consumer behaviour

Interpersonal Communication – Your Key to Customer Service Success

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Interpersonal Communication – Your Key to Customer Service Success

To be successful in your interactions with customers whose values, beliefs and experiences differ from your own, you will need to broaden your scope of knowledge related to interpersonal; communication, especially nonverbal signals (cues).

Interpersonal Communication – Your Key to Customer Service Success

Because nonverbal communication styles and interpretations often differ from person-to-person and from one culture to another, the likelihood of breakdowns in interpretation and misunderstandings of nonverbal cues is high.

To enhance your awareness and skills in this area, attend seminars on nonverbal communication and cultural diversity, explore books, articles, and other information online or at the library, watch other people and talk about differences with others that you know. The more you know, the better your interpersonal communication skills will likely become.

For additional ideas and tips on more effectively honing your interpersonal communication skills, get copies of Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and Customer Service Skills for Success.

Interpersonal Communication Skills Tip

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Interpersonal Communication Skills Tip

Effective interpersonal communication skills are crucial for delivering excellent customer service. Interpersonal Communication Skills Tip

Verbal communication skills are important, but nonverbal communication cues are often more so. Still, while you may potentially gather a lot of information through nonverbal cues received from others, be careful of putting too much emphasis on your interpretation. Why? Because many factors influence the messages being sent by others. For example, nonverbal cues can have different meanings or be interpreted differently based on factors like gender, culture, diversity, education, personal experiences and other factors.

The easiest way to prevent misinterpretation is to always ask someone to clarify their nonverbal cues when you are not sure of their meaning.

For more tips on dealing effectively with customers, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

Why Internet Sales Revenue Continues to Climb over five years

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 Why Internet Sales Revenue Continues to Climb over Five YearsInternet Sales Revenue Continues to Climb from 2012-2017

Ever since customers discovered the value and savings in time, effort and money from using the Internet to shop for products and services, the world has not been the same.

Revenue generated from electronic commerce (eCommerce) continues its upward climb each year. According to eMarketer.com (April 2013), U.S. eCommerce sales are expected to almost double between 2012 and 2017, going from 225.5 billion t0  434.2 billion in revenue by 2017.

This type of volume justifies business owners and others with products and services to sell on the Internet and through other eCommerce sources to invest in training employees how to effectively deliver the best possible customer service through technology.

For ideas and strategies on how to effectively deliver stellar customer service using technology, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success and How to Be  Great Call Center Representative.

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills.

Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Bob Lucas B.S., M.A., M.A, CPLP is the principal in Robert W. Lucas Enterprises, Inc and an internationally-known author; learning and performance professionals. He has written and contributed to numerous books on the subject of customer service skill training.

He regularly conducts workshops on creative training, train-the-trainer, customer service, interpersonal communication, and management,
and supervisory skills.

Learn more about Bob and his organization at www.robertwlucas.com and follow his blogs at www.robertwlucas.com/wordpress,
www.customerserviceskillsbook.com, and www.thecreativetrainer.com. Like Bob at www.facebook.com/robertwlucasenterprises

Black Friday Stats Show a Huge Success

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Black Friday Stats Show a Huge Success

Each year, online and brick and mortar retailers strive to increase sales and revenues generated around the period of Thanksgiving and Black Friday. This year was no exception, with many companies offering pre-Black Friday deals followed by Cyber Monday opportunities to attract customers and generate sales, customers were treated to an extended period of sales bargains.

Black Friday Stats Show 2013 Was a Huge Success

According to a Vancouver, Canada-based company (Wishpond Technologies Ltd.- a local shopping platform that connects online consumers with local merchants through the web, mobile, social media and partner platforms), 2013 was a huge success.

Here are some Black Friday statistics that the company shared through a presentation on the website Slideshare:

  • $12.3 billion was the overall brick-and-mortar store sales for Thanksgiving  and Black Friday 2013 – up 2.3% from 2012 (source: CNN Money)
  • $1.964 billion was the overall online sales for Thanksgiving and Black Friday  – up over 18.5% from 2012 (source: TechCrunch)
  • The average 2013 Black Friday online order was $135.27 – that’s up 2.2%  year-over-year (source: TechCrunch)
  • Black Friday online mentions peaked at 11 am CST (source: Forbes)
  • Walmart dominated in Black Friday mentions, with 77.5% of the voice (source:  Forbes)
  • But… 4 to 1 those Walmart mentions were negative (with words like “fight”  “fought” and “fighting”) (source: Forbes)
  • Pinterest vs. Facebook 7 Pinterest dominates in direct sales. Referrals from  the site spent 77% more than those from Facebook: $92.51 – average Pinterest  order $52.30 – average Facebook order (source: Forbes)
  • Pinterest vs. Facebook 8 But… Facebook referrals converted sales at nearly  4x’s the rate of Pinterest (source: TechCrunch)
  • Mobile traffic: Grew to 39.7% of all online traffic – that’s an increase of  34% over Black Friday 2012 (source: TechCrunch)
  • Mobile sales: reached 21.8% of total online sales – that’s an increase of  nearly 43% from last year (source: TechCrunch)
  • 24.9% of all online traffic on Black Friday came from smartphones – that  compares to tablets at 14.2% (source: TechCrunch)
  • How do you pay? PayPal reported a 121% increase in global mobile payments compared to Black Friday 2012 (source: TechCrunch).

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills.

Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Bob Lucas B.S., M.A., M.A, CPLP is the principal in Robert W. Lucas Enterprises, Inc and an internationally-known author; learning and performance professionals. He has written and contributed to numerous books on the subject of customer service skill training.

He regularly conducts workshops on creative training, train-the-trainer, customer service, interpersonal communication, and management,
and supervisory skills.

Learn more about Bob and his organization at www.robertwlucas.com and follow his blogs at www.robertwlucas.com/wordpress,
www.customerserviceskillsbook.com, and www.thecreativetrainer.com. Like Bob at www.facebook.com/robertwlucasenterprises

The Impact of Stress on Customer Service

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The Impact of Stress on Customer Service

The Impact of Stress on Customer Service

The world moves at a much faster pace than it did decades ago because of advancing technology. Changing customer values, beliefs, needs, wants and expectations have caused much of this acceleration. Added pressure to succeed and remain competitive while trying to maintain some sibilance of normalcy related to work-family life has come along with these changes. All of this potentially creates stress for customer service representatives.

Stress is a major contributor to loss of workplace efficiency. Each year, millions of dollars and countless worker-hours of productivity are lost because of stress-related illnesses. In all stress-related studies, customer service is often rated among the top most stressful occupations. In fact, many studies have consistently listed customer service in the top ten most stressful occupations in the United States. This is because the variety of people and situations service professionals face on any given day requires them to call on a multitude of skills and to think quickly. The results of pressures that people are facing in the workplace have been staggering, financially and from a health standpoint.

Some of the results of stress in a service environment include:

  • Poor quality of service.
  • Lost revenue.
  • Loss of brand and customer loyalty.
  • Poor worker productivity.
  • Negative interpersonal exchanges with customers.
  • Worker tardiness or absenteeism.
  • High employee turnover.
  • Higher health costs.
  • Increased training costs.

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

 

Four Tips for Delivering Exceptional Customer Service

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Four Tips for Delivering Exceptional Customer Service

Each customer is unique, yet similar. The challenge is to identify their specific needs, wants and expectations and they work hard to meet and exceed those.

Four Tips for Delivering Exceptional Customer Service

The following tips can help you provide better service to all your customers:

  • To aid you in your quest for providing the best possible customer service, read whatever positive information you can get your hands on related to customer service.
  • Take classes on how to interact and communicate with a variety of different categories of diverse people (e.g. older/younger, differing genders, culturally diverse, and differently-abled).
  • Sign up for courses in psychology, sociology, and interpersonal communication. These are invaluable for providing a basis of understanding why people act as they do and how to more effectively interact with them in various environments.
  • During your studies, focus on issues of differences and similarities between men and women, cultural diversity, behavioral styles, and any other topic that will expand and round out your knowledge of people.

By going out of your way to enhance your customer service knowledge and skills and improve customer service, you can effectively impact brand and customer loyalty for your organization.

For more ideas on how to create a customer-centric environment where customers enjoy coming to visit you and the organization, read Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

 

Building Successful Customer Loyalty

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Building Successful Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is an emotional rather than a rational thing. Each time there is contact at a touchpoint where the customer and service provider come together there is the opportunity for further cementing the customer relationship and loyalty or driving a wedge between the customer and organization due to failure to meet expectations or needs.

With every contact, service providers should strive to demonstrate a commitment to exceed customer expectations and provide an experience that is beyond anything for which they might have hoped. Tied to commitment, loyalty is typically based on customer interest in maintaining a relationship with your organization or brand. Often, customer interest is created and maintained through one or more positive experiences that lead to a relationship.

Buidling Successful Customer Loyalty

An important point to keep in mind about customer loyalty is that it does not happen as a result of a single customer-provider encounter. Nor does it happen just because of periodic special promotions, sales or passive loyalty programs that provide only minimal rewards. Rather, true customer loyalty stems from an organization’s concerted, ongoing efforts that are part of their strategic goals to meet and exceed the expectations and needs of their customers.

For more information on customer loyalty and how to create and maintain a solid bond with your customers, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

What is a Service Breakdown ?

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What is a Service Breakdown?

Service breakdowns occur daily in all types of organizations. They happen whenever the product or service delivered fails to meet customer needs, wants and expectations.

What is a Service Breakdown ?

In some cases the product or service delivered may function exactly as it was designed or promised, still, if the customer perceived that it should work another way, a breakdown can occur. Additionally, when a product or service fails to meet what the customer wants or needs or does not live up to advertised promises or standards, dissatisfaction and frustration can result.

In addition, customer expectations can affect how service is delivered and perceived. Today’s customers are more discerning and better educated, have access to more up-to-date and accurate information. They are often more demanding than in the past. Their expectations about your products and services and the way that you will provide them may create a situation where little you do or say can meet their perceptions. In such cases, remain professional, positive and offer alternatives or concessions, if appropriate, in order to maintain the relationship and provide what the customer needs or wants.

Failure to fulfill some or all of your customer expectations can lead to dissatisfaction and in some cases confrontation and/or loss of business. Keep in mind that they also have many more options offered by your competitors.

For ideas on how to avoid and recover from customer service breakdowns and salvage relationships when customer service does not go as planned, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success by Robert W. Lucas.

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Customer Service Tip – Use Behavioral Style Assessments Surveys to Better Understand Yourself and Your Customers

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Customer Service Tip – Use Behavioral Style Assessments Surveys

to Better Understand Yourself and Your Customers

By better understanding yourself and why you behave the way that you do when interacting with customers and other people, you can work toward building stronger relationships in the future. This is especially true when interacting with customers and potential customers. The point is that the more you know about people, the better prepared you are to deliver excellent service, meet customer wants, needs and expectations, provide satisfaction and aid customer and brand loyalty.

Customer Service Tip - Use Behavioral Style Assessments Surveys to Better Understand Yourself and Your CustomersOne way to achieve better self-awareness is to use commercially available self-assessment surveys (questionnaires) that are available online or through consultants who specialize in their use. By attending training sessions that use and help explain these instruments you can be a more rounded individual personally. You can also start to recognize the behavioral traits that you display in others. In doing so, you can start to tailor your actions and reactions to other people in different situations in order to help mold a more positive situational outcome. This is especially true when there is the emotion or negative energy involved displayed on either person’s part during a customer-provider interaction.

Two popular commercially available surveys or questionnaires include:

For more ideas on how to improve relationships with customers and how to apply knowledge of behavioral styles for building stronger customer-provided relationships, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success (Chapter 6).

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

The Impact of Consumer Behavioral Shifts on Customer Service

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The Impact of Consumer Behavioral Shifts on Customer Service

In the past, many consumers took a “money is no object” approach to shopping because, if they did not have cash readily available, they had several pieces of plastic in their wallet that allowed them to spend (often beyond their means). This was possible because financial institutions were doling out these instruments of commerce in a very haphazard manner to virtually all who looked like they could potentially repay what they spent. Unfortunately, that practice proved to be highly flawed. As a result, the financial institutions that let credit practices run rampant fell like proverbial dominos and took along the world’s economy with them. In the aftermath of this economic carnage, many consumers have had a reality check and have learned that prudence is an important element of commerce. Plainly speaking, consumer behavior has changed and many customers now realize that “if they do not have the money, they should not spend it!”

To counter the economic recession, consumers did a turn-around with many of them cutting out non-essentials. They also began to reassess the need for certain brand name products and services that were not essential to health and well-being. In addition, many people made a conscious decision to switch to more generic products that met their needs but had a much smaller retail price.

The impact of such shifts in behavior on service is that customer service representatives and their organizations have been inspired to step back and examine their approach to meeting customer needs, wants and expectations. They are also strengthening their service practices, employee knowledge, and skill levels and revamping their policies and procedures.

For ideas and strategies on how to identify and address consumer behavior, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

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