STRATEGIES FROM THE TOP DOWN
While it is imperative for employees that deal face-to-face with customers to provide great service, the realm of customer service does not begin and end there. Many senior level managers make decisions and implement policies that directly impact customer service. Those policies can be customer-friendly or they can be customer-averse. Continue reading
HEARING AND LISTENING
There are lots of things that companies do to motivate employees to ‘do their best’, ‘act their best’ and ‘be their best.’ Some common ones include setting performance objectives, offering rewards, paying bonuses, and organizing games to hit targets. Some companies use pride as a way to motivate staff to do better. After all, pride is one of the most powerful forces in business. These are all good ideas that work. If your company wants to improve customer service, that’s a good place to start. Continue reading
Customers do business with people they know, like and trust. This is the golden rule of sales and marketing. When people know you, like you and trust you, they are more likely to do business with you. It is usually that simple… and that difficult. For many businesses, the proposition of winning customers is lost in second part of that rule. After businesses spend huge amounts of money in advertising and promotion – touting who they are and what they do — so that people will ‘know’ them, they invariably lose customers (and flush all that money away) when those very customers don’t ‘like’ doing business with them. Hence the birth of Customer Service and Customer Retention Departments, layers upon layers of management, and a booming industry of outsourcing service centers to India and the like. Continue reading
Most companies typically deliver a product or service to people or other companies. At the same time, most companies hire vendors to provide them with products and services. For example, a doctor provides medical advice and assistance to people concerning their health. That doctor is delivering a service. Likewise, that doctor probably also employs vendors, such as a lab to process bloodwork or an accountant to handle their tax issues. In those instances, the doctor is the client and the lab and accountants are vendors providing a service. In those contexts, ‘service’ is used as a noun meaning the work performed by the company. Most of us are, at once, both vendors and clients.
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Last week, we considered the concept of having a truly thankful heart every day, not just on Thanksgiving Day. A genuinely grateful attitude is empowering and uplifting for both you and those around you at home and at work. However, with the holiday season upon us, ‘giving thanks’ takes on a whole new meaning as everyone scurries to buy gifts not only for loved ones but also to those for whom we are thankful. In the world of business, that includes clients, hard-working employees, key referral sources, and important vendors. At this time of year, the focus shifts more to the ‘giving’ as a way to say ‘thanks.’ Continue reading
With Thanksgiving Day just past, I’m sure many took time last week to think about all the things for which they were grateful. As Martha Stewart would say, “It’s a good thing.” Perhaps you took a moment silently to give thanks for family and friends, health and work. At school, children made crafts and wrote poems enumerating all the things for which they were thankful. Families went around the table sharing the many things for which they were grateful. On Thanksgiving Day, thankfulness was served out in full measure. Yet, in asking a colleague if he celebrated Thanksgiving, he replied “Yes, every day.” Continue reading
What does it mean to be a trusted advisor? The term ‘trusted advisor’ has been used and abused to the point where it has lost its meaning. Salespeople, pushing to establish overnight relationships and quickly gain unearned trust, dub themselves ‘trusted advisors.’ They often fall short of that coveted position. Continue reading
It used to be that if a person wanted to make ‘big money’ fast (and they weren’t technology gurus, inventors or scientists), he or she became a salesperson. Case in point. During the most recent real estate boom, tens of thousands of people – who had never thought about selling or sold anything – flocked to the real estate market to make easy money. They became Realtors, new home salespeople, mortgage lenders, and the like. At most companies, top salespeople were treated like gold. Big firms sought to ‘lure’ the top producers away, offering bigger commissions, better benefits and nicer work conditions. Many of those leading performers became difficult to manage, as their egos inflated along with their commission checks. Continue reading
Are you e-mailing hundreds or thousands of anonymous prospects in lieu of calling them? Has e-mail become your selling ‘crutch’ of choice because it gives you the impression that you are bypassing the gatekeepers? Does email save you from hearing the dreaded rejections that come with cold calling? Do you send e-blasts and then follow up only with prospects who give you the green light to move the sales process forward? Are you using e-blasts as a way of ‘showing’ management that you are ‘selling?’ Continue reading
I’m sure every entrepreneur, salesperson and business owner has thought, at one time or another, “I know I could help (fill in the person or company’s name) if I could just get them to talk to me for 20 minutes!” The problem is that most people in decision-making positions have dozens (or hundreds) of people asking for their time. If they gave every salesperson or business owner who asked 20 minutes of their time, they would never get any work done! These are busy people who are not just sitting around waiting for salespeople to contact them. They have their own objectives, issues and concerns. Most of the time, a salesperson or entrepreneur is lucky to get a minute or two of their time. Continue reading
