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Check out these informative articles by Andrew Porter, on the Customer Service Boot Camp blog.

When Your Customer Service Drops:

You LOSE clients.

You LOSE referrals.

You LOSE repeat business.

Your Competition WINS.

There are 2 ways to handle this.

Extensive advertising to make up for all the business your staff are driving away or superlative customer service.

Advertising is expensive.

Superior customer service is not expensive.

Advertising will create a peak and valley scenario for your business, as your hard earned cash drives in new business and your staff unwittingly drives it out.

Excellent customer service will create a steady increase in business as people well treated, will share their experiences with others, and bring in new business by word of mouth. Your staff will be happier and thus more productive, when they know that they can competently handle any customer, no matter how unruly or disruptive they might be.

Superlative customer service is not expensive to achieve and maintain.

Improving your customer service will do the following for your business:

Your existing clients will be happy with your service.
They will refer new clients to your business.
Your existing clients will buy more services or products from you more often.
Your company will be able to retain more qualified, well trained and satisfied staff who will further the above cycle.

Customer Service And Perception Of Value

Who are your customer service staff?

Anyone who has ANY contact with the customers. Accounting, billing, accounts receivable. Anyone in marketing or sales. The staff in shipping. Anyone who send or receives any verbal or written communication or item to customers is in customer service.

Every time someone has any contact with your company an impression is made. This impression or perception means everything. Take a minute to look over your own experiences along this line.

If you are calling a company to obtain their services and no one answers the phone what do you do?
- Do you leave a message on their machine?
- What if you are put on hold right away?
How long are you willing to wait for service in a restaurant before you start to get irritated?
How about in a doctors or dentists office?
When was the last time you were on the phone with a less-than-friendly receptionist?
When was the last time you had any billing or account issues with some company?
How do you respond when you call a “big” company and you have to say or enter your name, account number, phone number, zip code, last 4 numbers of your social, your mothers maiden name FIVE times before they can figure out who you are and what to do with you?

When one of your clients gets bad customer service, they will start looking for your replacement. There is no customer loyalty when you have lousy customer service. Conversely, when your clients receive top notch customer service they will stick with your company and be reluctant to go anywhere else. Clients percieve more overall value in your service or product when they receive great customer care. When that happens they are also willing to pay more.

Perception of Value and the Moment of Truth

Are you improving your product or service on a consistent basis? Quality is the first and most important component of value. However in the consumers mind quality has become a lot more than simply how well a product or service works or lasts. A customer experience that establishes quality is called a "moment of truth."

A moment of truth is any defining interaction that the customer has with your business. A moment of truth may occur when you have to wait 20 minutes to get your waiters attention or when the “customer service” person on the phone interrupts you before you can even explain what the problem is all about. A moment of truth may occur when you go to see your dentist, the receptionist smiles and is visibly glad to see you and you get routed back to see the dentist with no wait! It all boils down to that moment that a customer experiences a positive/negative impression when interacting with anyone related to your company.

If you want to influence the perception of value to your customers, first be aware of the fact that every point of contact is a potential moment of truth. If that moment is not positive, your perception of value will not be positive, no matter how creative your advertising, or how great your product actually is.

What is needed to create loyal customers?

Top down customer service. Great customer service starts at the top. It flows from the owner to the management, onto the staff and then between the staff. We already know that people tend to treat others the way they are treated. If the owner or management treat the staff with kindness and understanding and follow the next 5 points they will have loyal customers. If not, they will have trouble.
A business must have a system to gather accurate, up-to-date feedback from customers to really know how the customers feel and what needs work. Otherwise it’s all just guessing.
Constant unrelenting attention on customer service based on the feed back you receive. Hold weekly meetings to discuss what is working and what needs to work better. Ask your experienced staff to come up with ways to handle any customer service problems.
An ongoing program to train and educate staff. This includes: training for their basic duties and complete understanding of the services or products offered, mastery of all applicable software, customer service training and when that’s all done, cross training on related positions.
Recognize and reward service excellence. Employees who excel at customer service should be acknowledged and if possible promoted. Building a team of motivated, empowered staff is the key to creating loyal customers.
Recognize and get rid of employees who constantly gossip, gripe and complain. They cause stress for the rest of the staff and make everyone’s life miserable (including their own). If management does not rapidly rid the company of these people they will drive your best staff away.

What is the answer to all of this?

CUSTOMER SERVICE BOOTCAMP

What is this and how does it work?

The first step is that we come to your business and spend a day simply observing what goes on.

Next step is a full day workshop covering the following:

How to handle the “customer from hell”.
How to recognise customer service staff burnout and what to do about it.
What is the relationship between client perception of value and gross income?
How does a customer decide if they got good value?
How to make loyal customers?
How can I create an atmosphere of teamwork with all of my customer service staff?
What is the perception of value delivered by your competitors?
What can you do so that your clients perceive more value in your products and/or services?
How do I recognize and handle the staff who turn clients away?
How can I train staff to deliver friendly and effective customer service?

We will provide a detailed step by step customer service program for your business.

And finally...

Your business will expand as far as it has great customer service. If you have anything less then you are really letting your clients down.

So, call today and get started.

Call Andy Porter at 360-809-0661.