Improving Customer Interactions
Do you know how your employees are interacting with your customers? Are you maximizing each customer touch point, including telephone conversations? In a recent guest post on the People2People Service blog, Randi Busse writes an open letter to business owners about customer experiences and the impressions employees leave on customers. In the letter, Busse writes:
What happened when I called you on the phone? The person who answered sounded like I was bothering them. They didn’t sound happy that I was calling TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOUR COMPANY. And actually, come to think of it, they were downright rude to me.
Busse goes on to discuss in-store interactions with staff, and the value of training employees on the art of customer service in addition to training them on the products and services that you sell.
What do your customers experience when they are on the telephone with your staff?
- Do you regularly record and monitor telephone conversations to make sure that your company is making the most of every interaction?
- Are you evaluating your employees using standardized criteria and concrete evidence?
- Do you have a training program set-up to close the gaps in your customer interactions?
Quality monitoring and training programs can deliver great value to your employees and your business. Not only will your employees have the opportunity to refine their skills, but many will find greater job satisfaction and improved morale. Furthermore, your staff will have a greater sense of ownership in the customer experience and business goals. In many cases, quality monitoring and agent evaluation programs give managers the opportunity to witness employees “going above and beyond” or “surprising and delighting” customers.
How do your employees sound on the telephone? Are your employees listening to and delighting your customers?
This was a very pertinent post. In today's global business environment, customer loyalty in under pressure. intensified competition, deregulation, greater choice and social networking have all contributed to increase customer power. nice post you have here by the way! thanks for sharing -Jamie
Thank you, Jamie.
I believe that it's important that companies constantly look at how they can improve customer service delivery, and that the power and worth of quality monitoring and employee evaluation programs shouldn't be underestimated. – Jill
There has been a decline in the quality of customer care services. Companies must take the initiative to win back their customers.
Customer interaction is indirect through the service itself, which means that so as to essentially perceive customers you actually have to be compelled to understand how they interact together with your business.
Outbound Lead Generation:
I agree, it is very important to understand how customers interact with your business. It is especially important to understand the context of conversations, including: WHY did they call? WHO did they interact with? WHAT was the outcome? HOW was the call handled?