Improving your sales results with great customer service

Sales people have a reputation as being pushy and unlikeable.

Considering that in general ‘people buy from people they like’, it makes us question whether B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) companies are giving sales people the right skills for the current customer.

The answer: not always.

In this article, we will look at a different approach that focuses on improving your sales results with great customer service, rather than so much through sales techniques. 

And the Gold medal for Customer Service Excellence goes to...

Following discussion in the previous blog entry, the UK has spent the years fretting over London’s preparedness to meet customer service expectations (Institute of Customer Service, 2010). However, having spent the past couple of weeks glued to the TV set watching the finest athletes from around the world take centre stage, the 2012 Games have been hailed as an overwhelming success throughout the UK and indeed from all over the world. However some individuals deserve a particular thank you for going that extra mile.

"An organisation’s success is dependent upon the quality of service delivered to its customers. In today’s market, this means providing an exceptional service at all points of interaction with the customer.”

In this case, the ‘organisation’ was London and the UK, and the customers, tourists from all over the world. Equally, ‘at all points of interaction’ in this case has been everything from hotels, to the transport system to the Olympic event itself. Accordingly, introducing the unsung heroes of the Olympics, delivering unequivocally British customer service excellence:

·         The Army – After the ‘humiliating shambles’ that was G4S Security, HM Armed Forces stepped in to fill the embarrassing void. The Army’s presence was met with a warm public reception as they performed security checks with integrity and efficiency

·         The Police – Smiling in photos with the public and keeping London safe

·         The thousands of Games Volunteers - Bringing a cheeriness money can’t buy to the Games with their big foam fingers

·         The Hyde Park Live Staff – Going the extra mile to deliver exceptional customer service to visitors, one security official directing people learnt “Please stand in this line and have your bags open ready for it to be searched, thank you” in 6 languages especially for the Games

·         The Cleaners – The Olympic venues have been praised for being exceptionally clean which has undoubtedly had a profound effect on the overall customer experience of visitors

·         The Transport Network – Employees dealing with everything from lost tourists to lost Olympic tickets and one tube conductor in particular kept the early morning commuters smiling:

@SmashBri : Station announcer at Victoria Station: "Train is ready to depart, on your marks, get set, go!" #GoodBanter #London2012 #Olympics

@mossy99 : Love the guy on the platform at Victoria station welcoming people to #london2012 and telling trains to get on their marks, get set and go

@LorenNaish: Loving #VictoriaStation tube platform announcer & Team Jamaica fan: "Driver, on your marks, get set... & go, like Usain Bolt" :) #London2012

So that your business can draw on the momentum of these fantastic Olympic Customer Service examples, find out more about the Customer Service training we can offer here. Or for more details please contact us on 0800 022 3410 or email us with your query: enquiries@capita-ld.co.uk

The Importance of an Effective Customer Service Culture

Is London ready to impress and serve the masses of people flocking to the capital for the Olympics and Paralympics? A customer experience study by Sidona Group in 2011 showed that 59% of customers do not think the UK will be ready to provide a world class experience when London comes under the spotlight this summer. (Hatch, D. 2011)

With only a month away from the games we hope that this perception has changed and the companies are going to offer the highest level of customer service to create a lasting impression and a positive image. There have been campaigns to train thousands of hospitality and tourism staff to take on poor customer service by raising the standards. It is estimated that approximately £2 billion could be generated from the visitors so ultimately, it is quite obvious that organisations get financial benefits from good customer service.

In today’s market it is a requisite to provide exceptional service so the importance of a good customer service culture within the company must be highlighted and communicated on all levels. 

Some benefits of doing so include the following:

• Well-trained and recognised employees, who understand and connect with the customers, are confident in making decisions, find solutions and are aware of the complaints handling procedure, will inadvertently help improve the customer experience;
•  A company culture with high morale, trust and team loyalty, can increase the productivity;
• A good company culture can also be a powerful recruiting point. A workplace where one is motivated, satisfied, has a chance to develop and grow, can attract great candidates.

When building a culture in a company, it is interesting to note that customer service has gone through a transformation on account of the popularity of social media. Everyone has a voice now, be it through a tweet, Facebook update or a TripAdvisor review and organisations have to bear that in mind by training the staff to manage these social media channels correctly. The appointed customer service representatives from the company have the responsibility of monitoring the brand when it is mentioned on social networks.  A positive or negative experience could have the power to spread on a large scale and the likelihood of this becoming viral is much greater than it was in the past. Considering the fact that we are expecting over 500,000 spectators to London during the Olympic Games, the leaders and managers of organisations should recognise that the quality of every single mention of their particular company is more important than ever before.

Finally, for a customer service culture to be successful, everybody in the company has to be completely customer-focused because ‘the Customer is King’! Even if they are not always right, it’s about learning the trick how not to let them know that they aren’t right!

Source: http://www.offthemark.com/

View our Customer Service training courses at Capita Learning & Development.