptable to be ignorant in front of a customer. All staff who are customer facing (and that includes those on telephones) must know their products and services and where and how to route a call and when (and this is so much better) to ‘own’ the problem themselves.

8. Quality and value – Both are very important, both are hugely subjective and both are determined in the customer’s brain. Taking the time and trouble to know the customer and to listen to him really pays off here. The world is full of companies giving ‘added-value-solutions’, many of them are giving added-cost-non-solutions since their interventions cost them money and if they haven’t taken the time to listen to the authentic voice of the customer, will almost always not be perceived as either quality or value because they do not address the specific problem the customer has in mind.

9. Treat as you would be treated. Courtesy, respect and appreciation are the bare minimum. Many customer service staff complain that customers do not respect them. Remember that respect, like love, has to be given away before it can be received. No customer will ever respect us until and unless we respect them first.

10. My word is my bond. Give staff the power and authority to deal with a customer’s problem. The ownership belongs with the person taking the call, they should be allowed to provide a fix. If the staff member always says “I’ll have to ask my boss” the customer will get frustrated and want to deal just with the boss. Have the faith and confidence in your staff and your products & services that you can trust them both and that you will stand behind them and back them. THEN you will have the basics for world-class customer-service and world class customers.

Source by Fred Mills

What do customers want, anyway? From my experience, most customer complaints are the result of poorly communicated expectations on the part of the company and poor or non-existent follow up. In other words, customers expected something and it was not provided when they expected it or it was not what they expected.

Meeting, let alone exceeding, customer expectations always poses a challenge because expectations are constantly in flux. They change easily, they change rapidly, and they are based upon the individual customer.

So how do you meet, let alone exceed, customer expectations? You can’t, because every customer is different. There are, however, 10 universal customer service principles that should be put into practice. How satisfied your customers are will be determined by your performance in these 10 areas.

Be accessible

Slow response and long waits are equated with an attitude of indifference toward customers. Fast response and brief waits are equated with concern for customers.

This means always ensuring agents are doing what they are supposed to be doing and when they are supposed to be doing it. This may seem like babysitting, but you have to stress the importance of the power of one and how one person has an impact on how quickly customer inquiries are answered.

All too often this explanation is not enough. To illustrate this concept in a more concrete way, incorporate the following exercise into training. When it is completed, the importance of accessibility becomes very clear.

Give each agent a ball. Each ball represents a customer. Then ask all agents to stand in a circle and start passing around the balls. Ask the agents to pass quickly and efficiently. Suddenly, remove one agent from the circle and explain that the agent has just made himself or herself unavailable. Then pull out another agent, explaining that this person stayed on break longer than allowed. Then remove another who was taking a long time making notes on a customer’s account.

During this time, the other agents are working harder to keep the balls flowing at the same speed without dropping them out of the queue.

Then pull out another agent, explaining that this person went to lunch at the wrong time. By now the balls are probably starting to drop. Explain that this exercise illustrates how much impact each agent’s actions can have on your customers. Most people think their actions will not matter, but they truly do!

Treat customers with courtesy

When working with customers, always focus on the situation or issue, not on the person. Focus on courtesy, because the issues that customers are contacting you about may not seem like a big deal to you, but to the customer the issue means a great deal.

Courtesy is the most visible way to convey respect. Excellent customer service cannot happen without a courteous environment. It is imperative that agents understand that courtesy begins with each of them!

We make a choice every day on how we feel. This translates into what attitude each of us brings to work. If your attitude is unfriendly or not helpful, you will have a negative impact on every customer you come in contact with. If your attitude is helpful and friendly, you will have a positive impact.

Be responsive to customer needs and wants

All customers want is for you to be concerned about their business and understand their issues. They want to be the center of your attention at that moment and they want the interaction they have with you to be carefree.

You should always be uplifting, but also be sensible in how you approach customers and resolve issues. Customers expect you to satisfy them, but you can also do it simply. Give customers every reason to trust you.

Say “thank you for your business” in a thoughtful way. And lastly, respect customers’ needs and wants and rectify mistakes. Learn to anticipate your customers’ needs, and you’ll be in business!

Do what the customer asks, promptly

Make sure you perform the necessary tasks to resolve customer inquiries in a timely fashion. Resolving inquiries quickly will impress customers. Don’t tell them you will get back to them, as this gives them time to look elsewhere for a better price or faster turnaround. Keep customers engaged and get them the answers they need on that first interaction.

Customers just need to know that you value them and their business. If you forget about something you were supposed to do for them, you won’t keep your customers for very long.

Provide well-trained and informed employees

The proper training of employees will set the foundation for success. Every successful training program consists of some type of curriculum-based classes that teach the fundamentals, such as the products and services offered to customers and basic customer service skills. How these classes are taught makes all the difference.

To ensure employees are properly trained and informed, create a plug-and-play curriculum-based training program. But go beyond the basics by encompassing your mission statement and core values into the program. In addition, ensure that customer service skills’ training includes topics such as building long-term customer relationships and understanding the need for a customer-centric focus. These topics will provide each employee with a better sense of purpose regarding customer satisfaction.

Also, ensure all classes are interactive and provide immediate reinforcement and feedback. Finally, provide a means by which employees can partake in some form of continuing education, whether such training is held on site by an internal staff member or a third party.

Implementing a structured and interactive training program will immediately pay dividends, as your employees will feel more prepared to handle customer interactions, and their learning curve will be significantly reduced.

Tell customers what to expect

What does it mean to set expectations with customers? It means clearly communicating everything your customers can expect to receive in response to their inquiries. They should know exactly what you are going to do to provide a resolution.

Properly setting expectations will determine the success or failure of your relationship with each customer. If customers don’t have a clear understanding of what they are getting, you’ll fail. If you provide something customers don’t want or weren’t expecting, it doesn’t matter how fantastic your work was or how quickly you got it done.

Setting expectations isn’t difficult or mysterious, but it does take time and discipline. You can’t make any assumptions, and you need to be crystal clear with customers about what they will be getting. Setting expectations is a constant communication process. The resolution may change slightly, or you might find a better way to do something. If the change is significant enough, just be sure to let customers know. Keep them informed.

Meet your commitments

Remember when a person’s word was his or her bond? For whatever reasons, that doesn’t seem as important as it did 25 years ago. But it should be. Customers expect you to do what you say you’re going to do and when you say you are going to do it. Become someone known for keeping his or her word, and for building loyalty and trust with each customer interaction.

Do it right the first time

Doing it right the first time involves making sure that all activities are carried out in the right manner the first time, and every time. Completing all services correctly the first time is not easy, but doing so can be an effective way for businesses to build loyalty and trust with their customers, which in turn will increase satisfaction and profits.

Follow up

Contact your customers after the purchase is complete, or a job is delivered, or after the issue has been resolved, and ask them what their experience was like and if they were satisfied. If they were happy with everything  great  ask for a referral. If not, try to make things right. When you build a business that will define good customer service, you are laying the foundation of a company that will also define success.

Be ethical

Customers’ expectations are influenced by many factors, and their process to select a partner can be just as complex. One of the major factors is credibility. They want to know how trustworthy and honest the service provider is.

To meet this critical factor, you have to make an effort to know customers and their needs; listen and keep customers informed in a language they understand; possess the required skills and knowledge to perform the promised service dependably and accurately; be willing to help customers and provide prompt service; and be polite, respectful, considerate, and friendly.

Implementing and evolving these 10 principles will help you gain customer loyalty, and customer loyalty will keep you in business!

Source by Kevin M Plankey

Harnessing the benefits of CRM is one of the major requisites of a business. A CRM solution will greatly help businesses to get a comprehensive view of customers requirements, needs, market insights, relationship-building tools and proper control of the sales pipeline. Many progressive startups and enterprises are deploying advanced solutions for improved customer engagement and expanded customer base. However, not all of them succeed in implementing these solutions effectively.

Often companies face a couple of issues while implementing a CRM solution, which, ultimately result in decreased productivity. Addressing this issue, here are some of the effective ways of optimising productivity of these solutions.

Make changes to Fields and Dashboards

Start a discussion with the main administrators of CRM software functioning. They can configure all the untouched fields or dashboard setups and include the areas as per their preference. This, in turn, will help you to utilise functionality of the entire system and improve productivity of the business.

List out the hidden Needs or Shortcomings

One of the promising ways is to list out the areas of improvements. It must include all the departments that will deploy the CRM and proper consultation is available for employees to use it precisely. This, in turn, will help as a future reference for ranking the list on the basis of projected costs or importance.

Customisation for CRM Improvement

Often after choosing a specific business software, organisations used to realise that it is not capable of meeting all the business needs and eliminating the shortcomings. In case, the software hosts open APIs and users can add custom features for bridging the difference. Furthermore, business owners can also approach to a CRM software development company which, might work as a cost-effective solution for them.

Data Integration

A CRM solution must offer clear benefits to both the front and back office. You must check whether the system integrates all your other business systems like accounting, finance, email marketing and sales proposal builders. Integrations with the legacy business systems will offer greater flexibility to the administrators. Furthermore, it will help users to gather diverse and robust data which, will offer deeper insights of your business.

Prepare a well-built Sales Pipeline

CRM offers faster access to data relevant to forecasting, performance and sales. While having in-depth understanding of the sales figures, businesses can plan for growth more precisely. Thus, for making the most of sales functionalities, you can develop a team of representatives, collect input and prepare a sales pipeline process which, will delineate the logical stages clearly.

With availability of a range of cloud-driven CRM solutions, it becomes critical to choose the right solution for small businesses. However, many times, choosing the right solution is not enough to improving efficiency of your business. Thus, you need to find beneficial ways of optimising its efficiency level as well.

Source by Rob Stephen