Customer Service By: Molly Acevedo
Summary of Key Ideas Understanding our own attitudes toward telephone use and courtesy can help us become more effective in dealing with customers via electronic media. Ineffective telephone mannerisms can lead to poor first impressions and customer dissatisfaction. Considering your phone use attitudes, contacting a company to see how they do, and avoiding unnecessary call screening are three ways to better understand and determine how customers may see you and your company. Apply action tips on what to do and say, including such things as prompt answering, using courtesy titles, thanking, smiling, and using tact and skill, especially with upset callers. Apply tips for efficient use of the phone such as asking if this is a good time to talk, taking messages, using efficient greetings, using all phone features, planning outgoing calls, and constantly improving skills. Some companies centralize most phone call functions by creating call centers. A call center is a department within a company or a third-party organization that handles telephone sales and services. For such centers to enhance the company`s reputation, they must provide excellent customer contact and responsiveness.
Web Page and Electronic Communication Internet has provided a new avenue for delivering customer assistance. Online knowledge bases make it possible for customers to answer their own questions. They should be dynamic constantly adapting. Email provides delayed answers to customer inquiries. Customers emails should be acknowledged and responded within 24 hours. Web chat is an adaptation of Internet chat room technology that allows customers and service representatives to carry on two-way communication. Blogs and SNSs serve similar functions. Web analytics and benchmarking (comparing to others) provide data for constant improvement of your Web site´s effectiveness. Web-self service has a significant cost advantage over traditional customer service channels, such as talking to a live agent on the telephone. Therefore, some customers still prefer personal communication. E-services are not only cost-effective, but they can provide additional benefits such as improved custoemr relationships. However, poorly managed e-services can negatively affect the business image.
Use Friendly Web Sites and Electronic Communication
The Internet has become the place for searching and shopping. Every day millions of people access it worldwide. We have come to assume that ALL companies have a Web presence. The cost of creating and maintaining a Web site continues to come down. The Internet is: A perfect sales channel An excellent channel for pre-sale Effective post-sale customer support *Although the telephone is still an important way for people to contact businesses – web sites, emaills, and instant messaging are becoming much more commonplaces.
Low interaction communication (also known as self-service) is when customers take care of themselves using knowledge bases. Knowledge bases are databases of answers to frequently asked questions FAQs. Online knowledge bases make it possible for customers to answer their own questions. Self-learning knowledge bases constantly update themselves based on customer questions. Structured knolwedge bases are organized into a question-and-answer format. Unstructured knolwedge bases are repositories of customer interaction (email correspondence with customer service or postings on electronic bulletin board.) Hyperlinks are those words or phrases that you can click on to get to another place. Multiword searches of the FAQs are the collective wisdom regarding the product or service (dynamic, ever-changing, and self-learning). *Today`s customer expects efficient access to answers. Email usually increases when customers are having trouble finding answers on their own.
The problem with Email is that it is one-way communication, the possibility of misunderstanding is high, and it takes time to respond to each customer (at least 24 hours.) Live chat requires lie people available to the customer and this is expensive. A variation of chat rooms is the use of BLOGS. A blog is a journal maintained by a company or individual. A blog becomes an online forum for discussions. Self- serve personalized answers are the ideal technology-assisted service a company can offer. If a gift is bought and will be sent by UPS or FedEx the company offers a tracking system. The customer enters the tracking number and seconds later knwoes the package`s location. Blogs and chat rooms have changed into social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, Myspace, LinedIn, etc. These link friends and associates of all ages in easy-to-use contact networks. Companies cannot afford to overlook the customer service potential of these networks.
Customer Service Expectation Customization: Companies need to provide personalized products or services. Scrutiny: Customers check out products online or with friends (often via their SNSs) before they go to the store, 83% people know what they want before they get to the store. Shopping now involves picking up the product. Integrity: Customers are more conscious than ever of company reputation and share impressions with others. Collaboration: Customers want to participate with companies to make the product or service better and they want open communicaiton channels of communication. Entertainment: They expect companies to make it fun to do business with them. 93% of kids ages 2-17 have regular access to video games, their tolerance for uninteresting media used by traditional companies is low. Speed: The want the company to serve them NOW. Innovation: They want companies to give them the latests, hiippest, trendiest products and services. The old model is UNACCEPTABLE.
Business Plan to Generate Investors Service or Product Description (Explain in simple terms what your service or product will be about. You may use other brands as examples and mention those characteristics that related to your idea.) Market Opportunities (Mention why you believe that your business will be successful in our country, explain if other companies have similar products or services.) Unique Traits or Characteristics (Mention those elements that will set your product or service apart from the rest.) Market Leader (Mention the market leader if any, example: Coca-Cola -if you are planning on making a soft drink.) Target Market (Mention the people who will be your main customers example: young adults, children, etc.) Promotion and Advertising (Mention where and how you plan to advertise, will you be advertising before, during or after the opening of your store? Explain why.) Physical Location (Mention where you would consider placing your business, example: Miraflores Mall because….)
Additional Exercises
Homework:
Read the story of Garth´s call to the car dealership pretend on page 56. Then, describe four telephone use problems that probably led to Garth´s irritation and his decision not do business with that dealer. Problem 1: The greeting or answer was not professional, it was kind of rude and without giving any important to the caller. Problem 2: The receptionist hung up the caller too many times. Problem 3: The Man how answer the second time, he didn’t acknowledge Garth’s comment. Problem 4: The man Hang up in mid-sentence that Garth’s was saying. Mention six telephone tips in this chapter that could avoid these issues from happening. Action Tip 3 (Avoid Unnecessary Call Screening) The amount of call screening reveals certain attitudes toward phone use. This often creates resentment in the caller. Also customer get annoyed when there are too many gatekeepers. Action tip 4 ( Answer with professionalism) When customers do get through to you, answer professionally, Be sure to identify yourself, this tells callers whom they are speaking to and that you are ready to converse with them. Action tip 6 (Thank people for calling) Thank people reassures the customer that you are interested in serving and that the call was not an intrusion. Action Tip 7 (smile) you have to be pleasant, concerned and helpful, always treat that person as thought you were face to face. Action Tip 8 (Be sure the Conversation is Finished before You Hang Up) Hanging up before the conversation is over is rude and could upset the customer. Action Tip 10 (keep your conversation tactful and businesslike) Poor wording or abruptness turns off a customer or a caller; it makes a caller feel less appreciate.
Homework: Use blogs as a real-time conversation. If there’s a conversation going on about your issue or organization, you need to be involved in the dialogue. If you get involved in blogs in real-time conversations it can be easier to find a solution of the problem you have or to find what you need. Remember the 80/20 rule, 20 percent of the people in the world have great influence on how the other 80 percent think. The 20 percent are actively reading blogs. Reading blogs represent the 20 percent of the people in the world who influence how the other 80 percent think. Understand that almost one-third of all U.S. Internet users read online forums (according to respected source Forrester Research), so the potential for communicating about customer service (for good or ill) is high. The potential for communicating about customer service is high, because now a lot of people are involved in internet and online forums. Reach out to bloggers who follow your issue. If possible, have conference calls with them. Find people on internet who follow your issue, make a conference call, they might help you.
Submit post/comments from your organization’s leaders on blogs. It establishes that you are willing and able to be part of the conversation. Submitting post/comments shows that are willing and able to participate in a conversation.
Action Tips
1. What is the difference between hearing and listening? Hearing is the perception of voices or sounds, but listening represents an effort to understand the message we hear. 2. Mention the three types of factors that complicate the listening process and pose potential barriers. a) When sometimes they do not know the terminology or exactly how to describe their problem. b) Interrupting in the middle of the message. c) If you are like most people you talk a lot more than you listen. 3. What two things can generate communication problems? Any type of noise, it can be environmental or internal. Not being focused or concentrated in the conversation. 4. What does CAA stand for and what does it mean? It stands for Acounter-attitudinal advocacy which means to take the other person`s position to advocate or express a point of view that runs counter to your own attitude. 5. Mention, describe, and explain in your own words the three Action Tips that you consider most important. Stay Close after the Sale
It is important to maintain any type of communication like messages, emails or phone calls with the customer, this helps to build customer loyalty. Simple messages for their birthdays or in holydays make them feel welcome whenever they want to come back or more important and comfortable. Listen with more than your Ears It is important to take the time to listen and stop talking; this will help you to know which ones are the customer’s necessities. Focus on the content, talk when they are finished, maintain eye contact and be sincere. Smile You have to smile to make the customer know they have come to the right place. Smile will make your customer feel in a friendly place, they are two ways to smile, with the eyes and with the moth, most of the smiles with the mouth can be insincerely, so you can practice at the mirror how to give a sincerely smile.
6. In your own words define the following: Faking attention: It is an attempt to be polite to someone during a conversation. Gatekeepers : It is a person who controls access to something or the person who decide whether a given message will be distributed Habit: Frequent repetition, often unconscious pattern of behavior. Listening capacity: is the ability to understand what the person is talking about. Noise: means any unwanted sound it can be internal or environmental. Wide asleep listener: Pretending to be listening and being an active part of something.
Web- Pages
1. Today technology has changed the way we communicate, the way we do
business and even the way to minimize the activities at home, all this by creating applications that perform a specific purpose. Users, consumers or customers will be in the need to understand and apply technology to make efficient and improve their communication activities or shopping. 2. Expectations for customers are diverse, they want to participate with companies to make the product or service better and they want open communication channels. They expected that companies provide personalized products or services, and they want the company to serve them now, in a short time, also they expect companies to make it fun to do business with them. 3. Advances in technology such as the Internet , social networks, platforms , websites and blogs, have an impact in communication and especially in the direct marketing, department which start the business organization through updated people in the use of technology to provide a high service level in a short time to the customer, it is necessary that organizations gradually joining a online service to be updated in the technology and in this way they can improve their communication and customer service.
Advantages: The Internet is a perfect sales channel, an excellent channel for pre-sale. Web based service is effective post-sale customer support Online knowledge bases make it possible for customers to answer their own questions. Web- based service is faster and simple. All social networking sites make the use of networks easier. Disadvantages: Web based service like live chat requires people available to the customer and this is expensive. Poorly managed e-service systems can result in a reputation for bad service. Technology applications are moving targets—the rate of change is extremely fast.
Vocabulary
Benchmarking: Compare with others. Blog: A web site containing a writers own experiences, observations or opinions. Click Path; Sequence of hyperlinks, one or more web sites visitors follows on a given site, presented in the order viewer. E-service: the use of information and communication, technologies to facility the delivery of service. FAQ’s: frequently asked questions a customer does. Knowledge bases: is a centralized repository of information; a publick library, a database of related information about a particular subject. Live chat: A kind of communication over the internet that offers a real time transmission of text messages from sender to receiver. Online Forum: online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. Social Networking: is the phrase used to describe any we site that enables users to create public profiles. Spamming: Flooding the internet with many copies of the same message.