Thursday, December 3, 2009

IMPROVING CUSTOMER SERVICE AT THE HEADOFFICE:


Since competition is getting increasingly more intense and sophisticated, it is paramount to maximise all advantages and improvements in one’s own sales organisation. With this concise investigation of the company’s head-offices we highlight, step-by step, the important details that make an organization stand out and being appreciated by the customers.

The first contact with our organization may be by telephone. There must be no such thing as a synthesized voice and/or recorded messages about which buttons to press and how excellent the company is in the field of customer service. After all, this is up to the caller and he may beg to differ…..

A friendly and eager voice needs to answer, starting with the correct company’s name, followed by the stating of the person’s name. This establishes a friendly connection at the start.

Should there be a state holiday in the location of the national office, provision needs to be made for an ‘emergency’ service, that is, a person still needs to answer any phone call as it may be from interstate, with the caller unaware that there is a local holiday. Otherwise the caller may think the company had gone out of business and promptly phone a competitor.

In the customer-friendly decorated offices, we now shall turn to the most important person in the building, the customer service officer.

She need to be an outgoing person, with a friendly voice, sounding relaxed and yet professional. She must have all time in the world to assist a customer and make him feel glad that he phoned this company and not a competitor.

It is always uplifting to start a conversation with a compliment. ‘Nice to hear from you again!’ or ‘Oh, you sound cheerful today – you must be very successful!

Sometimes, a superior may judge this person by the number of phone calls they manage during the day, which is utter nonsense. This customer service officer is the company’s first sales person and the customer satisfaction is the only criteria by which to measure her performance!

She must be able to converse professionally about various aspects of the trade, being chatty and a source of knowledge to the caller.

She needs to be forthright and true. When promising to ring back it must be so. ‘I would like to go to the warehouse and check the stock personally and ring you back!’ will always convey the feeling that things are being taken care of.

Or phoning a customer with the message that his goods he has been waiting for, have just arrived in the warehouse and will be delivered tomorrow, will always impress a customer.

After closing the sale and before terminating the phone call, she needs to say: ‘Thank you for the order!’ Remember, the customer does not have to place an order with your company.

Such a customer service officer should attend all sales meetings and sales conferences and, at business functions, mingle with the customers. She should qualify for educational overseas trips, if available, and also for sales training seminars.

This person is indeed part of the sales team and not merely a glorified clerk.

He or she should accompany the representative once in a while on his round of calls and observe him selling and promoting the company’s business.

When the customer personally calls at the offices, in any matter, he should be encouraged to ask for this sales coordinator for personal service.

The general attitude must be one of total sales support for the representative on the road, that is total teamwork in fitting in with the customer.

Once a day, this customer service officer should ring the representative on the road for a quick business-chat about who rang the office, who placed orders, which customer aired a grief. This total sharing of team work is necessary for positive team spirit.

We must always remember, when a customer calls on the offices, it is not an interruption of your work but an opportunity to show our appreciation of his business association with you!

Only when the field forces and the customer service officer totally integrate and closely cooperate with the customer, a superior sales organisation will be achieved and commercial success assured.

PETER FREDERICK

http://www.life-on-the-road.com

peter.frederick@life-on-the-road.com

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