Some basic staff must do’s
Something so basic you would wonder why it needs a mention. Know your product so you are the expert, know your company so you are an expert and know your customers real buying motives so you are the expert. So what is a real buying motive… hmmm it’s a Mercedes Benz and your customer says he wants it because its “safe”… rubbish he wants the prestige, go along with the safety game however sell the prestige. If you want to serve your customer well you must also know who to refer your customer to or who to go to yourself within your organization to answer all customer queries. Have you ever been told “oh you’ll have to see spare parts about the extra” whatever you wanted or… “accounting’s around the corner for that information”… don’t do that, if you are handling a customer you contact spares or sort out the accounting inquiry on behalf of your customer.
Handling Difficult Customers. The first and often forgotten rule is that complaining customers are referring to their disappointment with your company, product or service, so don’t take the complaint personally. It is easy to become defensive about your company however this natural tendency needs to be resisted. The thing you need to remember is it is always better to separate the person from the problem. So you’re not dealing with a difficult customer your dealing with a customer with a difficulty. At all costs stay calm believe you are good at your job and act professionally and dispassionately even if the customer doesn’t. Oh yes always take notes and ensure some learning occurs.
The Art of Selling All the Time. Often companies need to send out notices for issues such as say, changes in legislation, changes is service standards, product recalls, temporary closure of outlets, renovations, or changes in terms and conditions. All contacts with the customer need to be sales oriented and offer a positive for the customer. So the old “Please be advised due to blah blah blah and we apologize for any inconvenience caused” letter just won’t cut it. If you have some negative news at least add an offsetting positive to the communication. Example you have a hotel and your XYZ restaurant is being closed for renovation, don’t ‘please be advised’… instead, its ‘great news ABC restaurant is now offering an extended menu with a special guest chef’ then you add at the bottom, ‘during this wonderful promotion we will be renovating XYZ’.
Working as a Team. For a truly customer oriented organization to be in operation the entire company needs to believe they are… and act as if they are… “one team”, all focused on adding value for their customers and yes that means that sales and service are the responsibility of accounting, production, financial control and even the human resource department. Huh you say… are you crazy… nope all decisions need to undergo the “value add” to the customer versus, the “energy suckers” on the company test. This is often not easy to achieve as inter department culture wars are common in and a crippling reality in many companies.
EXCELLENT SERVICE NEEDS A TOTAL COMPANY COMMITMENT
A strong customer focus at all organization levels is basic to success in providing excellent customer service. Customer focus by all employees versus, the all to common, ‘IT’S THE SALES DEPARTMENTS RESPONSIBILITY’ is essential to prevent ‘cock-ups’ at the external customer service level. We all need to realize that there are three types of customers for most of us to service… ‘internal’, ‘ultimate’ and ‘external’…
We all know our internal customers (don’t we)… these are any individuals that receive our work output. In most organizations we also have ultimate customers… these are guys/ladies at the sales/buyer interface… and of course we are all here to serve the external customers or those (if we are smart) we refer to as ‘king’!
So who are our customers then? Anyone for whom we do anything is our customer, whether it is directly from one hand to the next, or indirectly through others in the service chain. Therefore if we need a strong customer focus by our non-sales staff they will have to buy into the proposition that they need to work to serve the ultimate customer and their priority must be to do their job in such a way that it makes the job of the next person in line as easy as possible.
In your company… HOW DO THE STAFF IN PURCHASING, FINANCE, ACCOUNTING, HR AND ADMINISTRATION SEE THEIR ROLES?
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