This self-study manual saves you money and helps your employees improve their customer service skills faster Do you want to improve customer service in your organization? This customer service training manual will help you attract and keep more customers by helping you raise the quality and consistency of customer service across your team. It’s full of tools, tips and tactics your team can use to deliver excellent customer service to every customer every time. This self-paced customer service training guide was created to offer an affordable and convenient way for teams like yours to improve their customer service skills without [...]
improve customer service
Companies like Google, Yelp, UrbanSpoon, CitySearch and many others have made it easy and convenient for customers to share their thoughts with the world. And they’re not just talking about what they had for breakfast. They’re telling the world what they think of YOUR BUSINESS. Smart companies are using these online reviews to attract and keep more customers. Here are ten ways you can use Web 2.0 tactics to turn online reviews into more customers who keep coming back. 1. Respond to every review Like emails and voice mails, online reviews are easy to ignore. Especially the icky ones. But [...]
There are substantial benefits for companies that improve their customer service. The good news is you don’t need to spend a lot of money to start making improvements in your customer service. You can make customer service improvements starting today. Here are some specific suggestions to get you started. 1. Improve People Skills To deliver Amazing Service, people skills count. So a fast and high return way to improve customer service is to find ways to improve your team’s people skills. This might include bringing in a speaker or trainer. It could mean focusing on people skills topics at staff [...]
Over the past few decades we have seen technology replace more and more people as we buy and use the things that keep us going. From the ubiquitous self-service gas station to self-service check-in at airports, we have more opportunities than ever to deal with machines rather than people. Is this good for customer service? Or maybe a better way to put it is: Does this help customers get what they want better, faster or cheaper? At Smarter Travel, Carl Unger writes about this trend in the travel business. He cites a survey that suggests 70% of airline customers want [...]
Earlier this year I had a lengthy interaction with my mobile phone company. After too many conversations I finally got the best price I could on a new phone. I was pleased! But my pleasure didn’t last long. Because there was one, tiny little problem. My new phone sucked. Sorry for the course language but I like to be clear. And that is as clear as I can be about that phone (the Samsung Highlight). Since this blog post is not a product review I won’t go into the details. But, understand, I hated that phone. The problem was (or [...]
The headline of this post comes from a blog post by my friend Brian Carroll. His post describes a conversation he had with a client where they discussed how lead generation often ignores current customers. As a result of the discussion, one CEO decided his company would begin focusing more on current customers. He even referred to their new focus as their “Customers First Plan”. The outcome of their new-found focus on existing customers was revealing. They increased revenue from current customers by 15%. Even better, their referrals jumped over 100%. As they focused more on existing customers, they no [...]
It seems natural customer loyalty would follow good service. If you get what you want and you are treated right, why would you not return to a business? But sometimes it’s useful to have more than an intuitive argument. So I have done a bit of research and I have found two statistics that tell me there is a clear link connecting customer service and customer loyalty. They also suggest some substantial benefits from improving customer service. The first is a well-known number. It comes to us from the American Society of Quality Control (as best I can determine). According [...]
Every business exists to help people accomplish something. If we fail at that then our business will not be sustainable. But to help our customers really get what they want, we need to know what that is. We do that by having conversations with them. Ask questions and listen to the answers. Get in the habit of talking with your customers at natural points of contact. And do it frequently. Once a year is not enough. When you ask your customers what they want, how you’re doing and how you can improve, they will give you a goldmine of information. [...]
