Should You Focus On Sales Or Profits?

In tough economic times should a business focus on increasing sales or profits?  This is really a trick question, as sales and profits are both very important, but gaining more profit per customer is really the key. Often, you can see companies focus so much money on gaining new business that they forget how to maximize profit per customer. When you increase profit per customer, you will have a reliable revenue stream, that will build a solid business foundation. Also, by maximizing the revenue per customer, you will be implementing retention practices, that will produce loyal customers, who will do a lot of word of mouth advertising, thus reducing marketing costs. 


The cost of gaining new customers is so high, it only makes good business sense to focus on keeping existing customers, as this will cost less and build a strong company profit. A strong relationship building process will need to be in place, to build an emotional bond between the customer and business and to discover their needs. This process will look different from business to business, but the principles are the same, look for ways to build a customer connection. 


This could be as simple as front line staff being friendly and getting to know customers by name, and in the process gaining valuable feedback to improve your service or product.  Now other companies might hire survey companies to phone the customer base, or they may have a retention team which contacts the consumer. Whatever method a company chooses, it needs to have a strong relationship building objective. As this relationship grows, it will provide invaluable feedback that can be used to improve company products or services. 


Once staff get to know their customers, there will need to be a process, that allows them to document the customer needs or wants, so the marketing department can  produce a more relevant  retention process or address any customer concerns. Every business should be prepared to evolve to meet these changing customer needs, thus allowing the company to become stronger. Once a company becomes more customer focused, it will build a stronger and more profitable company.

Great Customer Service Lesson

How often do we really see customer service that shines? Well, I am sure most of you would answer, not very often, which is not good. Often you can go to a store, and the staff will seem very disinterested in you as a customer. They are trained to ask, can I help you, but really they often do not care, whether you leave or stay in the store.


We are almost shocked when we do receive great customer service. For example, lets say  you go to your local coffee shop, and the staff are smiling when you come in, and they remember your favourite coffee drink, you would be very impressed. It creates a positive relationship between the customer and the company, which benefits all involved.


I am going to provide just one fast example of great service I recently received from a small town cafe. This will show the true spirit of above and beyond customer service, and will show a great example of how to really impress a customer. Now I know every business is a little different from a cafe, but its the customer service attitude example, that can teach a customer service lesson.


I was just finishing my gym workout, and wanted to buy some muffins. I thought I left the gym by 5:30pm, ( cafe closing time)  however once I got to the local cafe, I noticed it was closed. I checked my watch and sure enough it was 15 minutes past close time, but I could still see staff inside, cleaning up. The manager saw me looking through the window, and came outside to see if I wanted to make a purchase. So I said that would be great, as I was looking forward to these muffins, as they are delicious. So I went in and bought the muffins and thanked the manager for allowing me in the store after closing.


How many staff would really want to come out after closing and help the customer, I can tell you, not very many. This showed a real customer centered attitude to go above and beyond for a customer, instead of just saying, " sorry we are closed ".  Look for ways in your business to motivate staff to go above and beyond for customers, and you will have many happy customers.

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.