The Golden Rule Of Customer Service - Forbes
My first experience with customer service came with my first job when I
was in high school. I worked at a pizza place, first as a cook, but I
was quickly doing several things at once, including manning the cashier,
leading shifts, and handling customer complaints. I moved on from that
job to an even more intensive customer service experience, this time
handing returns for a major department store. Since then, I’ve handled
customer service in a number of different capacities. CLICK HERE to read full article...
Showing posts with label customer service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label customer service. Show all posts
Monday, July 9, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Get Noticed by Potential Customers:
Get the most out
of your marketing dollars by focusing on a select group of potential
customers. These prospects should be the core group that has the
greatest need for your product or service. Identifying the right target
market will get you the most return on your investment.
Monday, July 2, 2012
How to Stand Out:
Some trend tag-alongs are just lame. Nobody needs a male-centric Pinterest--though, yes, Manterest
exists. Really. What's next? Twitter for pets? But even if your smart
business idea is part "me, too," it doesn't have to sound like, well,
one of those. It all comes down to messaging.
How to Stand Out by Keeping it Simple: Click Here for Full Article
How to Stand Out by Keeping it Simple: Click Here for Full Article
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
6 Exercises To Strengthen Compassionate Leadership:
Want loyal, dedicated, and passionate employees? Be a loyal, dedicated,
and passionate boss. Here are some tools to develop well-being in your
workplace through better communication. Click Here for the full article...
Monday, June 25, 2012
8 Winning Ways To Perform Workplace Wonders:
What is your attitude when you are at work? Are you excited about the workplace culture and the people that surround you? What is your performance state of mind at work?
Today’s workplace is changing – forcing employees to change with it.
Click Here to read full article...
From Forbes.com
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Follow-Up With New Customers:
Always reach out to new customers after a purchase and ask for their feedback on the experience. This is a great opportunity for you to double check your level of service, identify any issues and build on your company’s image. Closing the loop with new customers is also a good way to encourage repeat business!
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Say Cheese! The way you talk to customers can say a lot about your business:
The way you talk to customers can say a lot about your business. A great way to sound confident and approachable is to always smile when you speak. It keeps you positive and can help your customers will feel assured they are speaking with someone who is genuine. Try it out – start smiling!
Weigh in: How do you keep your confidence when talking to customers?
http://bit.ly/LS7obv
Weigh in: How do you keep your confidence when talking to customers?
http://bit.ly/LS7obv
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
What Our Clients Are Saying:
Love our training and want to tell the world about it?! Leave your comments below on our blog and check out what others are saying: http://bit.ly/JMwxPr
Thursday, May 31, 2012
6 Leadership Styles, And When You Should Use Them:
"The best leaders don’t create followers; they create more leaders."
Taking a team from ordinary to extraordinary means understanding and embracing the difference between management and leadership. According to writer and consultant Peter Drucker, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."CLICK HERE to read full article...
Taking a team from ordinary to extraordinary means understanding and embracing the difference between management and leadership. According to writer and consultant Peter Drucker, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."CLICK HERE to read full article...
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Repeat Back What Customers Are Telling You:
When dealing with customers and supplying great customer service, always show that you are listening by recapping what you’ve heard. This lets the customer know that you understand their wants/needs and allows you to have a clear picture of the customer’s expectations. This way, you can make sure you have the knowledge to not only make the customer happy, but to ensure you deliver with quality. Increase you customer retention and service scores.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Great List! 10 Sales Tips from the NY Times:
From: nytimes.com
My biggest sales lesson came from a good friend who is now our head of Canadian business development (a fancy term for sales), Robin Tator. Robin taught me that sales is not about what you are selling, but about making friends and about getting someone to see the world the way you do. If you do that, everything else will take care of itself.
Sales can be a melancholy job. On one hand, many people (especially nonsales people) feel that it’s sleazy and lowbrow. On the other hand, it can be the most important function of a business. Until there’s a sale, there is no business. Personally, I’ve gone from thinking the former to believing the latter and honing my skills over a decade to where today I am effectively the chief sales officer of TerraCycle. I don’t know exactly when this transition happened, but it took me a few years to embrace the power of sales the way I do today.
CLICK HERE to read the full article.
My Top 10 Sales Tips
By TOM SZAKYMy biggest sales lesson came from a good friend who is now our head of Canadian business development (a fancy term for sales), Robin Tator. Robin taught me that sales is not about what you are selling, but about making friends and about getting someone to see the world the way you do. If you do that, everything else will take care of itself.
Sales can be a melancholy job. On one hand, many people (especially nonsales people) feel that it’s sleazy and lowbrow. On the other hand, it can be the most important function of a business. Until there’s a sale, there is no business. Personally, I’ve gone from thinking the former to believing the latter and honing my skills over a decade to where today I am effectively the chief sales officer of TerraCycle. I don’t know exactly when this transition happened, but it took me a few years to embrace the power of sales the way I do today.
CLICK HERE to read the full article.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Check Out What Our Clients Are Saying!
“Dear Jeff,
Good Morning. I wanted to take a moment to let you know the effects of signing up with your service “Pro Talk.” we were looking to have an increase in several areas in our service departments in both Salisbury, NC and Florence, SC. It was a pleasant surprise, because we were told that what we saw in just a few weeks would take several months to accomplish. Pro Talk was a well worth investment. The increase we have seen in our service departments was far beyond our expectations. What we found is that within 90 days, quicker than anticipated, there was an average increase in our ELR of $15.00. We had an increase of average hours per R.O. of .5. There was an increase of $80.00 per repair order. We also saw an increase in our monthly CSI scores. The Pro Talk process took us from doing zero walk-a-rounds to 85-90%. I wanted to let you know that this was well worth the investment to see the increases that we have seen, in a short amount of time.
The trainer that was sent to us was Todd Wooten. He did an excellent job with our staff. He was extremely knowledgeable on the workings of a service department. He worked with our staff on a one-on-one basis. He helped them to become stronger in their work habits, communication and their sales ability. He also aided in over coming any objections that customers may have. I sat through one of Todd’s training sessions, which helped clear up a lot of questions that I had about the Pro Talk process. As previously mentioned, our over all goals were met in a much quicker time frame than anticipated and our staff has become more thorough in their responsibilities which aided the process as well.
One more thing that I would like to tell you is please feel free to use me as a reference to promote the Pro Talk process as well as your trainer Todd Wooten. If one follows the step-by-step process that was set forth by our trainer Todd Wooten, then I can confidently say that, without a doubt the process truly works. Thank you for your services, assistance of the Pro Talk team!
If you have any questions or need to discuss any of this further, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you for your services!”
Sincerely,
John Cloninger
Cloninger Ford Toyota Scion
Service Director of Fixed Operations
______________________________________________________________________________
“Just wanted to say thank you for your training class. I have been to many classes in my 20 years as a Service Advisor. I have taken technical, manager, and Service Advisor classes from Ford, Goodyear, Chrysler, Autonation, and ATCON. Your class was the most real life training out of them all. I received information that I will actually use and it was presented as not just what, but what you should do to get increased sales. THANK YOU, and I look forward to meeting with you again.”
“Dear Mr J. Cowan,
I attended one of your presentations at NADA, Las Vegas just over two weeks ago. I am based in the Republic of South Africa.
I am an Executive for After Sales (Fixed Operations) for our 33 dealerships of different franchises. I just found it proper just to drop you a note to say, THANK YOU for your passion! I found your presentation refreshing and very basic. It goes to show that money is made at a very basic level with an acceptable level of knowledge. Execution or implementation is important…. Much of what you said is not unknown in some ways but the way you packaged your presentation was certainly very compelling. The standing ovation you got was certainly deserved. Hopefully you return at next years’ convention in Orlando with more content and vigour!
Sir, you know your subject! Well done.”
Kind regards,
Mosalla S.
Barloworld Motor Retail
Executive: After Sales
______________________________________________________________________________
“Jeff,
I wanted to thank you for the seminar yesterday. I have been to many service training seminars over the last 19 years in this business and I must say yours was the very best. My Service Advisor and I walked away quite frankly blown away. We can’t wait to apply the lessons learned yesterday.”
Ben R.
Leavens Volkswagen Londaon, Ontario
Service Manager
Good Morning. I wanted to take a moment to let you know the effects of signing up with your service “Pro Talk.” we were looking to have an increase in several areas in our service departments in both Salisbury, NC and Florence, SC. It was a pleasant surprise, because we were told that what we saw in just a few weeks would take several months to accomplish. Pro Talk was a well worth investment. The increase we have seen in our service departments was far beyond our expectations. What we found is that within 90 days, quicker than anticipated, there was an average increase in our ELR of $15.00. We had an increase of average hours per R.O. of .5. There was an increase of $80.00 per repair order. We also saw an increase in our monthly CSI scores. The Pro Talk process took us from doing zero walk-a-rounds to 85-90%. I wanted to let you know that this was well worth the investment to see the increases that we have seen, in a short amount of time.
The trainer that was sent to us was Todd Wooten. He did an excellent job with our staff. He was extremely knowledgeable on the workings of a service department. He worked with our staff on a one-on-one basis. He helped them to become stronger in their work habits, communication and their sales ability. He also aided in over coming any objections that customers may have. I sat through one of Todd’s training sessions, which helped clear up a lot of questions that I had about the Pro Talk process. As previously mentioned, our over all goals were met in a much quicker time frame than anticipated and our staff has become more thorough in their responsibilities which aided the process as well.
One more thing that I would like to tell you is please feel free to use me as a reference to promote the Pro Talk process as well as your trainer Todd Wooten. If one follows the step-by-step process that was set forth by our trainer Todd Wooten, then I can confidently say that, without a doubt the process truly works. Thank you for your services, assistance of the Pro Talk team!
If you have any questions or need to discuss any of this further, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you for your services!”
Sincerely,
John Cloninger
Cloninger Ford Toyota Scion
Service Director of Fixed Operations
______________________________________________________________________________
“Just wanted to say thank you for your training class. I have been to many classes in my 20 years as a Service Advisor. I have taken technical, manager, and Service Advisor classes from Ford, Goodyear, Chrysler, Autonation, and ATCON. Your class was the most real life training out of them all. I received information that I will actually use and it was presented as not just what, but what you should do to get increased sales. THANK YOU, and I look forward to meeting with you again.”
Greg L.
Lexus of Orlando
Lexus of Orlando
______________________________________________________________________________
“Best Service Advisor Sales Training
I’ve seen in my 30 years in the business. All of our stores increased
over an hour of C.P.R.O. averages in just a short period of time!”
Bruce B.
Earnhardt’s Automotive Group
Earnhardt’s Automotive Group
______________________________________________________________________________
I attended one of your presentations at NADA, Las Vegas just over two weeks ago. I am based in the Republic of South Africa.
I am an Executive for After Sales (Fixed Operations) for our 33 dealerships of different franchises. I just found it proper just to drop you a note to say, THANK YOU for your passion! I found your presentation refreshing and very basic. It goes to show that money is made at a very basic level with an acceptable level of knowledge. Execution or implementation is important…. Much of what you said is not unknown in some ways but the way you packaged your presentation was certainly very compelling. The standing ovation you got was certainly deserved. Hopefully you return at next years’ convention in Orlando with more content and vigour!
Sir, you know your subject! Well done.”
Kind regards,
Mosalla S.
Barloworld Motor Retail
Executive: After Sales
______________________________________________________________________________
“Jeff,
I wanted to thank you for the seminar yesterday. I have been to many service training seminars over the last 19 years in this business and I must say yours was the very best. My Service Advisor and I walked away quite frankly blown away. We can’t wait to apply the lessons learned yesterday.”
Ben R.
Leavens Volkswagen Londaon, Ontario
Service Manager
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Want A Better Bottom Line? Give Better Service
Eight Ways to Make Customers to Love a Local Business. Click Here to read the article from Manta.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
60 Second Guide To Managing Upset Customers
Source: Templates & Tools by Score.org
Having respect for your customers will ensure their faith in and loyalty to you and your business. Studies show that it is nine times more difficult to attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing one, so it is critical to keep your customers happy. Surveys, focus groups and questionnaires are among the ways to measure your customers’ perceptions of you and determine how to improve.
If you discover that a customer is dissatisfied, take action immediately to win back their confidence in the services you provide. People like to know that their opinion counts and if they feel like you care about what they think, they will think positive thoughts about you and your business.
In just 60-seconds, you’ll learn how to manage upset customers and turn them into long-term, satisfied customers.
0:60 Stay Calm
Listen carefully to your customers' complaints without interrupting. Acknowledge that there is a problem and empathize with upset customers. Let them know what you can do for them and make them aware of all of their options. Always treat your customers with respect. Customers should sense that you are calm, but concerned. Your attitude when dealing with upset customers should be professional, mature, pleasant and reasonable.
0:46 Work at Gaining Loyal Customers
The number one reason that customers stop buying from a business is because they were treated poorly by someone. It is much more cost effective to retain loyal customers than to gain new ones. In order to create loyalty, you have to calm down upset customers and ensure them that you will work to find a solution that they deem acceptable. Let them know that their business is important. Thank them for their patience and cooperation. In many cases, it pays to reward upset customers in order to keep their business.
0:38 Look & Act Professional
A first impression is a lasting impression. Your appearance should signal that you are professional, mature and knowledgeable. Nonverbal communication also says a lot. Your body language and tone of voice should be polite and tactful. Pay attention to your facial expressions, posture, gestures and speech.
0:20 Choose Who You Want to Do Business With
There are some people who will never be happy with your products or services. Repeated complaints from a customer and terminal dissatisfaction are signs that you cannot please him or her. Your business is better off without such customers and you may want to refer them elsewhere.
0:11 Ensure that Mistakes Aren't Repeated
Once you determine the problem and how it originated, you can take steps to ensure that it does not happen again. Learning about a problem can actually help improve your business if you make sure that the problem is avoided in the future. Don't make the same mistake twice. In dealing with upset customers, you also learn about human behavior and become better at resolving similar situations in the future.
0:03 Don't Take Criticism Personally
Many discourteous customers act that way because they made a mistake and want to blame someone else. Don't let these customers get to you by responding emotionally or giving in to outrageous demands. Tears, anger and sarcasm are inappropriate reactions.
View more at Score.org
Having respect for your customers will ensure their faith in and loyalty to you and your business. Studies show that it is nine times more difficult to attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing one, so it is critical to keep your customers happy. Surveys, focus groups and questionnaires are among the ways to measure your customers’ perceptions of you and determine how to improve.
If you discover that a customer is dissatisfied, take action immediately to win back their confidence in the services you provide. People like to know that their opinion counts and if they feel like you care about what they think, they will think positive thoughts about you and your business.
In just 60-seconds, you’ll learn how to manage upset customers and turn them into long-term, satisfied customers.
0:60 Stay Calm
Listen carefully to your customers' complaints without interrupting. Acknowledge that there is a problem and empathize with upset customers. Let them know what you can do for them and make them aware of all of their options. Always treat your customers with respect. Customers should sense that you are calm, but concerned. Your attitude when dealing with upset customers should be professional, mature, pleasant and reasonable.
0:46 Work at Gaining Loyal Customers
The number one reason that customers stop buying from a business is because they were treated poorly by someone. It is much more cost effective to retain loyal customers than to gain new ones. In order to create loyalty, you have to calm down upset customers and ensure them that you will work to find a solution that they deem acceptable. Let them know that their business is important. Thank them for their patience and cooperation. In many cases, it pays to reward upset customers in order to keep their business.
0:38 Look & Act Professional
A first impression is a lasting impression. Your appearance should signal that you are professional, mature and knowledgeable. Nonverbal communication also says a lot. Your body language and tone of voice should be polite and tactful. Pay attention to your facial expressions, posture, gestures and speech.
0:20 Choose Who You Want to Do Business With
There are some people who will never be happy with your products or services. Repeated complaints from a customer and terminal dissatisfaction are signs that you cannot please him or her. Your business is better off without such customers and you may want to refer them elsewhere.
0:11 Ensure that Mistakes Aren't Repeated
Once you determine the problem and how it originated, you can take steps to ensure that it does not happen again. Learning about a problem can actually help improve your business if you make sure that the problem is avoided in the future. Don't make the same mistake twice. In dealing with upset customers, you also learn about human behavior and become better at resolving similar situations in the future.
0:03 Don't Take Criticism Personally
Many discourteous customers act that way because they made a mistake and want to blame someone else. Don't let these customers get to you by responding emotionally or giving in to outrageous demands. Tears, anger and sarcasm are inappropriate reactions.
View more at Score.org
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