The Long, Stressful Christmas Shopping Lineup

At some point during the Christmas and holiday season, we all are going to experience a long line. No one really likes a long lineup, but there are some ways companies can make it a more tolerable situation. 

The most important thing for staff to do, is to smile at the customer and not look frustrated with the long line. A simple smile can do wonders, as often customers are greeted by non-smiling staff, who almost look annoyed at the long line. Now smiles are great but there is much more that can be done to deal with peak business times. It will very important to have all staff help out with the rush, and put aside non-essential duties, until its less busy. Customers will hate seeing some staff just stocking shelves or doing some other non-essential task, while they wait in a long lineup. Also, the worst thing that could happen is if there are staff just standing around chatting, this would cause huge customer frustration.

Another important step will be to keep the conversations between staff and customers short, in the interest of reducing the lineup. Now that does not mean being rude, but it does mean not asking a lot of open ended questions to get the customer talking. Its perfectly fine, to generate small talk during non-busy times, as this does build a good relationship between the company and the customer. In addition, everybody in the lineup will appreciate the staff keeping conversations short with other customers in the interest of trying to keep the line moving at good pace.

Now during peak business times, it will be very important to ensure all staff take breaks, to ensure they do not burn out, and start to show their stress. These breaks will refresh the staff and ensure they are more prepared to deal with this stressful and busy time of year. Staff breaks are even more important during busy times, as stress can build up, and can really affect staff by causing them to have a short temper and look frustrated. We all know everybody deals with stress differently, but breaks can help staff to avoid projecting that stress to customers. One more point is to have supervisors ensure the staff actually take their breaks, as sometimes when its busy people can forget their break time.

The holiday season is a very busy time, but these tips can help your company any time of the year, when there is a big influx of customers all at once. Keeping customers smiling can be tough during busy times, but managing staff stress, can help to reduce customer frustration, which is good for everybody.

Create Word Of Mouth Champions To Grow Your Business

Does your company create word of mouth champions? A word of mouth champion is someone who champions your business and is very loyal because of your amazing customer service delivery, and quality product or service. These customers will promote and defend your company, because of the emotional bond they have with the company. They will be champions of the company, which is clearly good for business.


In addition to the company marketing efforts, you will gain many referrals from these loyal customers. These champions will also make it harder for the competition to compete because amazing customer service is rare, so now the competition will have to compete using other tools, such as price. This is a crucial point, as price is very easy to compete on, but superior customer service is not so easy for other  companies to duplicate. They would have to create new training programs, which takes time and money. Most companies will choose to compete on price, because its easier and cheaper. 


Now the key is how  to have your company create these word of mouth champions. The company will need to deliver exceptional customer service that really surprises the customer. This will not be easy, but can be achieved through a strong training program for all staff. Also, the company will need to recruit the right staff with great attitudes. The old saying, hire for attitude, train for  skill  is very true when it comes to creating a superior customer service culture within a company. In addition to the training and hiring, the staff will need to be given the proper authority and power to solve most issues. Having this needed authority will save the customer time, because then the staff do not have to consult the manager for every issue.


One way to create content  for the training is to study several successful companies, who consistently deliver great service, and find some basic ideas that can be implemented into your business.  Then you could put a few of these company success stories together, so staff could read and understand some success principles. The main thing is to have staff learn and remember the essence of what superior customer service is all about. Also, these stories will often be easier to remember than page after page of training materials and often will be more useful.


However, basic ideas still need to be put into the training program. One such principle, is to always have staff be solution oriented towards customers. Customers do not want to hear, that this is against policy, they would rather hear, "I will work on this issue for you and get it resolved" . Customers want solutions to problems, not staff just repeating company rules, that state this problem can not be solved.The training program could also focus on scenario based customer service examples, to allow staff to be creative in their solutions to deliver great customer service.  This will help staff develop creative solution ideas and create the habit of superior service.  


This training and hiring process will, over time produce many word of mouth champions, which will cause the business to become more profitable and will produce many smiling customers.

Secret of Customer Service

The secret to great customer service is really no great mystery at all, its just so rare, that  you would think that  there must be some great hidden mystery. It would seem like there are some  hidden steps, because  you will go to some companies and receive amazing service, but then go to many more businesses and receive very poor service. This would lead you to believe that there must be some concealed steps  to great customer service or else this would be delivered by all companies.


Perhaps the secret to great customer service is so obvious, that it is often overlooked by employers and employees. The great secret is: Treat a customer like how you would like to be treated. This simple yet hard to implement concept will transform your customer service into a happy and loyal customer creation machine. Most people will want to be treated with respect and receive attentive, helpful customer service. Just imagine how happy and loyal customers would be if staff could be trained to deliver this kind of quality service.


Now of course this is a simple concept, but its very difficult for most companies to implement into their training programs. Most staff just want to get through the day, and just get home. The employees are thinking more about themselves, than about actually trying to help out customers. You can see this attitude everywhere, just look for it when you go shopping. See what happens  when you go into a store just before closing time, you can often  see the look of horror in the faces of the staff, as they are thinking they might have to stay later. 


So how can companies reveal the secret of customer service to their staff? The most important aspect will be to hire staff with the right attitude and then train them in the ways of superior customer service. There will need to be a constant emphasis on remembering to treat others as you would like to be treated. This is where role playing can play a crucial role, to have staff play out various scenarios to show them the correct way to handle various situations. Have employees remember when they received great service, and let them describe the situation, so everybody can learn. Also staff can list the ways they expect to be treated as customers, and then  encourage them to deliver that kind of customer service.


Once the training is finished, then its time  for staff to practice what they have learned. This is where quality monitoring will be important to ensure, they are following the training and delivering amazing service. Monitoring and encouraging the staff will pay off in a big way, as the staff will develop the habit of delivering superior customer service. Once the staff implement this secret, you will have many loyal and happy customers

Winning Steps to Customer Service Recovery

Every company will occasionally deliver bad  service.  The real issue is, how is the company going to recover from this bad customer service experience? The customer will be irate and upset over having experienced bad service, and may never want to come back to this company. Also the customer will spread negative word of mouth to everyone they know, which is obviously not good. So how does a company try to satisfy the customer, when they have just had or are still experiencing horrible  service?


The most important issue, will be to properly detect when a customer is experiencing bad service, and then go to the customer right away. This is where you would need to ask some questions to ensure you understand what the exact issue is so  that it can be properly corrected, based on the customer feedback. This is the time where it is very important to listen  intently, to show empathy and to make sure you fully understand the service issue.


For example, if you notice an unhappy restaurant customer and find out  they  just received a cold meal, the first issue, would be to take that dish back and then have another meal  promptly cooked and brought  back out. The most pressing issue is to always solve the immediate service issue, then ensure the customer is happy with the resolution.


Once the immediate issue is resolved, then actions need to be taken to ensure the customer is happy, and will want to come back to the business. The customer needs to be assured that this issue will be corrected for the future, and that management will take their  feedback seriously. If the customer provides contact info, a followup call can be made to let them know what actions have been taken to correct the issue. This will assure the customer that the company took their feedback seriously. 


When it comes time for the customer to pay, this is where the manager provides  tangible evidence that they are serious about wanting to keep the customer happy. The manager  would provide a substantial discount  on the bill, as a token of goodwill. This would show the customer, that the company is really serious about wanting to keep their business and are really sorry for the poor service they experienced. Bad  service happens sometimes, but if the company solves the issue well, they will gain a very loyal customer, which is great for business.

What is the Cost of Bad Customer Service ?

Everyone knows the value of great customer service, but do we know the cost of bad customer service. Customer service that is horrible can cost a company in so many ways, which  reduces company revenue.


The most obvious is the loss of the current customer, but what can be even more costly is when the customer experiences bad service, they are going to tell everyone they know. So now you have negative word of mouth, which prevents a lot of potential customers from trying your product or service. This is clearly not good for business, so it should be avoided. Also the company would lose customer referrals, which adds up to a lot of money, over the lifetime of the customer. Indeed the loss of customer referrals, not only means the loss of revenue, but now the company is forced to spend more money to attract new customers.


When you add up the costs of losing the current customer, losing customer referrals, and losing potential customers due to negative word of mouth, you can see the high cost of bad customer service. Also do not forget, that the marketing budget will now have to be increased to find new customers, to replace all those lost customers. The costs will keeping adding up, if there is no strategy in place to ensure exceptional customer customer service is delivered to customers.


Clearly , companies will need to have a good strategy for implementing exceptional customer service, to avoid the high cost of bad customer service. This strategy will need to include a customer referral plan and have exceptional customer service guidelines, which would need to be monitored to ensure proper implementation. Once this strategy is implemented, it will lower marketing costs and increase company revenue. The true cost of bad customer service is so high, how can any company really afford not to implement an exceptional customer service plan to avoid the high cost of bad customer service.

Rewarding and Motivating Staff

Rewarding staff is a great way to keep them motivated and wanting to provide great customer service. Rewarding staff keeps their motivation high, which motivates them to provide great customer service. The goal would be to create a company culture that is known for providing superior customer service. This would allow the company to create a unique selling position, that would be hard for other companies to duplicate. This way the company can compete on something other than simply just price, which now makes it harder for the competition. . 


The rewards I am talking about are much more than just paying a fair wage. Though good wages can attract and keep staff, I am talking about rewards above and beyond the wages. Its good to get creative, and find out what would be some of the best rewards you could give the employees. The rewards keep staff happy, and motivate employees to provide the best customer service. For example. you hear of how an employee went above and beyond to help a customer and solve their issue. You would then reward this action, as this would send a message to other staff to deliver great customer service all the time.


Have a consistent and transparent rewards program, so that staff will view it as fair. The reward program should be based on objective monitoring and have objective criteria to gauge the level of customer service that is to be delivered to the customer. The criteria  needs to be very visible and known to all staff, so that it is perceived as a fair program, that rewards great customer service. 


This would begin with implementing the reward criteria into the training program. Staff would need to know that they would be expected to provide  superior customer service and that they would be monitored, to ensure this is implemented correctly.  Staff need to be fully aware of the reward criteria which would ensure they are motivated to provide great service. This training and monitoring would help to create a company culture of providing great customer service. Once the company becomes known for its great customer service, this would attract a lot of customers, which is clearly good for business.

Customer Win Back Program

Every business will lose some customers. The challenge is  to win  back those lost customers which can take a lot of money and hard work, but this will increase the customer base. Most companies do not have a customer win back program, but a company should have one, as it can help retain customers. Now the customer win back program does assume that you have a way of capturing customer information, so that a phone call can be done.


Not all companies are well suited to customer databases, such as a fast food restaurant, but most businesses can  and should have a customer database to capture customer information. This database  will allow you  to keep track as to when you are losing customers, and put those lost customers in a list form so that you can contact them with the win back program. Aside from  emails and letters,  I will focus on the people aspect of the win back program. 


You will need to have a team of highly trained customer service professionals to call these customers back and try to win them back as customers. The staff will need a fair bit of training before they call these customers back and attempt to win them back as customers. When training the customer win back team, it will be important to teach some sales skills to show staff how to convince customers to come back to the company.


The training will need to begin with proper questioning skills being taught, such as open ended and probing questions, to learn the real reason why the company lost the customer. These questions will also get the customer talking,  which allows them to reveal valuable information about why they are no longer a customer.  Now when the customer does begin to talk,  this is where strong listening skills need to be practiced. This needs to be emphasized as this will be needed to allow the customer to vent any anger about the company and gives staff time to show they really do care. Once the customer gives us the reason why they left, the staff need to work on that issue so that it can be resolved and then win the customer back.


There also needs to be a good win back  promotion to offer the customer as a  thank you, for giving the company another try.  Once the customer has decided to become a customer again,  followup with the customer to ensure they are still happy with the company. Once the customer is retained, the company can now use exceptional customer service to keep this customer smiling, so they never lose this customer.

Exceptional Customer Service

Exceptional customer service always gets noticed. Its great for customers and businesses alike. Companies often talk about wanting to give great service, but often fall short of actually providing great front line customer service. Sure you can ask for the supervisor, and often will get your issue resolved, but this can waste a lot of time. Why can  we not have the front line staff trained to think outside the box, and provide exceptional customer service. 


When a customer calls the customer service line with an unusual problem, they can be in for some  trouble.when trying to get the issue resolved. The agent will often just say, that is not possible, and its against our procedures. There is no outside the box thinking being done here, just staff following a set of rules, that will produce customer frustration. The customer just wants the issue resolved and is willing to take the time to work with the company to get it resolved.


Customers often will know that their request is unusual, and are willing to be patient as long as the company is willing to help. Customers will not be happy about having to fight with the front line staff and then the supervisor, just to resolve their issue. Customers are the reason the company is still in business, so they should try to make problem solving as easy as possible for the customer. 


Companies need to train employees to be solution oriented, so they can look for solutions to  problems, instead of reasons why the request can not be done. Aside from giving staff preset power and money limits to solve issues, staff need to be fully aware of who in the company they can ask to help solve an unusual customer issue. A company contact list could be provided to the staff, so that if they need to contact someone in a different department to help out a customer, it would be possible. This way the whole company can work together and be available to assist customers.


When front line staff can solve unusual customer issues, it saves the customer from having to talk to a lot of different people to get issues resolved. This way the customer has one person they are  dealing with, and do not have to keep repeating the request. Once staff know who are the company contacts that can help out with unique customer problems, they will be able to offer more solutions to those unusual requests.


The proper training will give staff the confidence to handle almost any request from the customer.  One stop problem solving will be great for customers, as it will save them time and produce happy customers. Companies will strongly benefit from this exceptional customer service, by producing many word of mouth champions. In a world where there is a lack of exceptional customer service, make your company stand above the competition with one stop problem solving.

The Occupy Movement and Corporations

No doubt you have read or seen news on the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Well the occupy movement has spread to cities around the globe, with no end in sight. Corporations need to take  notice of how this movement will change their operations.  Years ago there was the environmental movement, which caused companies to go green, well in the same way this movement has the real potential to change the way big businesses run their companies.  


Companies now have a chance to get ahead of everyone else and make some changes for the better.  People everywhere are tired of seeing CEO and shareholders  alike, make huge money, while they make a low wage. Corporations get a lot of bad press, and often with good reason. They sometimes pay as low a wage as they can, which can cause employee stress and reduce the level of customer service. They often  think profit first then customers and employees. Both customers and employees then lose out. They are often more concerned about their shareholders, than doing what is best for the local community and employees.


For example, many companies have outsourced their production plants overseas, to save a pile of money. Sure the company saves money, by paying low wages overseas, but the local community suffers. The community loses quality jobs, which can have a very negative affect around the community. You now have unemployed people in the community, who could be depressed, and now rely on social programs to survive. Some companies will cut jobs, just so they can get a better return for their shareholders. However, if the company has a smaller profit and keeps those jobs, it benefits the community as a whole. You would have less unemployment and a more positive community atmosphere. Also when companies  keep employees, this will benefit customers by having more staff around, who are ready to help them, which is great for customer service.


Companies could make it known that they will or have made changes in response to the occupy revolution, and be ahead of other companies. If the company starts paying fair wages, and works on keeping jobs, they will develop a great reputation as a place to work. This reputation will allow the company to attract  top employee prospects,  which is good for  business. Great employees will provide great customer service. 


Now what if corporations could live with less profit for their shareholders and make some real positive changes. This would generate enormous goodwill from  the employees and customers. Employees would be more likely to develop long lasting beneficial relationships with their customers, which is great for business. Also the whole community benefits by having less unemployment, and having workers who have higher incomes. Corporate change will produce smiles for both customers and employees, and then the whole community benefits 

Customer Loyalty

Customer Loyalty is great for business and creates smiling customers. Sadly many businesses say they love their customers, but will often treat new customers better than old customers. This leaves the long term customer with a very bad impression of the business, which is not good. Loyal customers are vital to every business and can bring in a lot of repeat business and they will often refer their friends to the business. Companies need to rethink how they can reward customers in unexpected and surprising ways.


It will be the front line staff who will be vital to increasing customer loyalty. They are the ones who are the first point of contact between the company and the customer. They are the face of the company. Now aside from the more formal company procedures to reward customer loyalty, it will be the front line staff who will be crucial to the loyalty process. They get to know their customers, and are often in the best position to decide how best to reward customers. Some customers like discounts, some special promos, or they want to increase their current  product or service for free. Each customer can have different ideas about how they want to be rewarded for their loyalty.


The point is that staff need to recognize loyal customers and be prepared to reward them on the spot. Yes , I know companies often have well organized loyalty programs, but sometimes customers fall through the cracks of these programs. Also what if the customer does not want to wait the full two years to get their special loyalty gift ? This is where the front line staff could offer an unexpected loyalty gift, and surprise the customer with this gift.


Unexpected reward gifts are great because the customer does not expect them, and they did not have to fight with supervisors or managers to get a small loyalty gift. This will show the customer, that the business really does appreciate their patronage. Can you imagine how surprised the customer will  be, when the front line staff can reward them immediately, without them  having to ask for a gift or discount.


It will take time to train staff on how to reward customers and recognize loyalty. However, this loyal customer training will bring long term benefits to both the business and customer. Staff training will increase customer retention and create a lot of happy customers. We all know how much it costs to gain new customers, so retaining customers is simply good business.


Common sense will often be the biggest factor, when staff reward customers. They will need  to listen more and should be able identify loyal customers. When the staff are interacting with customers, they will need to be trained on how to identify a loyal customer. Also, every business will have different customer clues on how to recognize loyal customers. The point is, that each business needs  to produce training materials appropriate for that business. Then staff can be trained correctly on how to identify and reward loyal customers for that business.


Customer loyalty is built over time, and as customers develop a positive relationship with the business, the company will notice a growing customer base. Proper loyalty training for staff will be the key to increasing customer retention and loyalty. This growing customer base will produce many smiling customers, and is great for business.

Hire For Attitude

Happy staff can either be the biggest asset or biggest detriment to great customer service. Happy staff are great for customers and staff alike. Great staff can also help keep employees from leaving, because its a good place to work. Happy, smiling staff come from having people with great attitudes. A bad attitude will show up in all kinds of ways. How often do you walk in to a store, and you can just tell the staff are not really that interested in providing great customer service. Sure they have all the product knowledge and sales training, but lack a real caring attitude towards customers.


Walk through the mall about ten minutes or so before closing time, and you will see how many stores have begun to close their doors. When you see this, it just screams, please do not come in to our store, we really just want to go home soon. The staff will stay open until they have to, but they will not be be very happy when a customer comes in just before closing time. That poor attitude will show, and the customers can sense they do not really want their business. What if the door is left wide open, with the staff smiling when you come in ?  The customer will then feel welcomed and is more likely to be a repeat customer.


What about the customer who calls a call center two minutes before it closes ?  Will the staff really want to give the best customer service, or will they just do the basics so they can get the customer off the phone fast. The staff are often thinking more about their after work plans, than actually wanting to help the customer. Can you imagine how good it would be for customers and businesses alike, if  the customers did not feel rushed during their transactions and felt wanted as a customer.  


Great business customer service begins with the hiring process. The selection process should focus on attitude, then knowledge. You can train for knowledge, but hire for attitude. Clearly references will  be very important to ensure the prospect has demonstrated prior great customer service attitude. Also during the interview process, some questions could focus on prior customer service experience and how they dealt with past customer service challenges.


Once staff are hired and trained, they do need to be monitored to ensure they continue with great attitudes. After awhile, the staff will develop the habit of great customer service, and that is good for everyone. Employees with great attitudes mean less employee turnover, which saves money. Also companies should consider paying above basic entry level wages which can help attract and keep the staff. If the wages and staff atmosphere were better, that would motivate and maintain staff. Once your company gets a great reputation as a place to work, you will be able to attract and maintain all kinds of great staff. Also customers will start to see and hear familiar employees, and will feel more comfortable. Once customers are more comfortable with the business, that can be great for the customer and business. Great staff attitude will produce winning results for business, and create many smiling customers.

Handling Difficult Customers

It can be a challenge to smile with some customers. Customer service jobs are some of the most stressful jobs in the world. If you are dealing with pleasant customers all day, then the job is good. However the reality is that you will have plenty of customer conflicts, which can be very stressful. Most customer interactions are pleasant, but it just takes a few bad interactions a day, to cause stress. If the staff have no training for conflict resolution, they will go home full of stress. Staff who have a lot of stress are not good for customers or business.

While you can not eliminate all stress from these jobs, there are ways to reduce stress. The number one reason that these customer conflicts are so stressful, is that we do not have a lot of practice handling these conflicts in a correct way. The staff need to be trained and be given the tools to better deal with the conflict. One of the first things to do is to give staff a preset power or dollar amount so they can solve most customer issues. Then staff can be trained in some basic steps in conflict resolution. Below are some conflict resolution training tips.

Do not say , "Calm down"  to the customer, that is like pouring gas on a fire. This can further enrage the customer. Empathy needs to be shown to the customer. You need to be able to listen and understand the emotional language of the conversation to see how important the issue is to the customer.

(Example)   A customer might call their newspaper customer service and complain about just one missed paper. The staff might think , big deal its just one missed paper and why is this customer so angry. Well, unknown to the staff, the customer wanted this morning paper because there was going to be an article about one of their children. So in this case the strong emotional tone from the customer indicates how this is very important to the customer and why it needs to be corrected. (Send another paper out right now)  Once the staff realize the real reason,  they might be able to understand the level of anger from the customer. Also the staff can now see why the customer is so angry, and show empathy.

Also keep in mind the customer may have had a bad day, and this issue could be the outlet or trigger for their anger. Their anger is not a personal attack, but rather strong emotion about the issue.

Once you know what the issue is, present a few solution options.Then review the options with the customer and implement the best solution.

There  are many more techniques that can be taught to the staff, but these give a little insight into how training can help staff deal with difficult customers. Staff who have less stress are great for customers and will help increase business.

Improvement Opportunities

We often think of complaints as bad things. Complaining customers can cause stress and grief for staff and managers. Staff dread having to deal with a customer complaint. However, we need to see these complaints as opportunities, rather than things to be dreaded. I know it will not be easy, but once our perspective is changed, it can really make our life less stressful and be good for business. 


Its all a matter of our how you view the complaint process. We all know most customers will not actually take the time to complain to the business. Customers will simply stop coming to that business, which is not good for customer retention. Look at customer complaints as a chance to get valuable feedback from customers. The main issue is that if you have a customer complaint, this is a chance to improve your company and make a customer smile. When customers complain, they tell us valuable information about the company. This information can help us improve the business for that customer and many others. Also if you can solve the customer complaint, that will create a loyal customer.


Customer conflicts can be tough on staff, so proper training needs to be provided. Effective conflict resolution skills would need to be taught. Once the staff have the proper tools to solve conflicts, they will be more confident and have less stress.  It will take time for all staff to be trained and monitored in the new complaint resolution process, but it will very good for business.  We also need to reward staff for proper complaint resolutions. It should be a key metric for staff performance reviews. This metric should be just as important as attendance, and other key metrics.  A business might want to look  into giving staff bonuses based on how well they solve customer complaints. This could boost staff motivation to solve customer issues and the staff might not dread the complaining customer.


Proper complaint resolution will be great for customer retention and great for business. 

Proactive Customer Service

Attitude and being proactive is the biggest factor when it comes to truly great customer service.  We have all been to a business where the service was okay, but you could tell the staff did not really care. They answered all your questions and were fast enough, but you were still left feeling like a number. 


For example, you call your cell phone company with a basic request, and it gets fulfilled. However, unknown to you there is a new value package for cell phone services, that would save you money. Most staff would just process the request and get on to the next customer. Staff with a great customer proactive attitude would see that the new value package could save the customer money and tell the customer. Now the customer could see the staff actually care and want to help.


How often do staff look to actually really help customers ?  Well the answer, is not often enough. We are so busy training staff with knowledge, we can forget that the most important thing is to have a customer centered attitude.


Proactive customer service begins with the hiring process and continues with the training. The training should be a chance to not only train for knowledge but also to train for a helping attitude. This is where staff should be trained to look for customer needs based on sales history.  Also staff could be trained to ask appropriate questions to find out customer needs. Customer retention will increase once staff get trained to maintain the habit of taking a proactive helping approach to customer service.


Smile training is really just a way to ensure we are training staff to have a proactive helping attitude towards customers. Proactive customer service is good business and great for customers.

Retaining Customers

How often have you heard, " I need to go see the manager about this issue " ?  This can really annoy a customer even more than they already are with the issue. Now the customer has to wait  some more, and get angrier by the minute. The customer might also be wondering if the CSR/Clerk is relaying the correct information to the manager. Then the CSR /Clerk comes back and either approves the customer request or says the manager denies the request.


Both these results are not great for retaining the customer.  In the first scenario, the manager approves the request. The customer gets what they want, but they had to waste more valuable time. They might be glad to have resolved the issue, but they sure will not be word of mouth champions. Sure the issue was resolved , but they had to waste alot of time. This is not something that impresses customers, and will not get them to tell other customers about the great service. 


Then in the other scenario the customer might just accept the managers disapproving decision and leave unhappy. They also might ask to speak to the manager, and fight to have the issue resolved. This will not impress the customer. They may or may not get the issue resolved, but either way they will leave unhappy about the customer service. No business needs more unhappy customers.


Now we all know it costs alot more to acquire a new customer than to retain a customer. So in the interest of keeping customers, why not empower the staff to resolve most issues on the spot. This would impress the customer and save them time. The staff would have to be trained in this new way of customer service. Staff could be given a preset amount of power or dollar amount to resolve customer issues.


Now the staff would need to be fully supported by management in this new way of retaining customers. Also the staff can be monitored to ensure the staff are following the new process. Once implemented, I think you will see alot more smiling customers walking out of your business.

Smile Tracking

Smile tracking, what's this all about ?  You need to know how happy or unhappy your customers are with your business. If you do not know this information, you could be losing customers for very simple and controllable reasons.

This is where front line staff are very important. Some business customers will be easier to track, than others. However, this tracking is very important. All staff need to be aware of the importance of tracking unhappy customers.
   
Depending on the business, you could have staff track unhappy customers via their computer database or simply have forms that are easy to fill out with reasons why customers are unhappy with the business. Staff will not be able to track all unhappy customers, but the customers they do track will provide invaluable data.


Another idea would be to have regular staff meetings about losing and keeping customers. This will allow staff to offer up customer information that may not have been tracked. This would also allow staff to see customer service tricks from other staff, to help them keep more customers happy.

Make it worthwhile for the staff to save a customer from leaving. Also make tracking unhappy customers, a part of their job description. Staff need to know, that without customers they would have no jobs. Smile tracking can help any business increase customer retention.

Great Customer Service Story

So I go to my local cafe wanting to do some blog work and have a great coffee. I get my computer all setup and to my dismay, my mouse battery is dead. So I think of my options, pack up and go buy a battery or ask a crazy question of the cafe manager to see if they have a battery I could buy. Well I asked the manager.


Well to my complete surprise, the manager comes back and gives me two batteries and would take no money. I was very surprised. This is a great example of over the top customer service that builds smiles and customer loyalty. I will become a word of mouth champion for this cafe. Its not that I would expect the manager to do this all the time, but the very fact he was willing to help is amazing.

In a different cafe, I can just imagine the response. They would think I am crazy for asking and maybe say something like, we only sell coffee. The attitude of this manager was one of really wanting to help a customer. While this is a rare story, the whole point is to go above and beyond and create smiling, loyal customers.

Look for ways to encourage your staff to go above and beyond the normal level of customer service. Since this level of customer service is so rare, you will surprise the customer. 


    
This customer surprise creates loyal customers who are great for business.

Keeping Customers and winning them back

A potential recession makes keeping customers all the more important. There are alot of  reasons why you can lose a customer. Some reasons are out of our control, and some are in our control. However, if the customer has no obvious reason as to why they no longer do business with us, we need to try and find out why and win the customer back.


The big reason some customers leave is that they feel a lack of appreciation from the business. Well customer service is one area in our control and can help with this issue.This is where a strong customer service training and monitoring  program will help.

Another great option is to have a customer winback program. Very few businesses have a customer winback program, so you would benefit in 2 ways: by winning customers back, and cause customers to be word of mouth champions.

First we need to contact the customer through various means and show them that we actually care. Then followup on the reason they left and fix the issue. Then offer a strong winback offer to win the customer back. Plus ensure the staff know why some customers are leaving and train and monitor them for great customer service.

The customer winback program will help keep customers and ensure you increase your total of smiling customers.                                

Smile for Friends

Who would you rather do business with, a friend or someone you do not like?   Seems obvious, but often the lack of customer service pushes customers away. If you have staff trained to actually help customers, and do so happily, your business will be successful.


The issue is that most staff only do the minimum, so they can keep their jobs. Great customer service produces smiling, happy customers who would make the staff's job more pleasant. Happy customers would produce loyal customers. Smiling customers also help to keep jobs. (Good for Staff )  Unhappy customers are not good for business.


Staff need to be trained and monitored to ensure, they are delivering great customer service. Various benchmarks for quality could be established to ensure staff are rewarded based on these benchmarks, and not just for completing their shift.


Once staff realize that customers are their friends, and not just a chore, they will be smiling for customers!

Frowns to Smiles !

Frowns to Smiles


We have all seen or heard the customer who comes to the business with a complaint and they are full of anger.They are like a ticking time bomb, you could say anything and they are ready to pounce on you with their full anger. First off, the customer may have had a bad day, and this complaint just allows them to vent their anger.

The main issue is that you need to let the customer know you are on their side. Customers need to know you actually want to help. Do not say, that's not my department, this will get the customer very angry.

Listen closely to the customer's issue.Then you could tell the customer you will be able to help and if needed, get the needed information from a manager,etc.




The goal is to make the customer realize you are on their side. Now hopefully, the issue can be resolved. If the issue is not completely resolved to the customer's satisfaction, their frown will still turn to a smile, because they will know you worked your butt off to help them.

Smiling for Dollars

Smiling for Dollars ? 
What is this about ? Well if customers are treated in a truly friendly way and leave smiling , well that's great for business. Have you ever noticed when someone has just received great customer service,they want to tell all their friends. Its almost like we are so shocked we received great service, we have to tell our friends.


Most staff are not really trained and monitored to have great customer service. However, we all remember when we had great customer service and this will keep dollars flowing into your business.The investment in customer service training for your business will reap big rewards and produce many smiling customers. Watch the true story of how Johnny The Bagger created many smiling customers.

Surprise a Customer with Great Service

Have you been surprised by great customer service ?  Well this is what I used to do in my old career. A customer would call our call center with a very simple request. I would handle the request and the customer would assume we are done. Well, I would ask the customer if they have a moment. I would tell them I have reviewed their account and will give them a free month of service. This worked well because the customer was not expecting this and creates a smiling customer. The basic idea is; exceed customer expectations. This will create many smiling customers.

Common sense is not so common

So maybe common sense is not so common


So I go to a fast food restaurant and order. All of sudden one of my burgers is put on the counter tray. I think great, my order is done. However, my burger just sits there getting cold. I ask when my fries are going to come, the staff say in a few minutes.


I say can you put my burger under the warmer, and the staff seem surprised I would want a warm burger. Why would they not keep my burger under the food warmer, until the whole order is ready ?  Well that would be common sense, which is not very common.

Common Sense and Coffee

The lack of common sense, when it comes to customer service.  I go to a coffee shop and ask for a decaf, and the clerk says they have no decaf.  Well I know they did not run out of decaf coffee, so what the clerk is really saying is; ' I do  not feel like making a pot of decaf , order regular coffee".   Well I did have them make a pot of decaf, but this was bad service.


However I went to another coffee shop, and when I wanted decaf , they cheerfully said they would make some and bring it to me, which they did. ( smiling customer)


Which coffee shop , do you think I want to spend more money at ?  

BLOG INTRO

Have you noticed how many customers are really smiling about the level of customer service in  stores ?
Well this blog , will provide basic common sense tips for great customer service to keep customers smiling.


I have over 20 years of Customer Service experience. I have supervised staff working in call centers and large stores. I also ran a cleaning business for 10 years.