Part 3; Clear Communication Skills!

 

We are making commendable progress in breaking down the ''PACK'' series! In serving customers with optimum skill and tact, patience,attentiveness and CLEAR COMMUNICATION SKILLS MUST be mastered and practiced by every organisation.

Clear communication skills basically exemplifies two things. The first being to speak clearly and in basic understandable English. The other is speaking precisely and definitely, such that the message is NOT lost in translation and the customer completely understands what is being said. To do this, a customer service staff of an organization MUST understand the request/complaint of the customer and so MUST respond in clear communicative English, and also ensure that every ''indirect'' message the customer needs to know is communicated clearly in the response relay. Make sure you're getting to the problem at hand quickly; customers don't need your life story or to hear about how your day is going. There has to be precision and timeliness in responding to a customer, the need for long unnecessary pleasantries or stories would only be viewed as delay, as a result of incompetence!

More importantly, you need to be cautious about how some of your communication habits translate to customers, and it's best to err on the side of caution whenever you find yourself questioning a situation. A lot of times in serving a customer, a staff may think they are helping a customer by concealing certain information or impressing a customer by not saying it all.What the customer service staff needs to understand MORE is that this could lead to miscommunication to the customer, and there is no faster way to loose customers than having them feel shortchanged with information from your service, or misled by your organisation. Even worse is letting a miscommunication cost the customer some extra money.

Clear communication skills is simply defined as '' The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently. Every customer service staff in an organisation must have at their fingertips, the range(s) of goods and services they offer,well known and understood. And finally, these range of good and services MUST be communicated to every inquiring customer in a manner that answers ALL their questions, as well as resolve all their needs! It is only there that excellent customer service begins!

Part 2; Attentiveness!

 

Last week, I introduced the series ''PACK'', and I promised to break down each letter of the acronym to essentially communicate the essential customer care service skills that every organisation needs. We successfully interpreted the ''P'' which represented 'Patience', and now we are moving on to edition two of the series.

''A'' represents  ''Attentiveness''.  Now let us define the word according to the 'Merriam Webster dictionary'. ''Thinking about or watching something carefully : paying careful attention to something'', ''very concerned about the need of others''. This definition fully embodies the character EVERY customer service organisation should instill in every member of her staff. This definition commands a selfless attitude in serving your customers.The ability to really listen to customers is so crucial for providing great service for a number of reasons. The word 'really' is the operative word in that sentence, as most people tend to listen with the intent to respond and not to actually hear and understand what is being said. When dealing with a customer, it is imperative to understand that every word from the customers mouth matters, and you need to get the question or complaint the FIRST time, and not make the customer repeat themselves. If a customer finds that you continuously ask them to repeat their inquiry/complaint, they could get very offended, and we know what 'dissatisfied customers' do. ( Refer to my post on '' Goals of Customer Service'').

In being Attentive to customers, it is NOT just what the customer says that should get your attention, but also the message conveyed by their body language. The body language sometimes conveys more than words, and it is essential that in serving your customer, your attentive antenna is pivoted to receive ALL signals coming through. For instance, customers may not be saying it outright, but perhaps there is a pervasive feeling that your software's dashboard isn't laid out correctly. Customers aren't likely to say, "Please improve your UX!", but they may say things like, "I can never find the search feature," or, "Where is the _____ function at again?"( Gregory Ciotti). What are your customers telling you without saying it? Sometimes, customers communicate by having a frown on their face, grumblings, or just acting uneasy the whole time they are at your office. It is the job of every organisation with a vision of achieving optimum customer service, to pick out these signals of customer dissatisfaction, and attend to them with tactful empathy and a timely resolution.

Being attentive is the fundamental essential for achieving customer service, because a problem can only be resolved when it is understood. And understanding a situation comes from a good listen, observation and an analysis of both!

The Customer Service Skills That Matter!

 
When most business publications talk about customer service skills, things like "being a people person" tend to take the spotlight.
It's not that this trait is outright wrong, but it's so vague and generic that it is hardly a help to those looking to get involved in support positions within a company, and certainly doesn't help out entrepreneurs/founders who are looking for the right set of skills when hiring the all-important folks who will be taking care of their customers.

With that said, let's get into some specific skills that every support employee can master to "WOW" the customers that they interact with on a daily basis...

I would break down the skills into sub-series, and present them to you every week when I drop my posts. The purpose of this, to engrave each skill into your minds that the default action from your good selves is customer service driven.

Series one is called the ''PACK''. This simple acronym means ; Patience, Attentiveness, Clear communication skills, Knowledge of the product, and Ability to use ''positive language''. Lets start with edition one of series one; Patience.

If ''Patience'' is not the first thing you see on the top of any publication on customer service skills, then you have been punk'd. This is the foundation of all skills with regards to customer service, and the determinant of the rest of the behaviour needed to achieve optimum customer service in every organisation. According to the dictionary, Patience is defined as ''the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious''. Yet patience should not be an excuse for slothful behaviour either. Every customer service driven organisation should ensure that their staff are taught this skill,and continue to practice and master this skill in all their dealings with customers.

If you deal with customers on a daily basis, be sure to stay patient when they come to you stumped and frustrated, but also be sure to take the time to truly figure out what they want — they'd rather get competent service than be rushed out the door!

Essentials of Customer Service: TRAINING

 

 
The fundamental necessity of qualitative customer service in every organisation, is having a ''Competitive Advantage'' over businesses offering same service. There are always multiple brands offering the same service as the other, and often time there is no distinguishing factor between them, especially if they are equally 'sophisticated'. One thing singles out each brand, and that is the quality of the services they offer their customers. Statistics show that 95% of disgruntled customers NEVER complain about the poor services they received from your organisation. It cost much more for a company to acquire a customer than to retain one, due to advertising costs ad the expense of sales calls. Therefore, the efforts that go into maintaining quality customer service can really pay dividends over time.

If you think your organisation is doing well now, think again! Your organisation is at the best utilizing 50% of its potential, and thus there is room for the other significant half to be fully maximised. The missing link? CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING! A wise man once said ''learn from the mistake of others, you will not live long enough to make them all yourself''. For several businesses, making a profit is the only thing that matters, which means training usually revolves around sales staff and how they can close more deals. Consequently, customer service training will enhance the role of sales staff, boost marketing targets and ultimately impact positively on the financial bottom line of every organisation.

Although the importance of customer service will differ depending on the product, service, industry, company and customer, there is almost always room for improvement. In most cases, customer service representatives must be able to give assistance to various personalities and characters. At the same time, they must reflect the core values of the organisation and adhere to the company culture.

Striking the right balance between these two traits isn’t easy, especially when members of staff also need to know about product information and details about delivery, warranties or other customer questions. Consequently, customer service training is very essential.

But rather than being viewed as an initiative or activity that helps staff get better, customer service training should be considered an overall approach to systematic improvement. After all, it has the potential to play a vital role in a company’s ability to generate more income and revenue. Sales go up and down, SERVICE stays FOREVER!

Goals Of Customer Service

In my opinion, the fundamental goal/objective of customer service is basically centered around two key strategies.These strategies if mastered fully,could result in building a brand that is a contender among its contemporaries in the business world. These strategies are; 

a. Make every walk-in customer a repeat customer.

b. Turn your customers into marketing executives for your brand.

 

Every business should have their goals centered around this philosophy. The amount of money spent by organisations on marketing and publicity is on the rise, this is because most establishments FAIL to understand the basic fundamentals of running a business. ''A satisfied customer tells three friends,a dissatisfied customer tells 3000 friends''. This is as straightforward as it sounds, yes it is! The math here is the focus, this is how network marketing executives turn penny businesses into a multi-million dollar conglomerates. Lets look at it like this; if a satisfied customer tells three friends, you are guaranteed to have four repeat customers. If each of the four repeat customers tell three friends, you will have twelve customers at the next visit. If each of the twelve customers tell three friends, you will have thirty six customers at the next repeat visit, and so on and so forth.. This is the same on the negative with a dissatisfied customer telling three thousand friends. The point being that bad news travels faster than good news.However, if 'good news' is maintained and encouraged, basic mathematics show that the result could be the success of the brand, thus saving up on the millions invested in marketing and publicity by organisations in Nigeria.

With the continued economic global crisis in the last decade, it is imperative that every business RETAINS its customers. Every organisation should invest NOW in customer service training skills for its staff. Beyond your brand image, beyond the architecture of your business, beyond the academic qualification of your staff, beyond it all, the ONLY incentive to maintain competition and stay relevant in today's business world is QUALITATIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE.