POSITIVE Global Customer Service Model

POSITIVE Global Customer Service Model – Serving Diverse Customers

The following acronym (POSITIVE) provides some strategies for creating or contributing to a positive global service environment and building strong relationships with your customers. It provides a model to move you from good customer service to the best customer service possible.

Put your best foot forward. Maintain a positive approach to situations involving customers, smile frequently, and have a “can-do” attitude. When dealing with customers and potential customers, never forget that they are your reason for employment.

Offer whatever level of assistance possible. In addressing customer needs and wants, go out of your way to uncover and resolve problems and to build a strong customer-provider relationship.

Stay abreast of current industry trends and strategies for delivering quality customer service. By upgrading your knowledge and skills regularly, you will be prepared to address any type of customer situation.

Identify true customer needs by listening to proactively. You have two ears and one mouth. Use them accordingly.

Take the time to get to know more about your customers. The more you know, the better you can provide quality service.

Invite your customers to open up and share information. Ask open-ended questions (e.g. Who, What, When, How, Why, and To What Extent) that typically lead to more detailed responses from others.

Verify understanding. When a customer provides information, ensure that you heard and understood it correctly before responding. Use closed-ended (typically start with an action verb) to gather this information.

Engage in relationship-building strategies immediately. Use strong interpersonal communication skills. Start with a smile (on your face and in your voice and words) and a professional greeting when meeting customers face-to-face, over the telephone or in an email. If something goes wrong, immediately start on a course of service recovery with a sincere apology and taking steps to “make the customer whole” again with any appropriate compensation.

Source: Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service across Cultures, Lucas. R.W., McGraw-Hill Professional, New York, NY (2011).
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Bob Lucas B.S., M.A., M.A, CPLP is principal in Robert W. Lucas Enterprises, Inc and an internationally-known author and learning and performance professional. He has written and contributed to thirty-one books and compilations. He regularly conducts creative training, train-the-trainer, customer service, interpersonal communication and management, and supervisory skills workshops. 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

Is Customer Service Week the Best Time to Show Customer Appreciation?

by Robert W. Lucas

Is Customer Service Week the Best Time to Show Customer Appreciation?

Have you noticed how many articles and references are flying around stores and on the Internet regarding the importance of Customer Service Week? Service providers are wearing shirts and hats and articles abound on blogs and on various business sites stressing the importance of customer service. It all makes me wonder — “Is customer service week the best time to show customer appreciation?”

My question is, why do organizations and customer service representatives wait for one time a year to thank the most important element of their business – their customers? Without their customers, they could all pack up and go home. This negligent approach to customer service reminds me of a joke I heard many years ago about an old married couple sitting with a marriage counselor. The wife was very distraught and crying her eyes out as she told the counselor that their problem was that after fifty years of marriage that her husband never told her that he loves her anymore. The startled husband was dumbfounded to hear that. He turned to her and asked, “Didn’t I tell you I loved you when we got married?” She responded timidly, “Yes.” He countered with, “Well if that changes, I’ll let you know!”

Similar to the story above, many organizations go out of their way to court potential customers by offering discounts, special incentives, and promises to outperform their competition. Once a customer comes aboard, the company is off creating new campaigns to entice more new customers, while typically forgetting about the current ones or demonstrating how much they mean to the organization.

It is no wonder that most organizations experience such high customer desertion or turnover rates (customer churn). Why would you go to an organization that does not appear to respect or value your business; Especially, when a qualified, and sometimes better, the competitor is only a mouse click or phone call away.

Managers need to continually remind themselves that they should not wait for a customer to reach out to inform the organization that they are taking their business elsewhere before going into recovery or retention mode. Often their special retention department customer service representatives have special authority to grant customer incentives, offer lower rates, and take other actions to encourage the customer to stay. At this point, depending on how irritated the customer is, it might be too late and the damage is irreversible.

Here are five simple things companies can do to reinforce customer satisfaction or brand loyalty and reduce customer attrition:

Empower every customer service representative to offer customer incentives and help head off customer desertion.
Create policies that are customer-centric and are continually updated to demonstrate that all customers are crucial to the organization.
Continually look for ways to show that their organization really is the best value for the money and has its customers’ best interests in mind.
Regularly provide customer service training that focuses on customer service skills, tips, ideas and strategies to address customer needs, wants and expectations.
Treat every customer as unique and important and do not lump them into various demographic groups that receive generic approaches to service based on pre-conceived ideas of what they want or expect.

For hundreds of additional effective and proven customer service tips, techniques and strategies for creating and maintaining an excellent customer service environment that truly supports all customers, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success, How to Be a Great Call Center Representative and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

Create a Positive Customer Service Culture by Making Customers Feel Valued

by Robert W. Lucas

Create a Positive Customer Service Culture

by Making Customers Feel Valued

Organizations are often chasing the illusive loyal customer. Various research studies have shown that it costs less to keep a good customer than it does to attract new ones through expensive marketing and incentive programs. Related to this, it seems logical to focus on converting new and occasional customers into loyal customers who return regularly and tout the organization’s benefits and customer-centric approach.

Alas, many managers, organizational leaders, and frontline customer service representatives simply do not get the whole concept of keeping loyal customers who use the organization’s products and services. These managers try to hold costs down by hiring inexperienced and low-cost employees, do not want to invest a lot of money in training staff (other than rudimentary product and service knowledge), and offer no real support for the customers they already have.

If you work for an organization and want to create an environment that is known for stellar customer service and customer-friendly people and policies, consider the following strategies to help make customers feel valued.

Hire personalities, not bodies. It takes a special person to be successful in a customer service environment. Strive to find people who are focused on interacting with others, seem to enjoy the service environment and life in general and sincerely want to help others. Product and policy knowledge can be taught to most new employees, as can the requisite skills necessary to successfully interact with new and current internal and external customers (e.g. interpersonal communication skills, knowledge about various demographic groups, team building, and other similar skills).

Prove that the organization and employees value customers. Create policies and procedures that are customer centric (e.g. return policies, hours of operation, and allow employee empowerment so that they can make decisions without a supervisor’s approval).

Train employees to recognize regular customers. People like to be seen as a person and as someone who is appreciated and valued by the organization. Customer service training sessions should stress this important fact and encourage employees to use a customer’s name when greeting and throughout a conversation. Memory improvement might be added to the training schedule to aid people in developing better memory and aid recall of customer names and faces.

Develop customer recognition and incentive programs. If customers are not rewarded for their continued business, they are likely to go elsewhere, especially if service breaks down or they encounter a problem. Reward good customers with discounts, personal communications (e.g. a greeting and coupon on their birthday, anniversary or other special occasions) and a warm welcome when they contact the organization. Instruct employees to focus on the human part of a transaction first (e.g. a warm greeting or comments about previous contacts, purchases or visits) before moving to the business of why they contacted the organization and what can be done to assist them.

Doing these simple things and others can make a world of difference to many customers and can often make the difference between a transient and a loyal customer. For additional customer service tips and strategies for creating a positive customer service environment where visitors demonstrate brand and customer loyalty as a result of receiving excellent customer service, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

Taking A Customer for Granted Can Lead To Customer Service Breakdowns

by Robert W. Lucas

Taking A Customer for Granted Can Lead To Customer Service Breakdowns

Taking a customer for granted is something that a customer service representative should never do. That is because customers are your reason for existing as an employee. They are also the key element in your organization’s success. For that reason, you must consciously go out of your way to identify and anticipate their needs, wants, and expectations, then address those in an expedient and professional manner. You can potentially accomplish this by showing customers what you and your company offer that other organizations do not. Also by demonstrating that you are working hard to gain and retain their trust and business.

Remember that just because someone is a customer today, does not mean that they will remain so in the future. Consumer opinions in many parts of the world have shifted related to customer loyalty. In the past, people often exhibited brand loyalty for cars, laundry detergent, restaurants, airlines, and many other items and services. With the advent of technology, global trade and easy access to alternative and comparable products and services, it is not unusual for someone to move to a new product, service or provider to meet their needs based strictly on factors like price, service or availability. The result of such shifts in consumer behavior is that many well-known major organizations and products have changed dramatically, evolved or completely disappeared in past decades. Examples are Montgomery Ward, Pontiac and Plymouth automobiles, Eastern Airlines, and Steak and Ale and Bennigan’s restaurants. In instances where manufacturers have recognized the need for product modifications to address customer needs, wants and expectations, they have modified or added additional varieties to their product lines (e.g. Coca Cola and Pepsi, Tide detergent, Cheerios cereal, and Crest toothpaste) in order to retain and satisfy customer needs and expectations.

In order to help ensure retain customers and build customer loyalty from your clients and potential customers, you must place their needs first. One way to do this is to build a sound knowledge of your organization’s products, services, policies, and procedures. You must also identify your competition and know their product and service lines, how those differ from yours and what they offer that you do not. In this latter instance, you must understand how to present your organization’s offerings in a manner that overshadows the competition. For example, ensure that you know what benefits and advantages your customers might receive from doing business with your organization and then present these to your customers in a positive manner.

Additionally, you must also continually seek to enhance your knowledge and skills while staying attuned to current consumer behavior and trends. Ultimately, your goal is to be the “go-to” person and organization for whatever products or services that your customers might need.

For hundreds of customer service tips and additional ideas and strategies for maintaining positive customer relationships, building customer retention and loyalty, and delivering excellent customer service, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

Strong Customer Relations Result From Excellent Customer Service

by Robert W. Lucas

Strong Customer Relations Result From Excellent Customer Service

Providing excellent customer service should be the goal of everyone in your organization, not just front line customer service representatives. Ultimately, customer satisfaction and customer retention are about how well you care about your job and the quality of customer service you provide. By working closely with your customers to build and maintain strong customer relations with them, you not only have an opportunity to meet but also exceed their needs, wants and expectations.

To sum all this up, it comes down to possessing strong product knowledge and customer service skills and applying both anytime you come into contact with an internal or external customer.

Customer Relations Equal Sales, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Relations Equal Sales,

Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention

If you are not striving to build the best customer relationships possible with those you encounter in your organization, then you are failing as a service professional.

Everyone from front-line customer service representatives to senior management has a responsibility to do what it takes to secure customer trust and continually focus their efforts (and those of the organization as a whole) on meeting customer needs, wants and expectations. Delivering excellent customer service should be not only a goal; it should be the goal every day that you go to work.

Customer Satisfaction Helps Build Brand and Customer Loyalty

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Satisfaction Helps Build Brand and Customer Loyalty

To be successful as a customer service representative, it is important that you recognize that consumer behavior has changed in the past decade or so, and that this impacts your customer’s needs, wants and expectations.

There are several important things you can do to provide customer satisfaction and help ensure brand and customer loyalty:

Work to maintain a positive customer service attitude.
Ensure that every action that you take is focused on providing excellent customer service.
Identify and focus on assisting all internal and external customers to the best of your ability.
Practice positive customer service skills with any encounter you have with a current or potential customer.
Strive to identify trends in customer service and regularly upgrade your customer service skills to address changing expectations and attitudes.

For additional thought and strategies for dealing with a changing customer service environment, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

Brand and Customer Loyalty Is Earned Not Given Freely

by Robert W. Lucas

Brand and Customer Loyalty Is Earned Not Given Freely

Consumer behavior and spending habits, customer needs, wants and expectations and customer satisfaction levels change constantly. There can be wide differences in the way that customers perceive an item or event when seeking services and products depending on diversity factors, such as, age, gender, race, ethnic background, and other individual factors.

A key to developing brand or customer loyalty is to hone and upgrade your customer service skills and product knowledge regularly as a customer service representative in order to increase satisfaction and customer retention. By providing excellent customer service, you help ensure continued business and positive word-of-mouth publicity.

One simple strategy to work on is to develop solid customer relations skills (e.g. verbal and non-verbal communication, dealing with diverse customers, and handling service breakdowns and conflict).

For hundreds of ideas on how to create and maintain a customer service environment that allows customers to feel comfortable and enjoy their customer-provider interactions, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success, Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

What is Great Customer Service?

by Robert W. Lucas

What is Great Customer Service?

What is great customer service? This is a question often asked in my customer service workshops and by people trying to determine how to get the best value for their money when searching out businesses where they might spend it. Unfortunately, this is a very subjective question based on the person asking. Since each individual has differing needs, wants and expectations based on their experiences and perceptions; what is excellent customer service to one person might only be considered good customer service to another.

In my opinion, in order for organizations to provide great customer service consistently, they must provide ongoing customer service training to their staff. In addition, customer service representatives must demonstrate at least the following qualities to earn trust, business, and customer or brand loyalty.

Excellent customer service skills;
Positive verbal and non-verbal communication skills;
Positive employee attitude;
Appreciation for customers;
Friendliness and a true interest in people;
Honesty;
Trustworthiness;
Demonstrate Integrity;
Have sound business acumen;
Possess solid product and service knowledge.

If you are looking for ideas and strategies on creating a positive customer-centric service environment in which customers feel appreciated, get copies of my books Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas and why he can answer the question – what is great customer service?

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.

Effective Verbal Communication Can Lead To Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention

by Robert W. Lucas

Effective Verbal Communication Can Lead To Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention

You may have heard that the expression is sometimes not what you, but how you say it that makes a difference. Nothing is truer when you are dealing with a multi-cultural, diverse customer base.

In many situations, when customer service breaks down it can often be attributed to what a customer service representative does or does not effectively say verbally or non verbally. In some cases, the lapse may be due to an unconscious message (e.g. non-verbal gesture, body movement, signal, or eye contact) that was interpreted differently than intended. In other instances, it might be an incorrect tone, word or inflection added to a message that was received incorrectly by the customer.

Whatever the reason(s) for such failures in communication, it is crucial that anyone dealing with internal and external customers is prepared for potential interactions that might go wrong. The easiest means of doing so is to enhance customer service and communication skills and to become educated related to approaches to verbal and communication practices in various cultures.

If this topic is of interest to you and you want to get ideas and strategies related to communicating effectively with diverse customers, get copies of my books Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas