Elliott walked into a restaurant and waited, watching the hostess giggle and gossip with one of the wait staff. He watched them carry on for a couple minutes, unconcerned he was there, even after he said something. As he turned to leave, he pulled out his phone and furiously typed out a message. Before his car left the parking lot, he had sent a message about his experience. He warned his 10,000 web community friends about this restaurant.
?Someone like Elliot might walk into your business next. What kind of message will he or she send about your customer service?
?Years ago, if people were upset with your product or service they might tell 10 or 11 others. No more. With the growth of smart phones, tablets and laptops, they can now turn thousands away from your establishment within seconds.
?On the other hand, people who are pleased with their experience, who used to tell two or three people, can now rally thousands of new prospects!
?What can we do to maintain our reputations in this new world? A business must begin with a customer service plan. By recognizing and acting on this plan, a business is on the road to creating a strong customer base.
?On the Ground
First and foremost, we need to be sure that we (owners, managers and employees) do our best to deliver a perfect product to everyone who enters our door. If something does go wrong, everyone needs to know how to provide first-class customer service.
Great customer service is a set of skills that can be learned. The most efficient way to teach these skills is with a system, customized to your business. This strategy also helps managers and employees practice customer service consistently. Once you and your staff learn customer service principles, continuous review and practice are necessary.
When a customer arrives and has anything less than a good experience, someone on your staff needs to take care of the problem right away. It is more dangerous than ever to ignore the dissatisfied customer. Knowing how to turn a dissatisfied patron into a loyal customer is one significant key to offering great customer service and keeping the path to your door inviting.
In the Air
Customers no longer only talk about their experiences. More mobile devices mean more customers respond immediately to their experiences with your business. These airborne messages speed up their feedback and they can influence thousands with the click of a few keys. Recognizing and responding quickly to this feedback is a crucial action for protecting your business reputation.
Reputation management is a new skill businesses need to master. This is another level of service as necessary as delivering face-to-face service. Reputation management is protecting your image on the net (brand vigilance). Two significant factors are knowing what others are saying about your company online and maintaining a positive image with your online presence. Your web presence may be on Facebook, Google Places, Twitter, Linkedln, FourSquare or local networks. If you are not working on your image, others probably are, and it may not be what you want.
Great customer service is never an accident. It is the result of preparation and training. Today the astute business person must manage customer service both in their establishment and on the net.
It?s important to make sure you have a simple pathway for satisfied customers and raving fans to post reviews on-line. This can be as simple as having key directories like Google Places or Yelp accessible from your website, easy to find where they can be accessed without having to scroll down or go to a different page.
Another important aspect of reputation management is training your staff to listen out for raving fans and both appreciating them as well as making it easy for them to post a review on-line. It all starts with being clear which customers will appreciate your product or service the most and which customers you cannot serve well, attracting the best and monitoring the others. Be sure to have good social media, web based content and simple reputation monitors like Google/alerts or socialmention.com .
When a customer arrives and has anything less than a good experience, someone on your staff needs to take care of the problem right away. It is more dangerous than ever to ignore the dissatisfied customer. Knowing how to turn a dissatisfied patron into a loyal customer is one significant key to offering great customer service and keeping the path to your door inviting.
Want to take your customer service to a more productive level?
To help your business prosper on the ground and in the air, Martin Brossman and Drew Becker are offering Customer Service Training.? They specialize in fulfilling the unique needs of your business and creating effective customized training plans.
Contact:? Colleen@MartinBrossman.com to schedule an initial conversation.
Martin Brossman is a business success coach and trainer with experience in retail management and? award-winning customer service.? He integrates social media strategy with grassroots marketing..
Drew Becker is a trainer and teacher. He has worked in customer service and developed a customized system to help companies train their staff to provide excellent customer service.
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