Are Your Customer Service Skills Where They Should Be?

Most customer service people are excited about their first day at their new job.They go to work ready to hit the road running,and for the next few months, their days are filled with interesting things to do and learn, and new people to talk with. As they start working with their customers, they probably even exceed their own expectations with the level of customer  service they’re providing. They do it because they understand the importance of first  impressions.  But sooner or later, the newness of the job—or customer—wears off, the day-to-day demands of  the job settle in, and all the extra customer service they went out of their way to provide in the beginning starts getting old.
When a customer calls and you say you’ll get back to them,don't push the request to the side. If you do before you  know it, two days have passed, and the next conversation you have with their customer starts off  with a litany of excuses—sometimes lies—rather than informed and articulate answers. If you want to be thought of as a superstar when it comes  to customer service, handle the promises with a professional attitude toward solving the problem and keep your promises to the customer.

Take full responsibility for your own customer service skills. Customer service is not always an  easy job. It can be fun when everything is going great, but not so much when there’s a problem.As a customer service professional you already may know the basics of customer service, but do you  read the occasional article about trends in customer service? Do you ever take the time to  honestly reflect on how your customers might view your customer service skills? Do you have at  least one customer service role model who excels at customer service?

Customer service is more than just problem solving. Every conversation, message, and email you  are connected with represents not just your skill at it, but also how important you think it is. Your  good customer service will give your customer every reason to feel respected and appreciated. When your customer service skills are excellent, you’ll be well on  your way to building long­term profitable business relationships.

Are your customers dealing with a different version of you after they’ve done business with you for some time?  Here a three tips of advice.

1. If you are having a bad day, it's not your customer fault. Suck it up and put on a smile  and make their interests, concerns, or problems yours, and do it happily.

2. From the moment you say hello until you say goodbye you are being judged for better or  for worse. Surly you don't want to be the main topic at their business meetings as a bad  example of poor customer service.

3. Good morning, good afternoon, thank you for your business, we look forward to working  with you are words dear to your customer ears and go a long way.

Most of all if you are burned out, no longer care for the job (and customer service is about one of  the most demanding) talk to the person in the company that can help you get over those hurdles.  If you don't, the customers will go away and with it their revenue and with it your job. So remember , make everyday a great selling day!          

                         

Alan Luoma is a Sales Coach with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, new product development, sales and product training. He works with a national sustainable packaging company and their distributors to increase sales. Alan is an expert that speaks on eliminating behaviors that prevent you from being successful in sales and uncovering sales prevention departments that hinder your success. He is a member of the Hartford Springfield Speakers Network, The National Speakers Association and New England Speakers Association. You can view his profile on LinkedIn, or contact him at Luoma@snet.net

Is This Your First Sales Rodeo?

You finally have a meeting set up with the principles of a company you’ve been trying to get in front of for a long time. This isn’t your first rodeo, so you’ve prepared well. You’ve done your homework and have every expectation of a flawless presentation that goes off without a hitch.

It all sounds so easy except for the fact that when you’re potential clients or customers walk into your meeting, they’ll be working off their agenda—not yours. Because you’ve done your homework, you’ll be prepared to answer most of their questions and concerns, but don’t be surprised if they identify issues and ask questions that will make another meeting necessary. They might provide you with a new piece of information that makes the numbers you slaved over impossible to rework on the spot. Or, you might find out that there aren’t any decision makers sitting in on this meeting.

However the situation arises, it’s the way you handle the need for a follow-up meeting that can make the difference between the deal continuing to move forward, or dropping dead right at your feet. The rooky mistake is a response something like this, “Okay… I understated you need this information before we can move forward, but I don’t have it right now. I’ll work on it, and give you a call sometime next week so we can set up another meeting.”

Sometime next week?! Really?

It’s normal to be uncomfortable—maybe even annoyed—when a meeting doesn’t go as smoothly as you had hoped and planned for, but what’s your potential client supposed do between now and when you decide you’re over it and ready to talk with them again? Sit by the phone with bated breath waiting for you to call? It doesn’t matter why you need a follow-up meeting. If it’s due to something you did or didn’t do, take responsibility for it. If it’s the result of something the client did or didn’t do, be mindful and respectful of the fact that everybody is under a lot of business pressure these days.

Step up and take the initiative to schedule the date and time for another meeting before you leave this meeting. If you don’t, you’re counting on a lot of things not to happen between now and then—things like your competition reaching out to your potential client and securing a meeting while you’re still trying to decide if you’re ready to make the call.

Alan luoma is a Sales Coach and Speaker with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, marketing and product training. He holds key accounts with a national sustainable packaging company, is an expert that speaks and provides sales coaching to individuals and groups. He is a member of the Hartford Springfield Speakers Network and The National Speakers Association. You can view his profile on  LinkedIn, or contact him at luoma@snet.net

Protecting Your Sales Assets

I always get a kick out of companies who hire sales people with “experience", hand them a product book with pricing, and tell them to go out and secure new business. Sure, they save money on product and sales training in the short run, but they might lose potentially great salespeople too. As a salesperson, you can hope your sales manager knows what they're doing, or you can take matters into your own hands by building and protecting your own sales assets.

Protect Your First Impression by Knowing Everything about Your Product: When you stand in front of a prospect or customer and they know more about your business than you do, it’s time to go home. Whether it’s insurance, gasoline, machines or anything else, make sure you know what you're selling and that you're able to explain it simply and concisely. If you can't, your dog will happier to see you than the prospect or customer you're about to impress with how much you don’t know.

Very few business owners make their purchases based on an “I have to have it no matter what it costs” attitude. If they did, sales would be a simple game of who gets to the decision maker first. That’s not the case. Businesses flourish as the result of good fiscal management. If you want to flourish, you need to have a good explanation as to why someone should spend their money with you.

Protect Your Sales Pitch with Solid Economic Justifications: When it comes to a serious purchase where good value and a workable price are important, the very best tool a salesperson can use is the economic justification summary. Presented correctly and professionally, it will secure the order more often than not. It’s also an excellent tool to use to determine where to spend your time. Do your research so you'll know if your product or service makes economic sense for a potential client. If it doesn't, don't waste their time, or yours.  

I've seen many salespeople fail simply because they didn't plan their days, weeks, and years. In sales, if you're not producing the revenue expected of you, you're likely to become an expense your company decides they can't afford. It’s true you won't always have control over getting someone to sign on the dotted line, but you have absolute control over increasing your odds of making it happen simply by preparing yourself for success.

Protect Your Career with a Plan: It’s simple and straight forward: Plan—follow up, then plan—follow up, etc. If you do this, then you have a very good idea of where your money is coming from. Do you know which accounts are a definite? Do you know which prospects are ready to do business with you? Do you regularly review where you are and what you have to do to correct any potential shortfall? Are you concentrating on revenue? Or are you wasting your energy on activities that have nothing to do with increased revenue?

When you take the time to regularly review your sales assets, you are protecting them by making sure they are all in tip-top shape. It’s a solid investment towards your continued success.

Alan Luoma is a Sales Coach and Speaker with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, and sales and product training. He holds key accounts with a national sustainable packaging company, is a motivational speaker, and provides sales training to individuals and groups. He is a member of the Hartford Springfield Speakers Network. You can view his profile on LinkedIn, or contact him at Luoma@snet.

April’s Special Day - Take the Pledge

I joined friends for the spring breakfast at the YMCA. What fun it was to say to one friend “yes this is a delicious breakfast but I’m afraid to tell you that something seems to be crawling on your plate.” As she carefully examined her food, I said “April Fool. “She replied “you got me.” We laughed and moved on.

How many times do we have an opportunity to tell someone they are a fool and then laugh about it? We have one day a year for such foolishness and that is April first, April fool’s Day. There are many stories and thoughts about how this worldwide prank day came to be celebrated. Feeling spring in the air is probably one of the best explanations for me.

There is however, a day of great importance in April, that everyone needs to be aware of, and no it’s not tax day, you already know about that one! It is a day with a history behind it. It started as National Secretary's Day in 1952. The concept was created by Harry F. Klemfuss of Young and Rubicam Advertising agency. He was in Public Relations and thought that Secretaries needed to be recognized for their great contribution to the many businesses, corporations and non-profit agencies where they worked. I remember one Secretaries Day speaking for a city Chamber of Commerce when women picketed outside saying the name should be changed. It was only a few years later that the day became National Assistants Day. They spoke up and things changed.

However, many Assistants today find themselves doing the work of two people and many times taken advantage of, yelled at, bullied and stimulated to live in fear. As the Communication LifeStyle Expert™ I see Personal, Administrative and Executive Assistants who live in fear, have a LifeStyle of overwork, and underpay with thoughts of losing their job if they speak up. This of course affects their Health and therefore their LifeStyle.

That is why I was excited to stand with Bonnie Low-Kramen Speaker and Author of Be the Ultimate Assistant as she launched her Speak up Pledge campaign at the Today Show in Rockefeller Plaza on April 2. Bonnie, the Ultimate Speaker herself and Assistant to Olympia Dukakis and her husband Louis Zorich for 25 years wants to have 1 million of you sign her Speak up pledge for better communication in the workplace. Most Administrative Professionals are women and they need to Speak up and Speak out so things can change for them and the workplace. So please go to http://WWW.Speakupledge.com  and sign a pledge to Speak Up especially if you are staff or in management. This will make for a better workplace everywhere.

Oh! And don’t forget National Assistants Day which has now evolved to Administrative Professionals Day April 22 and now recognized as Administrative Professionals Week also.  April 19-25 2015. Please share this with friends and peers worldwide. Thanks Bonnie for this much needed awareness of changes to be made. Personally I feel that if all Administrative Assistants and Administrative Professionals in the United States took the same day off, all businesses would collapse and our country would be in ruins

  “Love Your LifeStyle”             carolyn@carolynfinch.com            WWW.carolynfinch.com

The Communication LifeStyle Expert™
Keynote/Breakout Speaker and Authority on Body Language