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5 Simple Steps To Improve Your Customer Service Right Away

By Leonard Buchholz

There are so many things we try to improve Customer Service. And the most effective are the simplest. Read about 5 ways you can improve right now!

There are 5 Simple Steps that you can do that will make a difference in your Customer Service right away. Some of the Steps will seem obvious.

It’s just that we assume everybody has what is commonly referred to as “The Basics.”

I’m here to tell you…….WAKE UP! And smell the coffee before it’s too late.

Here are the 5 Simple Steps to teach that will make a big difference.

1. Teach them to SMILE. I know, it seems too simple, doesn’t it? Why would I need to point that out? It’s because I travel all over the country and consistently receive better service whenever I am Smiled at. And I can always tell when I am about to receive less than Average Service when I don’t receive a Smile.

In today’s faster, unfriendly and discourteous world it makes a HUGE difference.

It may not seem too scientific, that Smiling thing. Just try NOT Smiling to your Customers for a couple of days and see what happens. Understand this is a big part of the Perception. When people Smile at us, we perceive it to be a much better experience, even if it was mediocre.

I recently had a meal at a restaurant in Bellingham, Wa. that quite frankly, was average. It was not bad, it was not great, it was good. Average. However, if you asked me my Perception of that restaurant I would say it was Great! based on the interaction and Smile quotient that my waitress gave me. She was outstanding! Smiles will make the meal taste better and the Service sweeter.

2. Say their Name. It’s the most wonderful sound to our ears. Our Name. And when someone takes the time to learn ours, we feel really appreciated and will respond appropriately. Even in a quick Customer Service environment like fast food or dry cleaners, we will always return to a place that remembers our name.

It’s quite simple to do actually. Introduce yourself, and ask their name. It goes like this, “Hello, my name is Leonard, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Your name is…?” Whew, that was hard, wasn’t it? Here is the trick. Remember it by focusing on their name and either the color of their eyes or an article of clothing.

If you are in the restaurant business, introduce yourself, ask their name and when delivering their order, set it in front of them and say “Mary, you’ll really enjoy this dish.” Watch your tips go up.

3. Use Courtesy. Use those words you learned when you were little. They include “Please”, “Thank You”, “May I help you”, “How are you doing”, “Is there anything else I can do for you today”, “How did you find your service experience today”.

Courtesy also extends to actions, not just words. I worked at a dealership that emphasized things like walking your Customer to the item they asked about, cleaning the bathroom sink with a paper towel after using it and presenting the best possible face to the Customer along with other things that demonstrated their commitment to the Service Experience.

4. Ask for feedback from the Customer on the use of and experience of your Customer Service. Ask the right way. Instead of “How was our service today?” which will get you a “Oh, it was fine” kind of answer, ask “On a scale of 1 to 10 how would we score on providing Service to you today?” (It is the “Specific” question that gets results) You might get a lot more interesting answers especially if you ask the follow up question “Specifically, how could I make it a 10 in your eyes?” for any answer that is not a 10.

5. Invite your Customer to come back. The right way. It’s all in the presentation. “It was good to see you today, and I look forward to seeing you again. If for any reason you remember something we could have done better, call me at 111-111-1111 and ask for me personally.” If that is too long winded, say “My name is _____. Please ask for me when you come back.” You might even say “It was a pleasure to take care of you. Please come back and ask for me, ________.”

I read somewhere that the most complex questions we face in our society are often solved with the simplest of solutions. Here are 5 Simple Steps you can take right away.

Customer Service is not that complex. It’s a Simple Business. We make it complex.       

There is not a result unless you take action. This article is written in the hope that you decide what you would like to change and then taking action to make the change. If you like what you have read and would like to have more interaction to really have impact then email me at leonard@bizprotraining.com or call 760-529-5635.Leading Seminars in Leadership, Management and Customer Service since 2006.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leonard_Buchholz

 

Manage Call-Center Performance With Business Metrics

By Sam Miller
Platinum Quality Author
Today’s call center is not something about phone calls, it’s a separate business that can… no it MUST generate revenue. It must provide company with fresh ideas, must help company to get new customers and archive business goals, it must work 24 hours a day, live response must be accessible within few seconds. Finally, the operator’s response must solve customer problems immediately, must save customers that wished to cancel service and must generate revenue.

There are various viewpoints on call center - operator view point, customer view point and management viewpoint. Customer wishes the problem to be solved. Operators’ job is to solve the problem, actually operators’ job is to find correct information quickly and provide it with customer in an easy to follow way.

What about management? These people always make things working properly. So what is the best thing that call center manager can do? How to manage call center efficiently?

The Balanced Scorecard approach is the best answer to these questions.

Balanced Scorecard is nothing, but the concept. It’s not a software tool, it is not a database, it is not an ERP system. Think about Balanced Scorecard as a combination of metrics and the rules of metrics management.

The key rule for managing metrics is to put them in proper order. Metrics must represent actual business (calls, operators, expenses and revenues), metrics must be grouped. It’s bad idea to create too many metrics and there must be some golden number of metrics suitable for your business. Let’s think about call center in terms of Balanced Scorecard and in terms of metrics.

The Balanced Scorecard concept suggests to use four perspectives to describe any business. Let’s discuss the most important perspectives and metrics associated with these perspectives.

Financial perspective. The key idea here is “call center must generate revenue”. It’s a good idea to measure revenue per successful call and the cost of call. Financial perspective will give you an idea about conversion rate. Making more and more calls is not a good goal. Good goal is: “Make 20% more calls, keeping conversion rate about 4% and keeping our costs flat”.

Balanced Scorecard concept is about measuring. So when you have some metrics, describe the way you will measure them, specify the target values you wish to achieve.

The next perspective is Internal process perspective. How the phone call is handled inside the call center? Do you segment in some way your incoming customers? What is the average call-handling time? Is your call center service available 24 hours a day?

Learning and growth perspective. Coaching is what makes call center working efficiently. Team leader must spend time on coaching, manage must measure and control this time. Team leader must use different coaching methods, such as remote listening, sharing practices with agents, role-playing exercises. It’s good idea to measure these activities. Today call center management systems provides efficient technical background for a call center, coaching is what makes all this software systems work.

Finally, don’t forget about customer. From customer perspective consider measuring response time quality, customer loose rate and first-call resolution rate. It sounds simple, but these key indicators will help to re-think call center and make it performing better.

Call-center MUST generate sales, it must save customers and must return investments. The key concept is to measure and control call center performance with call center metrics and Balanced Scorecard concept. What tool to use to manage your metrics? Anything you like, in this case any spreadsheet software will work better than thousand-dollars business systems.

If you are interested in call center metrics and measuring business performance with Balanced Scorecard try Sam Miller web-site.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sam_Miller

 

Managing People - How To Find The Time To Actually Do It

By Norma Smith Davis

How can we find the time to actually supervise our people? There are really three parts to managers’ jobs. But two of them take up most of the time. (God forbid we should ever just let the job be about supervising people!) Here are three tips to help you find the time to help our employees do their best work for us and for the organization.

The Three Parts of a Manager’s Job

•One third of your job is about your own work. That’s work you are held accountable for and that only you can do. This might include planning, researching, doing work your own boss delegates to you. You may spend time reviewing others’ work and approving it.

•Another third is about the myriad of organizational obligations you have. These include meetings, the minutia of memos, responding to emails, filling out forms for other departments, etc, etc, etc. Some call this “administrivia”.

•The last third is about actually supervising your staff, that is training, coaching, counseling, evaluating, mentoring and helping your employees to be successful at their jobs, (which you are also responsible for!).

In an ideal world your time would be at least evenly distributed in each of the three areas.

The Problem:

Many managers and supervisors just laugh, sigh, or sometimes cry when they hear this because their own work and the many administrative duties crowd out the supervision portion. They wish it were different, but it isn’t. They spend more like 85% in the first two and 15% working with their people. Often they must stay late or take work home that involves performance evaluations and other required duties. How can you carve out time to add value to your employees, to help them to be more successful and fulfill the mission of your unit, department or organization? Here are three tips to help:

1. Learn to delegate more and more of your work to your experienced staff so you free up time to work with others who may need coaching, counseling, training, or a good swift kick!

2. Create one hour per day that is expressly devoted to open door discussion. Let the staff know that during this hour daily, you welcome their interruptions to talk about anything that is going on for them, problems they are encountering, assistance they need. It can also be a time for them to let you know what might be going on in their personal or family life that may have an affect on their work or their observations about a procedure or process that could be changed to be more effective. This allows you the time to do in-the-moment coaching, problem solving or conflict resolution. It gives you clues as to who may need more training, who is bored and ready for more complex work and a myriad of other things. But mostly it keeps the staff from complaining about the fact that the only time you have time for them is when something has gone wrong!

3. Look at your own workload. What is taking up your time? Sometimes the 80-20 rule comes into play. Often 20% of your duties take up 80% of your time. Delegate some of those! If you can’t delegate some of them, then look at which ones you can just stop doing. You know what I am talking about…those silly reports that no one looks at, those weekly meetings where nothing ever gets done, the one employee out of 10 that takes up so much time. What can you just stop doing?

Try it. Just put those projects or tasks in a bottom drawer and leave them there for three months. If no one complains you have given yourself more time to devote to supervision. Also look at your workflow. Are there processes and procedures that if redesigned could save you a lot of time? Often these have to do with duplicative work you do involving other departments or other people.

It is really rewarding to finally have time to do the thing you are actually hired to do…supervise people, help them grow, provide them with training, coaching, counseling and all the other things that create job satisfaction for them and for you as well.

I invite you to help appreciate and motivate your employees by getting a copy of ‘No Cost and Low Cost Ways To Reward Your Employees.”Just click here http://www.KeyManagementSkills.com You’ll get three more each week. Norma Smith Davis has 20 years of management consulting experience and has the greatest respect for those mid-level managers and supervisors who are the hardest working people in organizations today. Check us out at http://www.KeyManagementSkills.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Norma_Smith_Davis

Resumes and First Impressions

By Carole Sue Jones

Hunting for a position in a new career field?  Trying to take your new education or skills and transform them into a job with a future? 

I’ve spent the last few weeks working in a placement service trying to help people find that first “career” job; trying to help them make the transition from student to employee.  I see the same mistakes over and over again.  Here are a couple of things to be aware of as you search for that fresh start. 

1.      The Skim Rule - Understand that most recruiters will only take less than 30 seconds to skim a resume for further review.  Are your skills and abilities described in such a way that they leap off the page.  Large companies now use recruiting software to determine which resumes will be processed for further review.  If your resume is inconsistent, uses incorrect terminology for the position you're applying for, or is cluttered you might not make the cut. 

2.      Spell check, spell check, spell check- Then review for proper grammar and usage.  I can’t tell you how many resumes are ignored each day because the grammar, spelling or word usage is improper.  If you don’t take the time to verify that the resume you’re sending is correct, how careful will you be with your potential employer’s information? 

3.      Acronyms and Jargon- Unless the jargon or acronym is standard in the industry try to avoid it.  If the recruiter does not understand what you are referring too, then they are unlikely to continue reviewing the resume.  Take the time to define and describe your acronyms, jargon or software functions. 

4.      Contact Phone Number – You’ve put your contact phone number on your resume.  Is it actually a number you can be reached at?  If you are using your cell phone will you be able to keep the service current and turned on?  Will other people be answering the phone?  Will they know how to take a message? 

5.      Voice Mail – Your cell phone and answering machine messages provide the ability to include music, speech clips and even real audio in your greeting.  I know the temptation to play your favorite song or audio clip for you callers is great; however I suggest you resist.  You want to give a potential employer a good first impression when they attempt to reach you to set up the initial interview.  Your voice mail message should include your name, a brief message requesting information and an assurance that you will return the call.  For example:  “You have reached Carole Jones, I’m unable to answer the phone at this time, but if you will leave your name and number I will return your call as soon as possible.  Thank you.” 

6.      The Application - Your resume can say anything you want to about yourself. A Resume is merely an ad to sell you to a potential employer.   When you are asked to fill out an application you are creating a legal document.  The application needs to be complete and honest.  If the company uses any type of background check you can be disqualified from consideration because of inaccuracies on the application.  It is never appropriate to refer to your resume on an application (i.e. SEE RESUME).  Take the time to provide complete and accurate information.  

7.      References - Do the people you have listed for your reference know they are being used as a reference?  Have you requested permission to use them as references in the past?  Do you keep in touch with you references?  Nothing leaves a bad impression like the potential employer trying to check references only to have the contact person confused or worse yet, unprepared to speak on your behalf.  Always let your reference know if you have had a great interview and you think the potential employer will be checking references.  While you’re at it, make sure that the contact information you are providing is accurate and current.  Nothing will disqualify you faster than the future employer’s inability to verify your references or work history.

 Carole Sue Jones is a Trainer and Instructional Designer with 10 years of experience in Call Center Management and Training.

Time Management

By Carole Sue Jones

The “to do” List 

I recently did a web search on time management and received 50,500,000 hits.  In reality probably only two to three hundred of them were really about time management, but the prevalence of such sites indicates how important the concept is to all of us.  The time management industry is flooded with books about how manage your day.  Time management tools with everything from computer programs for scheduling to the ubiquitous planner to simple task lists can be found in every bookstore across the country.  Yet recent reports indicate that we are working longer hours, sleeping less and decreasing productivity.   

How can you make time management work for you? 

Really that’s the question, regardless of what system you choose to apply to your time management needs, it has to be something that can work for you.  If your time management tool, choice or system doesn’t work for you then it simply becomes another task that has to be accomplished in an already busy day.   

Most time management starts with something as useful as a “to do” list.  We all have tasks that must be accomplished within a certain period of time, whether that time frame is a single day or a plan for the next several months.  Tasks are added to the list and crossed out as they are accomplished.  Your “to do” list can be as simple as a notebook page, a daily page in your planner, a function of MS Outlook or a task list on your PDA. 

In general a “to do” list is a simple and effective way to see all the tasks that impact your day.  Just follow a few simple guideline and your “to do” list will work for you (and not the other way around). 

Creating and prioritizing a “To Do” list:

First create a simple To-Do List. Using whichever tool you’ve chosen.

List all of the tasks for which you are responsible.

Don’t worry about accomplishing everything right now.  The key is to get the right things done by prioritizing. 

A To-Do list will most likely be a living, never-ending document.  New things appear as old ones are cleared away.

For each item on the list, answer these questions:

One Time or Reoccurring – Do you have to complete this task more than once?  Often?  Perhaps on a regular basis?

Due Date – When must the task be completed by?

Time Required For Completion – How long will the task take to complete? Is the task variable?

Other Resources Required – What other resources will be needed to complete this task?

Benefits and Consequences – What are the benefits of completing the task?  The consequences on not completing it?

  Use the answers to these questions to decide which tasks must be completed first.

Once you have prioritized your tasks you are ready to start scheduling them.  Plan the completion of each task.

  Start with the givens.  Block out those tasks with known times.

  Place the rest of your tasks into the schedule according to your priorities.

  Build in some flexibility so that you can handle life’s little emergencies.

  Pay attention to the resources required.  Remember that you yourself are a resource.  Match tasks requiring the most mental effort to those portions of your day when you feel the most productive.

  Don’t forget to include personal time. (if you have scheduled every minute of your day for work, when are you going to refresh, regroup, renew?)

Most time management tools are really creative ways of completing a “to do” list.  If you choose to use something like a PDA or a computer program like MS Outlook you can easily manage reoccurring events and meetings by reserving blocks of time and creating reminders for those things that might get lost in the daily shuffle of work and paper.  If you choose to use a planner, remember to carry reoccurring event through to the next day, week or month.  Once your comfortable working with your “to do” list you can expand it to include goal setting.   

While “to do” list may get you started on your time management endeavors there are all kinds of thoughts and theories out there about how to effectively manage our time.  I would like to think that if I can complete all the tasks I have to accomplish today, and check them off my list, I might be able to schedule an extra hour of sleep.  Maybe I can put it on my “to do” list. 

Carole Sue Jones is a Trainer and Instructional Designer with 10 years of experience in Call Center Management and Training.

Call Center Morale Boosting Strategies

Michael Russell

Morale is deceptively important in the running of an efficient call center. The reason it is deceptive is because while most bosses acknowledge the relationship between morale and productivity, few call center bosses are able to accurately pin down a decrease in productivity as being directly related to a lowered morale. The reason it is important is the same; namely that a higher morale means happier workers, which in turn leads to an overall increase in call center productivity.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Call Centers Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Russell

Finances Hold Back Uganda Call Center - PC World

Stop working so hard trying to improve your call center performance, use call center games to achieve extraordinary results.

Finances Hold Back Uganda Call Center - PC World
 

Finances Hold Back Uganda Call Center PC World - 4 hours ago Financial challenges are holding back the launch of Uganda's first call center, being set up by Makerere University's faculty of Computing and Information …

 

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Flash Global Logistics is C-TPAT Certified - Membership Adds Value for - Forbes
Flash Global Logistics, Inc., leading global critical parts and products logistics solutions provider, met or exceeded required security measures for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. FLASH is proud to

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An historic Hubbard-era building along the main Roycroft campus in East Aurora will revert to its roots. First, though, the building's current tenant - the Town of Aurora municipal offices - needs to move. The Town of Aurora has sold its offices on

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Leaders visit Filipino call center - Herald News
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