How much of the bottom line of your business is affected by the customer experiences your staff is providing?
Every organisation is only as good as each member of its staff. As a business owner or leader, are you so busy you do not have time to ensure each person knows exactly HOW you would like every step of the customer experience is to be, and train them to implement each step – every time?
Is it assumed that each person has the same understanding of what you expect that experience to be and how to implement it?
Poor customer service is the silent killer of business. It will adversely impact customer expectations and your ability to retain their custom. In addition, it will have a spiral effect on stress in the workplace, staff attitude, retention, loyalty and morale, not to mention the loss to your bottom line.
The worse thing is that you will most likely never know why your clients or customers take their business elsewhere. Australians and New Zealanders predominantly don't complain – they just don't return.
Good is no longer enough and can actually affect your bottom line. Even today's exceptional will be tomorrow's mediocrity.
Ensure your business doesn't lose your valued client base by training your staff in the critical skills necessary to offer an exceptional experience your customers can't get anywhere else.
Recently there have been a number of ways identified as to how some companies have improved profits through the economic downtime.
A few of these are:
- Training of staff, which has improved their reputation
- Service Excellence (this comes through effective staff training
- Improved and consistent customer/client contact
- Better marketing and advertising direction to their target market
- Reduced inefficiencies (once again through training)
These have all been accomplished without resorting to discounting, which can be a downward spiral.
A couple of points for you to start with are:
- Define what you would like your client or customer experience to be
- Design a strategy to implement this plan
- Develop and train your staff to ensure each person knows precisely what this experience should look like, and of course the importance of their role in it
- Ensure you deliver this at each point your client or customer comes in contact with your business
- Celebrate and reward the desired performance from your team
- Create an exceptional impression from a mediocre one.
- Remember every moment at every point
- Focus on your client or customer - be in the moment with them, putting aside anything else you have to do. Distraction shows
- Take a moment longer to answer any enquiry by creating an aura of anticipation about what doing business with you will offer
- Take extra steps to create an ongoing favourable impression
- Think about how everything you say or do will be perceived by your customer. It is often the small things that make the greatest impression.
Remember, it doesn't have to be perfect to start, it just has to start.
Christine Hepburn is a Director and Principal Trainer for The Defining Edge Training and Development, where their ethos is 'Training is our Focus Service is our Passion'. Christine has extensive experience in building successful small businesses from no more than just a concept, through to working in large corporations developing, training and mentoring staff. Drawing on this experience, she inspires her clients to discover what their customers really want and how to create an exceptional experience they can't get anywhere else. The results her clients achieve speak for themselves.
With a passion and commitment to excellence shining through, this ensures she is a highly sought after presenter, speaker, a recognised specialist in Exceptional Customer Experience as well as an author of two books.
Connect with Christine
Phone: 1300 886 870 or +61 412 889 966
Email: christine@The-Defining_Edge.com
Website: www.the-defining-edge.com
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