2014 Stella Awards
Training Resource 1
Stella Service
What your team will know by the end of this
workshop…
1. Your expectations on them of how
they should interact with customers in
your business.
PREPARATION
Come ready to explain your expectations
around customer service to your team.
Be ready to listen to and implement suggestions for improving the
customer experience in your work place.
Come ready to reflect on and share
customer experiences you have had.
INTRODUCTION
CONTENT
KEY OUTCOMES
Excellent customer experience results when
every aspect of interacting with a customer is
positive.
Principle 1 - Don’t leave Customer Service to chance.
Principle 2 - Make it personal.
Principle 3 - Tell me what you want, what you really, really want.
Principle 4 - Do what you say you will do.
Principle 5 - Cynics make the best disciples.
Principle 6 - You have 1 chance to create 1st impression.
Principle 7 - Your body says way more than your mouth does.
Principle 8 - Soft Sell.
Principle 9 - Ask the right question to get the right answer.
Principle 10 - Hearing is not the same as listening.
Principle 11 - No doesn’t’ always mean No.
Principle 12 - Best friends forever.
Principle 13 - Fences are cheaper than cows.
Participants will have 3 takeaways that
they can action within their own work
areas to improve the customer
experience
The 1st impression and on-going interactions
customers have with the business are in line
with what they expect.
Customers feel they are valued by the way
they are treated and hence want to continue
to deal with this business in the long term.
HOMEWORK
1. Suggest a change to your team to
improve the customer experience at
your work place.
2. How to create a positive 1st impression.
2. What change are you personally going to make to
improve the 1st impression that you give?
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3. How retain the customers you
have and attract new ones.
3. Explain a change you have
made that will make a customer
a friend for ever.
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CONTENT
IDEAS
ACTIVITY
Principle 1
Don’t overlook Customer Service in your training and induction process. Don’t
assume your team will automatically care about customers as you do. Outline
your expectations in practical terms;
In our work place we…
- Reply to e-mail enquiries within 24 hours.
- Include a personal greeting on our phone and e-mail signatures.
- Answer the phone within the 2nd ring.
- ‘Like’ or post back to every comment on Facebook.
- Send a personal note to every client at Christmas to say ‘thanks’.
It’s all in the name – personalising the experience of dealing with your business
is an easy way of increasing the depth of the relationship you have with a
customer.
Does your business have training modules,
policy or briefing on how to deal with
customers?
Don’t leave Customer Service to
chance.
Principle 2
Make it personal.
How does your organisation communicate
its expectations around Customer Service?
Think of ways that you can add the
personal touch in your work e.g. looking at
a name on a card, invoice, online enquiry
and using it.
The rise in doing business online poses both barriers and opportunities to make
business more personal.
You have online details so use them, alternatively a bulk, automated e-mail says
‘we don’t want to interact with you on a personal level’.
Principle 3
Give your customers plenty of opportunities to tell you what they think. Use
this information to improve what you do and how you do it.
Tell me what you want, what
you really, really want.
Only ask for the feedback if you’re going to do something with it.
- How did you find your meal? – But be empowered to do something about
the response – Here’s a voucher for next time.
- E-mail to attendees - Thanks for attending our training day - Please tell us
what you thought of it.
- Facebook – We are thinking about deleting our tools range. What do you
think?
- Replying to a ‘bad’ review on Trip Advisor.
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What feedback loops exist for customers to
communicate to you about their
experience in your business?
What do you do with the information?
Does it result in change?
Is everyone clear on how to handle
feedback that is negative?
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Principle 4
Customers develop an emotional connection with a brand. This trust can be
broken when the brand does something that it is at odds with this perception.
Do what you say you will do.
Be clear what it is that customers can expect when they deal with your
business.
Identify an area of confusion or customers
that leads to you failing to meet their
expectations.
What can be done to change this?
Be clear about what we do and what we don’t do.
Be consistent in communicating this in marketing, online and face to face
interactions.
- Your online order will be shipped in 3 – 5 days.
- We provide free freight on orders over $50.
- We close at 3 pm on Fridays.
- We don’t offer training but I can refer you to someone who does.
Be clear about the process of dealing with a difficult client.
Principle 5
Cynics make the best disciples.
Who intervenes, at what stage? Make sure the conflict is aired at an
appropriate time and place. Listen and give the person plenty of time to “get it
off their chest”. Repeat back to them to demonstrate that you have understood
their issues.
Share an example of how you have won a
difficult customer over in your work place.
Reflect on a customer complaint that was
handled badly. What has been done to
improve the process?
Have ‘flags’ that identify when a small issue is snow balling into a big one.
Principle 6
You have 1 chance to create 1st
impression.
Principle 7
It is never okay for a customer to swear, shout, abuse or bully you or your team.
People make a decision within a few seconds about you.
What cues to you give about yourself by
your appearance, dress, tone and manner?
A smile, a wave, tidy appearance and tone of voice all tell customers something
about who you are as a person and what kind of experience they are likely to
have with you.
Body language gives away tips about how you are feeling and what you are
thinking;
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Role Play
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Your body says way more than
your mouth does.
Principle 8
Soft Sell.
Eye Contact – avoiding it means a lack of respect or transparency.
Slouching – low energy and low interest.
Hand Shakes – too weak means not genuine. Too strong means aggressive.
Folded Arms – a barrier, hiding something or dis-interested.
Mirroring - genuinely trying to get on the same page as you, or not.
Space – knowing the comfortable distance that you maintain from another.
Moves – too many mean you are nervous, keen to leave or anxious.
Selling is the art of listening, presenting, overcoming objections and closing.
Up-sells and cross sells enhance the experience a customer has in your business
or in our region.
How many Body Language ‘don’t dos’ can
you pick up in the following play?
What could you do to increase the average
value of each transaction?
Are you incentivised to increase sales for
your business?
Can I get everyone another round of coffee while you are finishing up your
meeting?
Do you have the right colour socks to go with your new dress pants?
The prawns are delicious if you are looking for a light option for lunch.
Package up the products or services to makes life easy for your customers e.g. If
you buy this as well as a sky-dive them the whole lot is 50% off.
Closed ended questions that don’t consider the bigger picture bring predictable
results;
Principle 9
Ask the right question to get the
right answer.
Compare the response you get by asking an
open ended question rather than a closed
one.
“What is your budget?” – A quote arrives that matches your budget.
Open ended questions let you learn more about your customer’s specific
situation and hence offer a better solution;
“What challenges are you experiencing trying to reach those targets?”
“What are those problems costing you in terms of lost revenue? “
“What is it that this investment has to achieve?”
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Principle 10
Hearing is not the same as
listening.
You can ask all the questions in the world but if you don’t listen carefully to
what the other person tells you, you are losing valuable sales opportunities.
Close your eyes and listen to the sounds
around you.
Active listening means hearing what people tell you. It means asking clarifying
questions when the other person says something vague.
This enables you to focus and listen, by
cutting out other distractions.
True listening means that you focus your full attention on the other person and
stop multi-tasking.
How can you tell that someone is really
listening to you, or not?
Show you understand by recapping the key points they mentioned as being
important.
Principle 11
People will always come up with reasons why the answer is NO.
A way to make them turn this into a maybe is to…
No doesn’t’ always mean No
Empathize. Show you understand, respect or appreciate their concern.
“I understand that you have budget issues to deal with.”
Role play a situation when you are trying to
overcome 3 objections raised by
customers.
Try using the 3 steps; empathize, clarify
and seek permission.
Clarify. Restate the objection back in your own words.
“So you see the value in this product, it’s just that the purchase exceeds the
budget you had allocated, correct?”
Principle 12
Best friends forever.
Seek permission. Ask if you can talk them through a solution.
“Would it be okay if I give you a few options on how to get around your budget
issue?”
Touch Points and Moments of Truth
What are the things that matter to your customers the most?
At what point can you make the best impression?
Touch points are the interactions we have with our clients online, face to face,
over the phone – every one of these is an opportunity to create a lasting
impression.
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What are the moment of truth at your
work place?
For a bank it might be a lost credit card, for
an airline it’s a cancelled flight or lost piece
of luggage, for a retailer it’s a return.
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Use the times that customers are emotionally charged to transform them from
wary or sceptical into strong and committed brand followers.
Excellence is when an instinctive front liner puts the customer's emotional
needs ahead of the company's and the employee's agenda.
Principle 13
Fences are cheaper than cows.
When we do the right thing during a moment of truth we earn the customer’s
trust and loyalty.
Think of a dairy farm with no fences. Every morning the farmer gets up and
goes in search of some cows to milk. Then one day he puts up a fence and
spends time milking, feeding, drenching, watering the ones he has.
Getting more out of a customer means you actively maintain the relationship
you have with them.
Sources: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/true-love-with-customers/
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What do you do to make sure your
customers come back?
Vouchers
Loyalty schemes
E-newsletters
Annual fishing trip
Rewards points
Off-season specials
Posted catalogue with new season range
http://fearless-selling.ca/9-essential-skills/,
Forbes.com
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