Powerful Strategies for Strong Internal Customer Relationships

Internal customers are organizational or contracted employees to whom you provide information, products, and services. These people typically use what you offer to deliver service to their customers. Unfortunately, many employees fail to realize the importance of developing powerful strategies for building and maintaining strong internal customer relationships. That is too bad because internal customers are just as important as those outside the organization. Still, some employees fail to realize that everyone in the organization is a customer service provider, even if they work behind the scenes in a support function. This is why you should never forget that you are an important part of the customer service chain no matter what your job title.

The following are powerful strategies for building and maintaining strong internal customer relationships.

Develop positive relationships. Make an effort to greet others pleasantly each day and display common courtesies such as saying “please” and “thank you.” Do not forget the power of such simple acts. The impact of your success and that of your internal customers depends on the strength of your internal relationships.
Listen objectively. When another employee has an idea, take the time to listen and discuss it. This is especially true when it affects external customers. Keep an open mind and consider the merits of what is offered before responding or making a decision on any action needed.
Take time to get to know more about your internal customers. Possibly takes breaks with your internal customers. Go to lunch or talk before or after work in order to get to know them as a person and not just as another employee. People are more likely to provide better internal customer service when they like the person they are serving. Learn about customers on a personal level and about the job that they do. This can lead to a better understanding of what they might have to offer and how you might be able to assist them. The result might be that your job and service to your customers might become easier. Taking these simple steps can also give you a better understanding of the organizational structure and departmental functions.
Show appreciation for the help provided by others. If someone goes out of his or her way to assist you, take the time to acknowledge it. This could be a text or email message, or more powerfully, a hand-written note. Depending on the effort of the person, perhaps give a small reward. For example, give a hand-baked jumbo cookie along with a personalized thank-you note for any extra effort they provide to help you.
Acknowledge the contributions of others. Most people like to be appreciated. An important thing to remember is that you should always give credit for work done by others and never claim it as your own. The latter can lead to resentment and actually get you fired.
Avoid office politics and gossip. One of the quickest ways to get a bad workplace reputation is to become the person who acts like a pollinating bee. Do not move from one person to the next sharing stories that you have collected about things that are going on in the office or with another employee. That type of behavior can quickly tarnish your reputation. Such actions cause loss of productivity time that you can use to better serve your customers. They can also, gain you a reputation as someone who is not trustworthy or is unprofessional.
Respect diversity. Today’s customer base is diverse including people all shapes, sizes, abilities, and backgrounds. Employees must learn about and appreciate people and groups who may look different in order to appreciate varying views, values, and beliefs. This pertains to both external and internal customers. Since we spend the major part of our lives interacting with others in workplace and job situations, everyone benefits from a better understanding of people. Just because someone might look or act differently, have an accent, or not have the same knowledge or abilities as you does not mean there is something wrong with him or her. Embrace and respect diversity for the benefit of all internal and external customers.
Help others. Even if it means you have to put out extra effort, take the time to assist your internal customers. If you cannot do so immediately, negotiate a time when you can help. People will likely remember your generosity and willingness to assist them when a time comes where you need help.
Be reliable. Whenever you commit to something, you should follow through by delivering as promised. This includes meeting deadlines for information needed by others in your organization. In many cases, someone might request materials or products needed to serve their external customer(s). If the need is not addressed in a timely manner, external customers may become dissatisfied and the trust with your internal customer can be lessened. Another potential effect is that those internal customers may be penalized for poor performance. Ultimately, your failure to meet deadlines can also cause the organization to lose business revenue and suffer ill effects from negative publicity. Likely, this chain of events will have negative consequences for you.

The powerful strategies for building and maintaining strong internal customer relationships in this article are important to your success. While they can help improve relationships, continue to search for additional ideas. That can improve your ability to deliver stellar service to all customers.

The books Customer Service Skills for Success, Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative provide additional powerful strategies for building and maintaining strong internal customer relationships and for delivering stellar service to internal and external customers.

Strengthening Customer Relationships With Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication Skills

by Robert W. Lucas

Strengthening Customer Relationships

Strong Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication Skills Can Make the Difference!

We live in an era in which people from all over the world come together in various situations throughout any given day. They bring with them individual experiences, education levels, cultural and personal backgrounds, preferences, opinions, and perspectives. Any or all of these elements can impact the way they approach and receive others or the manner in which they communicate.

An old adage goes: It is not what you say, but how you say it that counts. Nothing can be truer than when you are dealing with customers from diverse backgrounds. For this reason, customer service representatives should always take their time to “read” their customers and think of their response (verbally and non verbally) before jumping into any situation where verbal and non-verbal messages communication might be misinterpreted.

Likely, the last thing that a customer service representative, or another employee from an organization, wants to do is falter in their efforts of building customer relationships.

To help reduce the potential of a customer-provider relationship breakdown; service providers should focus on building and practicing their positive communication skills (e.g. smiling, paying compliments, using open body movements and gestures and finding things to agree with when interacting with their customers).

For ideas on how to more effectively communicate verbally and non verbally in order to improve customer loyalty and enhance customer retention, get copies of my books: Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures, Customer Service Skills for Success, and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

About Robert W. Lucas

Robert ‘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.

Benefits of Customer Relationship Management

by Robert W. Lucas

Benefits of Customer Relationship Management

When organizations attain a high degree of brand recognition and a reputation for providing quality products and services at a competitive price while going above and beyond their customers’ expectations, they are typically rewarded with customer loyalty and repeat and referral business.

According to a J.D. Powers and Associates North American Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study, “The highest-performing hotel brands differentiate themselves by meeting customer expectations consistently, whether it’s a guest’s first stay with the brand or they’re fiftieth. . . . By setting and maintaining high brand standards, hotels build a reputation for reliability, which breeds customer loyalty.”

Extracted from Customer Service Skills for Success by Robert W. Lucas, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2015.

About Robert C. Lucas – Award-Winning Author

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.

Strategies for Improving Your Service Culture

by Robert W. Lucas

Strategies for Improving Your Service Culture

In the past, organizations were continually making changes to their product and service lines to try to attract and hold customers. Often this has been their primary approach to customer satisfaction.

Many major organizations have become more customer-centric and stress long-term relationships with customers. They realize that it is cheaper, and smarter, to retain current customers, rather than subscribe to a revolving door approach of continually trying to attract new customers to replace the ones that they lost to competitors. Their goal is to continually try to enhance their service culture and the perception that current and potential customers have of their organization. Advertising campaigns often reflect this new awareness as companies try to communicate that they are more focused on their customers.

The following are some familiar slogans used by companies in their promotional materials:

“You can do it; We can help” – Home Depot
“Like a good neighbor”—State Farm Insurance
“When you’re here, you’re family”—Olive Garden Restaurants
“You’re in good hands”—Allstate Insurance Company
“It’s your store”—Albertsons Grocery Stores
“What can Brown Do for You?” – United Parcel Service (UPS)
“We’ll leave the light on for you.” Motel 6
“Think what we can do for you.” Bank of America

To do your part in better serving customers in your organization, take a look at the slogans above and ask yourself the following questions in order to help improve your service levels:

What am I currently doing to provide the same level of quality service that these companies are espousing?
What am I currently doing that I could do better when serving my customers?
What am I currently doing that is potentially detracting from customer perceptions of service?

Based on answers to these questions, develop an action plan for improvement and strive to develop customer-focused behaviors and deliver the best possible customer service in the future.

For additional ideas on how to improve your customer service skills, get copies of Customer Service: Skills for Success and How to Be Great Call Center Representative.

About Your Customer Service Skills Expert – Robert C. Lucas

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.

In my book Customer Service Skills for Success, I define customer service as “the ability of knowledgeable, capable, and enthusiastic employees to deliver products and services to their internal and external customers in a manner that satisfies identified and unidentified needs and ultimately results in positive word-of-mouth publicity and return business.”

Three Customer Relationship Building Tips

by Robert W. Lucas

Three Customer Relationship Building Tips

Building effective customer relationships are crucial to creating and maintaining customer loyalty. Every member of an organization should be continually looking for ways that they individually can enhance the bond between customers and service providers. These efforts can lead to enhanced customer and brand loyalty.

The following are three simple tips that anyone can use to better manage customer relationships and build stronger levels of trust.

If you seek trust; communicate it through your words and nonverbal cues.
Always act in the best interest of your customers. Listen to them, ask questions, anticipate their needs, deliver what you promise, and exhibit high levels of professionalism in everything that you do whether your customers are present or not.
Take the time to personalize your customer interactions and to make each customer feel special. Use a customer’s name often during an interaction, listen, smile, ask questions to show interest and strive to project a positive image. This can all lead to enhanced trust and helps ensure that the customer returns.

About Robert C. Lucas

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

Strategies for Providing Professional Customer Service

by Robert W. Lucas

Strategies for Providing Professional Customer Service

Many customers typically like the comfort of know that they can depend on service providers to provide timely, accurate and professional service whether it is face-to-face, over the telephone or via other technology.

As you work with customers, do so positively and assertively and take the following actions in order to help put them at ease and to build a strong customer-provider relationship.

Assure them. Do this through your words and actions to show that you are confident, have their best interests at heart-and are in control of the situation.
Provide timely service. Let them know that their calls/messages, questions, needs, and issues will be addressed professionally and in a timely manner.
Reassure them. Let them know that what they purchase is the best quality, has a solid warranty, will be backed by the organization, and will address their needs while providing many benefits.
Reinforce them. Ensure that they understand that their requests and data will be processed rapidly and promises will be kept.

All of these things can lead them to the belief that they made the right decision in selecting you and your organization and that you will take care of their needs.

About Robert C. Lucas

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

Two Tips for Building Strong Customer Relationships

by Robert W. Lucas

Two Tips for Building Strong Customer Relationships

Customers like doing business with those who understand them and their needs and go out of their way to deliver timely and quality services and products at a fair price. This can lead to consumer satisfaction and that is a big factor for many customers in remaining loyal to a brand or organization.

Here are two simple tips that can help enhance customer retention and provide quality service to customers.

1. Pay Attention

As you listen to your customers, focus all your attention on them so that you can identify and address their needs. If you are providing service face-to-face use positive nonverbal cues (e.g. face the customer, smile, use open body gestures, make eye contact, stop doing other things, and focus attention on the customer) and language. Ask open-end questions to determine the customer’s needs. Also, use the active listening techniques to ensure that you get all the information you need to properly address your customer’s needs or concerns.

2. Deal with One Customer at a Time

You cannot effectively handle two people (on the phone or in-person) simultaneously. When more than one call or customer comes in at the same time, seek assistance or ask one of them to either wait or if you might get back to him or her at a later time. Then, give personalized attention to the other customer.

Providing stellar customer service is not always easy, but if you strive to gain and use positive customer relationship management knowledge and skills, you can effectively identify and satisfy customer needs.

For additional strategies on effectively providing stellar customer service, get a copy of Please Every Customer: Providing Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas

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