Customer Service Quote – Robert Lucas

“Effective customer service is often the deciding factor in a globally competitive world” Robert W. Lucas, Author of Please Every Customer.

National Customer Service Week was established by the International Customer Service Association (ICSA) in 1988 as a way for businesses and organizations to recognize the efforts of their customer service professionals. In 1991 President George H. Bush declared National Customer Service Week. In 2013, the theme was “United through Service”.

The idea behind the week is for organizations to celebrate service by doing things to boost employee morale and motivation through recognition and rewards for their efforts in satisfying customer needs, wants and expectations. By raising customer awareness across the organization and also reminding customers how vital they are to the individual employee and organizational success, companies can potentially enhance employee morale and increase customer and brand loyalty.

For useful resources and information on how to create a positive customer-centric environment in your organization, check out the ICSA and Alexander Communications Group websites.

For additional proven ideas and strategies on how to enhance the quality of service that you build with customers and to help aid customer and brand loyalty while increasing retention, get a copy of Care Packages for Your Customers by Barbara Glanz.

About Robert W. 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.

Strengthening Communication with Customers – Tip#2

by Robert W. Lucas

Strengthening Communication with Customers – Tip#2

Be Consistent

Customers who feel that they have an active role in and control of a service-provider interaction often feel more important and valued. Improved interpersonal communication can lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction and retention and reduced stress for you and your co-workers.

Take advantage of the following strategy to build stronger relationships with your internal and external customers by being consistent.

People tend to like what is familiar. If customers come to know that they can depend on you and your organization to regularly provide timely, factual information, they will likely be more loyal. Provide information and updates to customers on a regular basis, not just when it is convenient for you. This is especially true when you are working on a problem or service breakdown. Remember that they do not know what you know. For example, if you are gathering information or need more time than expected, come back to the customer with periodic updates to give him or her a status check. Do not wait until the time or date that you were expected to resolve the issue to contact the customer; Otherwise, they are likely to be very upset.

For specific strategies on more effective communication with your customers, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

Strengthening Communication with Customers – Tip#1

by Robert W. Lucas

Strengthening Communication with Customers – Tip#1

Gather Information

Take advantage of the following strategy to build stronger relationships with your internal and external customers by gathering information.

Ask for customer input whenever possible. By knowing more about their needs, wants and expectations, you will be better able to provide services and products that satisfy them. Use communication strategies in publications, books and on the Internet to gather valuable information from people who you encounter on a daily basis.

About Robert W. Lucas

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

Three Negative Nonverbal Messages To Avoid When Serving Customers

by Robert W. Lucas

Three Negative Nonverbal Messages To Avoid When Serving Customers

Some customer service representatives develop unproductive nonverbal behaviors without even realizing it. These may be nervous habits or mannerisms carried to excess (scratching, pulling an ear, or playing with hair). In a customer service environment, you should try to minimize such actions because they might send a negative or annoying message to your customers. They can also lead to a perception of bad customer service.

An easy way to discover whether you have such behaviors is to ask people who know you well to observe you for a period of time and tell you about anything they observe that could be a problem. People develop unproductive nonverbal behaviors without even realizing it. These may be nervous habits or mannerisms carried to excess (scratching, pulling an ear, or playing with hair). In a customer service environment, you should try to minimize such actions because they might send a negative or annoying message to your customers. They can also lead to a perception of bad customer service.

The following are three common nonverbal communication behaviors that can annoy people and cause customer relationship breakdowns or comments about you and your organization when used with customers.

Pointing a finger or other object at someone

For many people pointing a finger at them is often viewed as a very accusatory mannerism and can lead to anger or violence on the part of your customer. If you must gesture toward a customer or toward an area or item, do so with an open flat hand (palm up) in a casual manner. The result is a less threatening gesture that almost invites comments or feedback because it looks as if you are offering the customer an opportunity to speak. Additionally, this is the appropriate means for pointing towards something in many cultures.

Raising an eyebrow

This mannerism is sometimes called the editorial eyebrow because some television broadcasters raise their eyebrow. With the editorial eyebrow, only one eyebrow arches, usually in response to something that the person has heard. This mannerism often signals skepticism or doubt about what you have heard. It can be viewed as questioning the customer’s honesty.

Peering over the top of eyeglasses

Many people who need glasses to read but not to see for distances may forget that they have on glasses when they are interrupted while reading or using them. As a result, they may speak to others while wearing their glasses sitting low on the end of their nose. This gesture might be associated with a professor, teacher, or someone who is in a position of authority looking down on a student or subordinate. For that reason, customers may not react positively if you peer over your glasses at them. Typical nonverbal messages that this cue might send are displeasure, condescension, scrutiny, or disbelief.

By improving your customer service skills, you enhance your opportunities to deliver excellent customer service. For additional useful customer service tips and information on how to create a customer-centric environment that can lead to enhanced customer relationships, customer satisfaction, and reduced customer attrition, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

Customer Perceptions Have An Impact On Customer Relations

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Perceptions Have An Impact On Customer Relations

Most customer service representatives go to work with the determination to deliver excellent customer service and achieve customer satisfaction. They typically have the customer service skills and knowledge needed to address their customer’s needs, wants and expectations. Even so, some things occasionally go wrong during the customer service transaction.

What the customer service representative does from that moment on will often impact customer retention and what their customer tells others about their experience. This is why it is so crucial for anyone dealing with current or potential customers to learn and use strong service recovery strategies and use them immediately when things start to go wrong with a customer.

For ideas and strategies on building strong customer service relationships and successfully recover when service breaks down, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

Effective Customer Relationship Management Can Improve Customer Satisfaction Levels

by Robert W. Lucas

Effective Customer Relationship Management Can Improve Customer Satisfaction Levels

Study after study finds that the road to success for any organization is directly tied to effective customer relationship marketing and management. This is particularly true for small businesses. In their case, they have often an advantage over larger organizations which are more cumbersome and have more employees to train in relationship management and customer service skills.

If you are looking for resources that can aid you and your organization in fine-tuning your customer relationship management skills, check out these resources.

About Robert C. Lucas

Building Customer Relationships

by Robert W. Lucas

Building Customer Relationships to Increase Customer Retention

The only way for customer service representatives and their organizations to excel is by first building strong customer service relationships.

By exhibiting stellar product and service knowledge and employing effective customer service skills, listening and communicating verbally and non verbally they are able to properly determine customer needs, wants and expectations. Once they determine these things, they are on their way to providing customer satisfaction and helping build customer and brand loyalty.

If this makes sense to you and you would like to learn specific strategies for enhancing interpersonal relationship skills and other strategies for obtaining and retaining customers, get copies of my books, Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert C. Lucas

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

Three Positive Non-Verbal Communication Cues for Customer Service Representatives

by Robert W. Lucas

Three Positive Non-verbal Communication Cues

for Customer Service Representatives

Many customer service representatives struggle to gain and maintain strong relationships with their customers. Often, this is due to their inability to effectively communicate face-to-face with others. In many instances, they do not even realize that their nonverbal communication style is sending the wrong message, especially their nonverbal communication cues.

Since numerous nonverbal communication studies have found that the unspoken messages sent with the body, face, and hands often overshadow the words that people use, it is crucial for service providers to master the art of body language.

The following are three positive nonverbal communication areas on which you might focus to improve if you want to enhance communication and relationships with customers:

Direct eye contact (based on culture) – In Westernized cultures, making eye contact as an important means of communicating sincerity, interest, honesty, and other factors is taught early in life to children. When interacting with others, use intermittent (do not stare) direct eye contact in conjunction with periodic smiling and other positive non-verbal cues to show that you are friendly and have the other person’s interest in mind.

One important thing to keep in mind about eye contact is that it often varies in different cultures and sub-groups (e.g. Caucasians, African-Americans, women, and men). Do some research on other cultures and groups to see how eye contact is perceived and adjust your communication style accordingly when dealing with customers with those backgrounds. Monitor your customer’s reaction to your cues and modify as necessary and do not make assumptions. If someone reacts and you are not sure why to ask them to clarify.

Smiles – Often perceived as the universal language, smiling can communicate openness, friendliness, interest, and other aspects relevant to sound relationships. Use smiling when appropriate during conversations (e.g. upon meeting, when the conversation is going in a positive direction, or when the other person smiles) and you may see your bond with others start to form.

Facing the customer – Too often in today’s busy workplace, a customer service representative is busy multi-tasking when a customer approaches. As a result, they might have their head down or be facing in another direction while focusing on something else. To build and maintain good customer-provider relationships, stop what you are doing and give undivided attention to the person in front of you in order to help build brand and customer loyalty.

For additional ideas and strategies for effectively using non-verbal cues, get a copy of Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert C. Lucas is an expert with Non-Verbal Communication Cues

Motivational Customer Service Quote – Robert W. Lucas

by Robert W. Lucas

Motivational Customer Service Quote – Robert W. Lucas

Professional customer service is all about providing high-quality products and services that can meet your customer’s needs, wants and expectations. If you are a customer service representative, it is your responsibility to master as many customer service skills as possible in order to deliver excellent customer service to those with whom you come into contact in the workplace. This can ultimately lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction and customer retention.