How Do You Plan To Overcome Competition In Business?

Competition includes all the actual and potential rival offerings and substitutes a buyer might consider. Understand that your competitors include actual and potential offerings from industry operators, potential new entrants and market competitors.

The ability to identify and analyze all actual and potential competitors to your business is key to surviving in a fierce market place, keeps you ahead of them and helps you develop strategies to overcome them.

To analyze its competitors, a company must identify its competitor’s strategies, objectives, strengths and weaknesses and then device its own strategies to overcome them. It must also have a clear understanding of the environment it operates in.

Understand that the environment you operate in is similar to that of your competitors. Learning how to overcome the challenges in your business environment is a step towards overcoming the competitor.

Companies are also increasingly being faced by the threat of buyers growing bargaining power and suppliers growing bargaining power. As such companies must spend time to research and understand its actual and potential customers, what they expect from them, how to exceed their expectations as well as what influences their buying patterns. Exceeding customer expectations is no mean feat. In today’s business world, customers are increasingly knowledgeable about product choices, service standards and above all consumer rights, hence the increase in buyers bargaining power. Exceeding customer expectations has become a must do for any business that is serious about gaining market share, loyalty and customer trust.

Finally you must understand that if you are unable to impress potential customers and keep your current customers loyal to your brand then you have already lost to the competitor no matter the strategy you choose to adopt.

Understand that the customer is the reason why you are in business and not the competitor. If the product offering and service delivery is excellently superb, then your competitors will naturally have a hard time keeping up with you even if you have not deliberately prepared an attacking strategy to defeat them. With all these being said, you need a business strategy to overcome the competitor. In addition to the facts earlier listed, your strategy will also depend amongst so many other factors on your financial muscle, objective, the level of competition, competitors approach, your market position, marketing indices etc.

To get the full course "Overcoming Competition in Business", please click the course logo on our homepage

Customer Personality Types

ave you ever encountered customers with personalities that are sometimes difficult to offer help? According to Dr. Moore with Second Story Counseling and Consultants in Chicago, there are six distinct types of customer personalities:

 The Know it Alls
These folks tend to be experts in just about everything. Sometimes, they can come off as arrogant and often opinionated. When they are wrong about a subject, they usually put the blame someplace else.

The Passives
Passives usually try to avoid conflict at all costs. When presented with conflict, they usually tend to be non-committal and agreeable. These folks usually do not offer opinions or let you know how they feel about a given subject.

The Dictators
These folks often have strong personalities and can come across as bullies. In addition, they can sometimes unintentionally be insulting. Brutally critical, they can be very difficult to work with.

The Yes People
Yes people tend to agree with any commitment and will promise to meet unreachable deadlines. You can tell you are dealing with a Yes person because they often apologize for a problem – many times ones that they did not create.

The No People
No people are negative and downright pessimistic. They tend to look at what is not working instead of what is. Resistant to change, these folks can throw a wet blanket over an entire process.

The Complainers
Just like the name implies, the complainers find something to complain about with almost every situation. While they are often correct in their complaint, they find it difficult to offer praise or see the good in a situation.

Knowing what kind of personality you are dealing with can go a long way with developing ways to handle the situation.

By Johnny Blogger

The Real Meaning of Customer Service

What is customer service? Have you ever stopped to really think about this question? We have trained literally thousands of people and hundreds of organisations in customer service. No matter who the person or what the organisation, the answer to this question is always generic. They will say: “Customer service is about giving customers what they want” or perhaps “it’s about satisfying customers” some times they will say that it is about “making customers happy.”


While at first glance these answers may sound correct, nothing could be further from the truth. Say for example that you ran a restaurant. If a customer were to enter your restaurant and ask for some office supplies would you be able to give the customer what they want? Would you be able to satisfy a customer who was looking for some jewellery if you worked in a hardware store? No, it would be impossible. The best that you could do would be to politely tell the customer where they can go and get Jewry. Obviously, customer service is not about giving customers what they want, or even satisfying customers.

The same is true for the way we give customer service. When we ask the question: what is the most important thing for good customer service, almost everyone we ask will answer: smile. While this may be good in some cases it is not appropriate in all cases. Just imagine if a distressed mother came up to you and told you that she had lost her 2 year old child in your store. Imagine how she would respond if you were to smile at her? Or imagine if a customer told you that he/she slipped while climbing the stairs or escalator in your store and as they explained their excruciating injuries you smiled back at them.

The truth is that customer service is not about practicalities, it’s about principles. The practicalities may change but the principles stay the same. Staff are not meant to smile all the time, to give customers everything they want, or to satisfy all their needs. Staff are meant to promote the organisation and its values. If you want to increase the impact of your customer service teach staff to represent your organisation and its unique traits.

When we teach customer service training modules we first focus on what the organisation values, what it’s all about and what does it want customers to see. Once we have done this, we move on to how to serve in light of these values. This is a very easy way of getting staff to change the way they serve, it produces better results and is a lot more fun to teach.

Here is something you can do to help your staff engage in effective customer service. Take a black/white board and draw a very basic house. Ask staff to take a piece of chalk or the white board marker and to take turns to turn this basic house into your organisation/company. They may add pictures or words to the basic drawing. Some will add words like: quality, professionalism, friendliness, service, money, speed, or simplicity while others may draw things like customers and staff.

Now ask staff this simple question: in light of this picture, what does a good customer service representative do? The participants will now find it easy to see what customer service is really about in your organisation. They may say for example, in light of us being a friendly company we should smile. Or perhaps they will highlight the organisation’s professionalism and explain that it’s professional to stand up straight and to dress appropriately.

Instead of teaching staff practicalities teach them principles and the practicalities will follow naturally.


We have a free, 2 hour course which you can download and run with your staff to help them improve their customer service, just visit www.griffin.ie.

By Stephen Milford
Stephen Milford works with Griffin Training as a trainer and client manager. He has taught literaly thousands of people through hundreds of organisations across three different countries.

The Importance of Effective Communication and Effective Listening in Customer Care

Communication has been a business buzzword forever.  You can go back in history and find diatribes by businessmen on communication as far back as the great Roman and Greek civilizations.  Obviously, it must be a very important aspect of business as well as everyday life.  The irony lies in the fact that many, many businesses never train their employees in how to effectively communicate with other people.   Not only is effective communication ignored in the workplace, it is catastrophically ignored in the area of customer care.


Wikipedia's general definition of communication is, "Communication is the process of transferring information from a sender to a receiver with the use of a medium in which the communicated information is understood by both sender and receiver."  This simple definition describes the rudimentary act of communicating, but could never in a million years describe the complex act of human communication.   Humans communicate with each other in a myriad of ways and over many different mediums.  Almost all college degrees require some study in communication.  Although (in my experience) the general studies college communication classes miss the mark (that being to teach students how to communicate in the college environment in which they find themselves), at least degree curriculums realize the importance of some kind of knowledge of communication in everyday life.  I believe that the general public is by and large uneducated in the art of communication.  A standard model of communication might look something like this:
Information Source>>>>>>>Transmitter>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Receiver>>>>>>>>Destination
          (message)                       (signal/received signal)                 (message)

Believe it or not, this model is a derivative of Shannon's model of communication which was introduced in 1948.  Yes, 1948.  Communication models haven't changed much in many, many years because the models themselves are somewhat timeless.  This is because human communication at its basest levels doesn't change much over time.  With the addition of email, the internet, video conferencing, and the many technological advances in the last twenty years, one might think that the models themselves might be antiquated.  This is simply not true.  Basic communication involves a sender, a message, a receiver, and feedback.  That's really all there is to it.  Or is it??

How many times have we had an argument with our spouse or significant other and one of us insisted that the other said this or that thing that we really can't remember ever saying or even thinking.  Communication, unfortunately cannot really be defined by a model, it is a living breathing thing of its own that is constantly changing and constantly dynamic.  What people actually "hear" oftentimes may not be what was actually "said" or intended by the sending party.  I believe this anomaly occurs because in many instances of communication, people "hear" what they want to hear; they interpret based on their prior experience and based on their perception of what was said rather than on what was actually said; selective hearing at play, indeed!

When I was a drama teacher, one of the hardest concepts to convey to my drama students was the dynamic nature of how a play communicated to the audience.  Theatre is a dynamic medium.  Each and every audience member reacts to the play, whether it is a comedy, drama, or musical, in unique and personal ways.  Every audience member brings their own personal experiences into the theatre, and their reception of the "communication" being offered from the stage is determined by how they "personally react" to the action on stage.  This is why live theatre must be rehearsed well and the actors must know exactly what they are doing line by line and stage cross by stage cross because the reaction will never be the same from night to night.

We did an outstanding production of "The Diary of Anne Frank."  I was able to assemble a cast of actors who were exquisitely fitted to their parts and the production was incredibly well received.  I use this as an example because the personal experience of the attendees was such an integral part of the success of this play.  What I discovered through this production was that the older audience members who remembered the actual events were so moved by the production that they were often beside themselves with emotion.  The younger members of the audience, although they liked the play weren't nearly as moved.  I also noticed a full spectrum of reaction throughout all of the audience members which I contend was triggered by their own experiences.  Whether it was response to the absolute inhumanity of the situation, or response to some sense of their own lost youth, reactions were different.  I firmly believe that each and every person who saw that production had a unique reaction to it based on their own personal experiences in their life.

This is the secret to learning how to communicate with humans.  Each and every encounter is unique.  It is impossible to solve customer care problems off of a script.  Employees must be trained to apply this philosophy of "uniqueness" to their everyday dealings with clients.  One of the best "life lessons" my dad ever taught me was that almost every time that someone gets mad at you, it has nothing to do with you or the situation you were in with that person.  There is always some underlying reason why people get angry and it generally has nothing to do with the present situation.  And indeed customers often do get mad and the employee gets flustered but if they are trained to understand that the customer is not mad at them but at the situation and trained to placate them instead of returning fire, most situations can be defused efficiently.  If customer care representatives and employees who have face to face dealings with customers can understand this concept, it will make their jobs ever so much simpler.

Intertwined with knowing how to communicate with people is being trained in how to listen.  Listening is so vitally important and, I fear, is the most lacking element of effectively dealing with customers.  Most of us fail miserably in this area.  Most of us rarely really listen to anyone.  Many of us find ourselves creating our responses in our minds rather than really listening to what someone is saying.  This is true, I believe, in casual conversation.  It takes a great deal of effort to really "listen" to what other people are saying.  Think about how often our minds wander and we can't really remember what was being said to us when we are engaged in conversation with another person.  It happens all the time.  This is because we haven't trained ourselves to really "listen" to what the other person is saying.

One of the hardest skills for actors to master is the art of listening when in a play.  Great actors do their best acting when the other actors are speaking.  Make it a point sometime to watch your favorite actors when they are not talking.  You will find that the good ones will always appear to be engaged even when they are not speaking.  I beat this into my drama students and they were very good at staying engaged in the scenes when they were not speaking.  Probably one of reasons it was so important to me was because of how bad I was at it when I was high school.  We did a production of "To Kill a Mockingbird" when I was a junior.  I was one of the leads in the play and during the courtroom scenes; we had to watch the trial and had no lines.  I was a rascal and did everything in my power to "NOT" pay attention in those scenes.  In retrospect I am truly ashamed for my behavior, but I think as I continued my training in college and became a teacher of drama that my shenanigans were greatly responsible for my insistence on my students learning this very important aspect of acting!

One on one effective communication and effective listening is "constant" in achieving Consummate Customer Care!  Achieving this goal depends so greatly on management listening and communicating with employees in order to teach them to listen and communicate with customers. (I could not have possibly taught my young actors this important lesson if I had not listened to their input and allowed them to communicate with me.)   This is such an urgent concept!!  Who listens to anyone who basically says "do what I say, not what I do"!  No one does!  Therefore, if management does not listen and communicate well with their employees, the program of "Consummate Customer Care" really never gets past the rule stage!

By Barry Andrews
Barry  Andrews had been successful in many different areas of business and education.

Comfortable Misery

The story goes that a salesman walked up to the front porch of an old customer to find him sitting on his porch. Next to him was an old dog that moaned once about every 10 seconds. When the salesman asked the man why his dog was moaning, the man replied that he'd been lying on a rusty nail all morning. When asked why the dog would not get up to move, the old man replied simply "I guess it doesn't hurt enough yet.

Is there some pain in your life that causes you strife, anguish and stress? What is it that makes you uncomfortable? Now that you have identified that, why are you still doing it? The pain of our situation has to be great enough to set us free from the things that we don't like in life.

Far too many people are working at jobs they despise. If you let yourself get too comfortable in your misery you will never be able to do anything about it but complain. Do yourself, your spouse and your family a favor and make a change today!

First, start by taking a look inside and discover who you truly are

. You cannot expect to simply change jobs and be happy. Find our how you are uniquely gifted and how your values, dreams and passions align with your life's calling. The personality profile
is our most popular product and is an invaluable tool in discovering your unique gifts as well as career matches. I use it with every Career & Life Coaching client.

Second, develop a plan to move into the work that you love. Whether that involves developing or fine-tuning your resume to work for another company, or creating your own business, do it with a plan. You have to have a strong amount of faith through the entire process, but without a clearly written plan, you are only asking for trouble.

Do not simply quit what you are doing now. I am not a fan of burning bridges and leaving everything behind. There may be a strong transition period in your life that involves doing a few things all at once. With a strong plan in place, I know your can meet and exceed your goal of doing the work you love!

By Justin Lukasavige
Justin Lukasavige is a Personal & Business Coach and owner of Lukas Coaching. Visit www.lukascoaching.com/resources.htm for a ton of free tools to help you improve your health, finances, business, career & life! For more free columns and articles, visit www.lukascoaching.com/articles.htm

How to Handle Customer Complaints

There is a misconception lingering about in the business world that customers who complain are usually too demanding and hence a nuisance. Another misconception is that customers who don't complain are an indication that a company is doing things right and thus heading in the right direction. 

The truth is however, customers who complain are actually carving out opportunities for a business to improve its customer service and resolve any undetected problems for long-lasting profitable growth.

Research has also shown that customers who complain are far more likely to remain loyal to a business if the complaint is resolved quickly. The opposite is true of customers who have problems with a company but don't complain, opting to shop or to do business with its competitor instead.

Bearing this in mind, let's examine five customer service tips you can use right now to turn complaints into sales.

1. Listen Intently

Complaints are actually very valuable and they ought to be analyzed. Such data can be used to improve your products or services and analyzed to develop new ideas for product development. When a customer complains, it is well worth the time and effort to pay careful attention to what the customer is complaining about. Take this opportunity to talk to the customer about ideas they might have to resolve the issue.

What you might end up with is a goldmine of information obtained at no cost that can eventually be used to create more sales, simply because you listened.

2. Be Professional

Coaxing a vexed customer to be constructive in their criticism is made more difficult if you're unable to take control of the situation. The simplest way to take charge of a situation where an angry customer is in "full flight" is to stay calm, be polite and maintain professionalism. It won't be too long before the customer realizes he is overreacting and apologizes for his outburst.

3. Two Words, "I'm Sorry"

When customers complain, they are often seeking acknowledgement of the problem, empathy and most importantly, an apology. If none of these "criteria" are met by the company, the customer will walk away never to come back. Or worse, it may ensue into a public battle. Adopting a defensive stance rarely works with an unhappy customer, even if you weren't in the wrong. The best solution would be to offer an apology and acknowledge that the company will take full responsibility for its mistake. An apology is to the customer what a pacifier is to a baby.

4. Work To Resolve Complaints Quickly

Delight the customers who have lodged complaints with quick solutions to their problems. Many of us are familiar with the "I'll look into it" phrase, but never to hear a peep from the customer service department again. Stand out from your competitors by working to resolve your customers' issues quickly. Keep them informed of what you have done, checking to ensure that they're satisfied with the outcome and compensate them for their troubles. With customer service this good, your customers can't help but to show their appreciation by sticking around a lot longer.

5. Form A Customer Focus Group

Tap into the collective wisdom of your customers by soliciting feedback or surveying them on complaints you had received. This can be easily achieved by creating a special page on your website or blog. It's a good idea to do this because sometimes a complaint might sound reasonable and making a change seems feasible, but most of your customers might think differently. By gathering their opinions before implementing any changes, it can save you from making a bad business decision that could ultimately prove costly.

There's every possibility that you may encounter the occasional serial complainer whose only ambition in life is to make people miserable. You can spot such customers a mile away and they very rarely contribute to the growth of your company. Fortunately, these types of complainers are few and far between and don't make for very loyal customers.

The ones that do offer constructive criticism disguised as complaints on the other hand, should be thought of as your personal marketing consultants that pay you to listen to them. It doesn't get much better than that.


By Robert Moment
Robert Moment is an innovative forward-thinking small business and marketing coach and the author of Invisible Profits: The Power of Exceptional Customer Service and It Only Takes a Moment to Score. Robert specializes in teaching entrepreneurs and small business owners how to start a business that profits and grow. Here’s what Millionaire business mastermind, bestselling author , speaker and consultant Brian Tracy(www.briantracy.com) said about Robert’s book , It Only Takes a Moment to Score , “Your ability to quickly build trust and rapport with customers is the key to your success , and the SCORE (Sincerity, Commitment, Openness , Reliability, Execution) System shows you how to do it quickly”. Robert Moment was one of the leading small business experts chosen to write a chapter in the bestselling book , Streetwise Small Business Book of List by author Gene Marks. Robert has interviewed on Entrepreneur Magazine Radio a number of times and other radio shows . As a small business and marketing coach, speaker and author, Mr. Moment’s greatest actual talent is seeing hidden possibilities overlooked assets and underperforming activities and resources – which no one else recognizes.

How to Greet a Customer in a Retail Store

You: Hi, Sir / Ma'am welcome to "your store name", is there something I can help you with today?

This straight forward question is effective and to the point. I believe that asking a question about how you can help begins showing that you are placing their needs before your own, which is extremely important. 

Customer: Sure, I'm looking for some flowers for my wife. She's been a little under the weather.
Customer communicates their needs to you.

You: I'd be glad to help you make your wife feel better. My name is Joseph. May I have your name?
You communicate that you understand their needs. It may be good to phrase this in the form of a benefit. It is OK to tell them your name and get theirs.

Customer: Tom Moody.

You: Thanks, Mr. Moody. Sheila Jackson runs the floral department. If you'd walk this way, I'll show you. Walks. Sheila, Mr. Moody is trying to cheer his wife up with some flowers, do you think you could help him find something nice?
You are letting your customer know how you will be helping them. You could also make sure that you communicate your customer's needs to any other employees that will be involved. Or would you rather hear, "There's a lady in the floral dept. She'll probably be able to help you."

Sheila: Sure, I know just the thing Mr. Moody.

You: Have a nice day, sir.

I hope this article about How to greet a customer in a retail store helped. If you are looking for more info, please look us up.

By Joseph Nelson
Joseph Nelson is the owner of a company that distributes retail store fixtures, retail display cases, and food service equipment. It is his goal to provide great information and products to people in the retail and restaurant industries.

The Definition of Customer Service

It is hard to define ‘customer service' because there are many different definitions of the term. Working out which definition would suit your particular workplace can therefore be very difficult. The definition of customer service is often misinterpreted by some businesses and used poorly in the workplace because it has been inadequately defined.

In today's business environment it is not enough to believe customer service is ‘just meeting the requirements of the customer'.
In determining the definition of customer service for the purposes of this article the following key qualities were considered:

Customer service is:

1. A positive, polite, caring and friendly attitude


2. The knowledge and ability to provide quality service by satisfying the customers needs


3. The process of delivering first rate benefits and treating customers fairly and professionally


4. Any communication that creates a good or bad impression


5. How a business looks after its customer's requirements through effective and efficient before and after sales service

Conclusions
By taking into account the above points it is clear that to define customer service the following basic elements would be necessary……..Efficiently satisfying a customer's needs by providing and delivering professional, helpful, high quality service and assistance before, during and after the customer's requirements are met.
 Many businesses do not consider a downturn in business until it is too late. In a competitive environment early plans need to be made so that the consumer is always considered first. This can be done through regular reviews of customer service systems and training programmes to look for ways existing processes can be improved. By understanding what customer service means and how it impacts on turnover and bottom-line, businesses will not only enhance their reputation for providing quality service but be in a position to improve stale and tired internal services that will lead to increased customer loyalty and over time profit margins.

By Bradon Walker

Brandon has been involved with customer relations and interaction with customers for many years now. To find more informative articles and resources about customer service visit his site goodcustomerservice.org

10 Tips to Handle Customer Complaints

A) Let the customer get the word. Give them the opportunity to let steam off. Listen closely to the customer, no matter what. Show interest.

B) Say you are sorry to hear, what has appeared and the current situation. Do not admit, that someone from the organization or your organization is wrong, but are sorry.

C) Use active listening; reflect back - what the customer just said! Be smart, say – is it correct understood, that your complaint is this and that. Use active questions.

D) Get to the facts by questioning effectively, make sure to get to the heart of the customers problem, so you can be able to handle it. Remember, sometimes a problem of a customer can be a mix of problems and not listed in order of importance. Make sure, that you are getting in to the two most important problems for the customer, if it is a mix of problems.

E) Keep an open and friendly tone and mine, even though that receiving a complaint could sometime be stressful. Do not make assumptions, based on the customer story.

F) Do not argue with the customer and do not become defensive. This is one of the hardest things to master, in a service-department. This should be trained again and again by the people, who receive the complaints. Do always stay focused and concentrate on the current situation.

G) Try to find out, what the customer really wants. Do they want their money back, do they want another product, or do they want a cut in prize. Try to build on the customer's ideas and suggestions, if you are allowed to do this by your manager/director.

H) Concentrate on your possibilities for handling the complaint. Explain to the customer, what you can do and what you not are able to do.

I) Do never impose your own solution. Get a solution with the customer, which the customer finds acceptable.

J) Summarize the solution and check that customer understands the solution. Make sure, it's a helpful solution for the customer. Ask the customer, if the solution is helpful!

Lasse Kohau

http://goodcustomerrelationsmanagement.blogspot.com http://effectivebusinesstools.blogspot.com

Top 10 Tips For Excellent Customer Service

Businesses spend a lot of time and money on advertising to attract new customers. While this is important for the growth of the business, I feel the value of returning customers is often overlooked. Loyal customers are critical to the success of any business and it is by providing them with excellent customer service that they will remain loyal.
Here are my top tips to help you give your customers the kind of service they truly deserve.

1. Anticipate the needs of the customer. Use knowledge about the customer and the products that they have purchased in the past to predict future needs. These needs might be unusual or recurring, either way getting to know your customers shows them that they have not been forgotten and you have their best interests in mind.
2. Greet customers with a smile. If you operate a bricks and motor company, this can be done with a warm and friendly greeting as soon as they enter your premises. Even if you are dealing with customers over the phone, it's thought that a warm smile can be sensed.

3. Make time for the customer. In a busy environment it can be frustrating for an employee if a customer wants to stop and chat when they have a lot of work to get done. However, the customer will be able to tell if the employees heart is not in the conversation, so always make the customer top priority.

4. Make customers feel important. This can be achieved through little details such as addressing them by their name or making them feel genuinely welcome when they do business with you. If customers feel valued and appreciated by a business then they are more likely to return and make more purchases.

5. Apologize when things go wrong. No business is perfect all of the time and mistakes may be made. Often it is the way that the business deals with this mistake rather than the mistake itself that will determine whether the customer returns to the business. As soon as it is realized that a mistake has been made, the business should admit the mistake, apologize sincerely and do everything in their power to rectify the mistake.

6. Give customers more than they expect. Customers are more likely to feel loyalty towards a company that have exceeded their expectations, both in terms of customer service and the products that they have purchased. Everybody likes to be surprised now and then!

7. Ask customers for feedback. A business may think that it is performing well in terms of customer service but they can never really be sure until they ask their customers what they think. After this information has been gathered it should be acted on to fix specific issues and improve areas that are identified as having weaknesses. Take time to thank customers for their help and reward them accordingly.

8. Treat employees well. In most cases it will be the employees of a business who have the most face to face contact with the customers. The better they are treated, the happier they will be while at work and this will be evident in the way that they deal with customers. The atmosphere that is created by a good working environment will be more pleasant for customers too.

9. Be truthful about the products that are being sold. If a customer asks advice about a product then the advice that is given should be honest. If a customer is mislead in order to make a sale then they will not appreciate it when they find the product doesn’t work as expected and probably won’t return.
10. Bend the rules if needed. If a regular customer makes a special request that would not normally be part of the business policy then this request should be given consideration rather than the customer being told no. Customers will appreciate that you have empowered your employees with common sense and the ability to see the “big picture”.

About the Author

Article by, Ian Miller, Editor at CSM Magazine.

How to Use Twitter as a Customer Service Channel

Using social media, virtually anyone can complain about a company, its service or products. What this means for companies is a need to swiftly manage customer complaints so they don't escalate and damage brand reputation. This is particularly applicable to Twitter, as its real-time search functions means companies can monitor customer complaints and respond to them quickly.

Many companies now maintain their own Twitter page in an effort to provide a new type of customer service. Instead of the traditional customer service model, where consumers had to approach and contact companies, companies are being increasingly proactive and actively seek opportunities to mitigate customer complaints.

For example, US Telcom giant AT&T maintains a Twitter channel (@ATTCustomerCare) which has a dedicated customer care team who spend their days monitoring the AT&T brand and helping people with their issues. Their channel has over 4,000 followers and acts as the customer care headquarters addressing issues ranging from product information to faulty goods. This Twitter channel also centralises AT&T's online customer care and directs individual customers (with their complaints) to the relevant departments' Twitter accounts. They do this by tagged departments with @replies. By doing this however, also means that the company has publicly acknowledged the customer's complaint and any mishaps can be seen by the world.

From a consumer's perspective, Twitter helps eliminate some of the common frustrations that surround customer care, including having to call various departments and wait for the dreaded 'please hold the line'. That said, because Twitter is a real time channel, customers may also have higher expectations for customer service. Once customers tweet their complaint and companies' acknowledge it; customers expect a follow up or resolution within a timely manner. After all, the company has publicly acknowledged their complaint, which means consumers expect companies to step up their customer service.

However, before companies dive into using Twitter for customer care and support, it is important to remember that the key (like most social media) is to listen. Companies such as Big Pond and their customer service team (@BigPondTeam) spend most of their time listening to customers and proactively approach them. This however means responding when both complaints and compliments are made, as this shows customers they are heard and valued. By doing real time searches, companies can see what is said about them and what sort of complaints people are making. This helps nip the bud of any issues that may escalate. From a company's perspective, Twitter is thus useful for customer service not only because it's a preemptive system, but because it also facilitates innovation. The more attentive companies are to their consumers, the more they know about customer needs and find new opportunities to improve company service and products.

It is however, important to put Twitter in context to overall customer service. Although it's useful to understand how companies can use Twitter to respond to and 'nip the bud' of customer complaints, all customer service channels must be treated with equal consideration. Companies which focus their attention all on Twitter and social media may risk caring more about their brand and reputation than they are with true service.

By Peter Applebaum
Tick Yes - Managing Director
www.tickyes.comhttp://www.tickyesblog.com

Call Centres - How to Improve Your Customer Service

Call centres [http://www.call-centres.co.uk/call_centres/index.html] have recently revolutionised the way in which companies do business. Not only have they helped companies of all shapes and sizes to cut down on their overhead, they have also helped these same businesses to increase their bottom line significantly due to their lead generation offerings. Along with their many merits, call centres [http://www.call-centres.co.uk] offer an answering service that can allow small businesses to improve their customer service. By freeing up resources to do other work, call centre services streamline a company's organisation so that they can best utilise the personnel and funds that they have.

Many business have opted to use call centres [http://www.call-centres.co.uk/call_centres/index.html] to improve their customer service. As every company must follow the same working/closing business model, it became expensive for companies to offer round-the-clock customer service. Hiring, training and providing benefits for a twenty-four/seven customer service department can take a lot of money - especially since a company would need to have several teams trained and working at the same time. That is where call centres come in. They can either take over from a company's day-shift customer service department once the work-day ends or they can simply take care of all a company's customer service needs. By contracting out their answering service requirements companies can save a bundle. They no longer need to hire and train staff, but they also do not need to provide these agents with benefits. They merely have to pay the call centres supplier the amount stipulated in their contract. The best part of this arrangement is that they can add-on or take-away services as and when they need.

Businesses can offer their customers continual service so whether they call at midnight or noon, someone will always be able to field their call. Another very good way in which call centre services have improved the way that businesses are run is that they offer lead generation. Lead generation can mean everything from getting your company's sales reps in touch with the decision makers in other businesses to finding out relevant information on consumer spending habits - information that a company can use to their advantage.

An answering service is another very convenient feature of the telemarketing model. The answering service can act as your own personal receptionist and/or assistant. The answering service can field calls, direct them to the proper extension, take messages, send faxes and/or emails and make appointments. It is a fantastic way for businesses to always be available to their customers.

Call centres have undergone a radical transformation in their image. No longer are they associated with the boiler rooms of the old-style telemarketing firms. Gone are the days of the hard-sell format. Today's call centres are the companion to businesses. They provide a necessary service that have helps businesses to improve their customer service while saving on costs. Consumers get the benefit in the end when they get the products and/or services that they desire at a price that they can afford. Given their convenience call centres are sure to continue their growth in the near future.

By Kim Brandon
Kim Brandon writes about marketing, telemarketing and call centres industry. If you are interested in reading more about call centre services, contact centre and telesales in the United Kingdom visit Call Centres site.

Telephone Customer Service Tips for Home Businesses

Running a home based business is a challenge, one that requires a lot of time, energy, and dedication. Left with so many things to do on a day to day basis, it's not surprising that many small home based business owners provide their customers and clients with sub-par customer service.

And there's no area of customer service that home based business owners could improve more than on the telephone.

Not only can many home based businesses not even be reached on the phone, but those that do have a telephone number often route it to voicemail and make it impossible for callers to speak with a live person. This doesn't make your business look good and can actually have a negative effect (if callers try to reach you over and over but always reach voicemail, they'll think there is something wrong with your operation).

By following the tips below, any home based business can improve the level of customer service that they provide over the phone and drastically increase the quality of their customer relationships.

The first tip is to avoid relying on voicemail. Relying on voicemail means you let every call go to voicemail and don't even attempt to answer your calls live on a regular basis. While voicemail has its place, it shouldn't be your primary method of filtering phone calls. It should only be used when you are unable to answer.

The second tip is to ensure your voicemail recording is professional and accurate. When callers do have to listen to it, they should know that they are dealing with an actual business and not a small business owner working out of his or her house. Thus, it should state the name of your company, preferably in a professional voice. If you aren't confident of your own, use someone close to you to record it for you. The voicemail should also state other ways to contact you, such as email, your operating hours (if any), and when callers should expect a call back if they are leaving a message.

The final tip coincides with the first, which is that a live person should be answering your telephone. You need to make this a duty, regardless of how busy you are. If you truly cannot be bothered with phone calls, you need to look into hiring someone to take calls on your behalf. Employees usually aren't feasible for small home based businesses, but a live telephone answering service or after-hours answering service is certainly an affordable option. In the case of an after-hours answering service, they can answer calls after your regular business hours when you are no longer available. They can also answer during the day if you'd like, picking up in the name of your organization and taking messages on your behalf. Order taking answering services are similar, although they take orders from your customers over the phone. Cell phone answering services allow you to transfer your cell phone calls to live operators, and office answering services are designed to act as an extension of your business. All aim to improve the customer service you are able to provide without increasing your costs.

By avoiding sending every call to voicemail and dedicating resources to having a live person answer your calls, you are on your way to providing better customer service and improving the image of your business. With a professional voicemail message to catch those calls you aren't able to get to, you ensure every caller puts down the phone with a positive impression of your organization. They'll view you as legitimate and notice your attention to detail. And with every detail having an impact on the ultimate success or failure of your home based business venture, these are easy ways to get the leg up.

By Lucas Fransconit
More on home based business customer service and after hours live answering service

How Mystery Shopping and Customer Service Can Affect Your Organization

Maintaining quality service in one's business is a major challenge for owners. There are many ways on ensuring that a set of criteria set forth by management is met by one's employees and other service providers, and one of them, while invented in the early 1940s, have gained much more prominence in the years past.

Welcome to the world of mystery shopping
 Mystery shopping was the standard practice of most companies in the United States in as early as 1940. The procedure was used as a common way to measure the integrity of one's employees, and to check if these same employees are following the guidelines made by higher management. Most assessments at the time involve simple questionnaires, which gradually evolved to complete audio and video recordings. Today, while secret shopping techniques are similar, usually, these involved modern equipment and are measured and interpreted by sophisticated analytical models.

Most industries, particularly service-oriented companies like hotels, supermarkets, fast food chains, restaurants, cinemas, banks, car showrooms, gas stations and even hospitals and other health care facilities use secret shopping as an effective way of maintaining the quality of their services. Most often than not, data from secret shopping provide feedback on customer service experience, thereby assessing areas for improvement in the given field being evaluated.

In Australia, companies like Retail mystery shopping Australia, Retail reality and Shadow Shopper, third-party professional services to perform mystery shopping for interested clients. Retail Reality promises an improvement of one's bottom line, after they evaluate your customers' needs via mystery shopping programs and performance reviews. Passion and customer service excellence is offered by Retail Mystery Shopping Australia. Shadow Shopper, on the other hand, tailor makes their programs, saying that because €every business is different€, they create unique programs for your business €to identify and measure key touch points in the customer experience€.

But regardless of who you hire, the basic techniques of mystery shopping are common for all market research companies. When a client company hires a company providing mystery shopping services, that company will study the client company's background, quality service requirements and draw upon a valid survey model that lists all necessary information and improvement factors the client wants to measure. This information are then incorporated to survey materials, instruments and other relevant documents and assigned to third party's staff. Typical details include the name of employees assigned to the area being evaluated, how many employees are in this area, the type of products and/ or service this area is offering to its customers, how they deal with different types of customers, the speed of service, the cleanliness and orderliness of the area and the overall compliance of the employees evaluated relating to company rules and other pertinent regulations.

After the visit, the secret shopper assigned to the task will review and analyze the information he has gathered, commenting and making a formal report via quantitative and qualitative statistical models used by the secret shopping company. This will allow for a concrete and measurable means of improvement, either for internal use or as criteria for comparing similar businesses.

By James Anderson
Secret Customer has the solutions for mystery shopping, secret shopper , customer service as well as retail training and market research services in Australia.

Customer Service and Its Latest Trends

Customer service is changing radically. The change is occurring rather hastily; the clients are becoming more and more arduous in their needs and the companies have no choice but to follow them through. However, the companies had to make some drastic changes to meet the needs of the clients. The old customer care service strategies do not work with the new market trend. Therefore, in order to keep in touch with their clients and stay in the game, these companies are following new customer service trends that are specially developed for the new market needs.

These new market trends are concocted to bring ease and affluence in the online shopping experience. With the advent of online shopping systems, the clients are always expecting a new change that will make their shopping better. However, for some time, the clients were disappointed by the online shopping experience. It was too complicated and dry for their taste. Nevertheless, the e-commerce made some changes to accommodate their clients and now these changes are benefitting UAE Customer Service as a whole.

The changes brought by e-commerce are now helping our other local brands and companies to mark their presence on the internet and enjoy better business opportunities. Even our standard brick and mortar companies are using these new Emirates Customer Service trends to enhance their business strategies and mollify their clients.
Some of the most popular and important latest customer service trends are:

Use of Live Chat Support
The use of live chat support is increasing because almost 85% of your customers are not happy with your telephone support. We all know that telephone support is infuriating, and 69% of the people will drop their calls because they have to wait for more than ten minutes. So seeking the help of the company through a telephone line is not advisable now.
90% of the customers enjoy a website more if the website has live support for them. If a client visits a website and does not find a live chat support system, he or she will leave the website immediately. This is because live chat is an easier and more efficient way of communication. There are no hold ups and no waiting. The client will get an instant reaction from the company. The live chat operator can easily mollify the client and appease them. The operator can coax the client into buying a certain product and make an instant sale.

Time Sensitivity
Even though live chat support is becoming an integral part of uae customer service and all over the world, but emails and telephone lines are still a huge part of a company's customer care center. You just cannot ignore their importance and presence. Therefore, in order to appease clients and keep them happy, the companies are treating emails and telephone calls in a more time sensitive fashion. They are hiring more staff to handle the email and telephone centers; they are also training these employees to perfect their customer service skills so that the client has nothing to complain about.

 By Amal Ali
Amal Ali is a research analyst, having more than 10 years of experience, conducting research and contributing w.r.t revolutionization of Emirates Customer Service in various industries of UAE.

5 Most Important Steps to Improving Customer Service

First impressions have the power to make or break sales opportunities in service-oriented organizations. With an excellent interaction, customers are more likely to make an initial purchase, become a loyal customer and refer a business' solutions to others. A bad experience, on the other hand, drives customers to the competition.

Given the huge impact on a company's success, AnswerNow outlined how to boost customer service in its latest white paper titled "5 Most Important Steps to Improving Customer Service." The document provides industry research highlighting the enormous costs of bad service, along with the dependable tactics you can use to ensure your business doesn't miss the boat when it comes to making good on customer expectations.

The Impact of Lost Customers

A company's call center is the major player in service delivery. It has the power to develop and maintain favorable customer impressions for the company and its solutions. Conversely, just one bad service encounter can cause a hit to your bottom line. For example, it costs far more to replace customers than it does to retain them. According to findings reported in a Parature Customer Service blog, poor service encounters cost U.S. companies approximately $83 billion each year!

Tried-and-True Tactics for Stellar Customer Service

Fortunately, businesses have several ways to elevate service levels. The top five things you should do to improve customer service and protect your financial well being include:

1. Establish a solid "front line" for your business.
You don't want to water-down the efforts of your support teams. So, consider transferring front-line duties to a call center provider. Then, you don't have to risk escalating costs and plummeting profitability because you don't have adequate resources to serve your customers.

2. Lower your customer service wait times to a bare minimum.
Nobody likes to waste time on hold for service. If your customers are waiting long periods, you're causing their frustration to build and increasing the odds the encounter will be less than positive. To ensure interactions have the best opportunity to get off on the right foot, you can outsource customer service to an experienced call center with the expertise and technology to answer calls within seconds.

3. Utilize contact services centers to assist with call volume during peak periods.
If your call volume fluctuates, you must address service levels during peak calling hours. Otherwise, the bottleneck created from backed-up calls can turn into a service nightmare. Investing in additional customer service personnel is an expensive option. Why hire additional service reps when you really only need additional staffing during certain times? Instead, you can maintain service levels and keep costs down by relying on an outsourced call center to handle the overload.

4. Provide live chat support.
In today's online world, customers expect services such as live chat. A chat application is an economical way to raise service levels and reduce costs. It's much cheaper to "talk" with a customer online than it is to participate in a phone conversation. And for those customers who don't want to waste time on the phone, chat is a perfect solution for addressing their needs.

5. Create a company-wide culture around customer service.
A customer-centric organization lives and breathes service. The customer service culture is highly valued and engrained throughout the organization, from top to bottom. And when the company's leaders set the right example, the rest of the organization follows suit.

You need your existing customers to help your business grow and prosper. Therefore, make sure you do everything to support them at the highest levels so you can count on long-term relationships and positive word-of-mouth. Every company should set a goal to deliver "WOW" customer service in each encounter. By doing so, you'll build stronger brand loyalty, create deeper customer engagements and be on target to achieve your overall business goals.

Working with AnswerNow

By partnering with AnswerNow, companies ensure a results-driven first impression on each and every customer interaction. Businesses of all sizes and types leverage AnswerNow's real-time accessibility and highly trained team members. Our focus remains on reducing costs and contributing to profitable growth. Companies can expect a WOW customer experience and measurable returns in our contact call centers.

AnswerNow solutions offer:

* A multi-touch contact center with bilingual engagement 24/7/365
* Full service staffing and training
* Quality assurance and recorded interactions
* Immediate data access that leads to actionable information
* Sophisticated reporting to identify trending and alerts
* Customizable applications for all service types and levels
* Personalized service and dedicated account management
* Demand forecasting and overflow
* A branded extension of a company's in-house team

By Michelle Weiss

Michelle Weiss is Vice President of AnswerNow, a premiere answering service and bilingual call center service provider. Learn more about Call Center Services by visiting http://www.answernowinc.com/.

Customer Service - Tips On The Best Way To Treat People

Customer service is a key component for any business that wants to remain relevant and build long-term relationships. The biggest challenge for most business owners is developing a consistent way to reach and provide great service to their clients while continuing to operate the business on a day to day basis.

One way to keep customers is to clearly explain to your staff the service expectations that you expect them to implement. It can be as simple as purposely making eye contact with customers and smiling at them, the way everyone in your company answers the phone, to the level of empowerment your staff has in working in the best interest of the customer and how to handle customer complaints.

Your business can have the perfect products and services, offer the best prices, provide excellent customer service and you'll still end up with an unhappy client. How will you deal with the complaints is crucial to the health and reputation of your business.

As a basic rule, everybody knows that whenever a potential customer is interested in a business for various reasons, they will reach for the customer service. The way the representative will assist the customer will further develop the business or the business is repelled. Or, for instance if a customer is not satisfied with a service or an issue is there to be taken care of they will turn towards customer service representative.

Please keep in mind as a more advanced strategy this is not about finding out what customers liked about your service, would they buy again, etc., but about who they are, what are the primary issues in their business, who are their competitors, what are their major concerns, and so on. Knowledge is gathered to predict what your key customers might want and need, that they could buy from you which in turn keeps them more competitive and more loyal to you.

When a business clearly defines its customer service culture in its mission statement, values and goals, great things can happen. The right words inspire, motivate and encourage people to achieve excellence. A lot of effort is made by companies operating in customer service environment to ensure that along with the products that they are selling; they are also able to provide a wonderful and world class experience to their end users so that they continue to do business with them.

By Colon Bolden

Colon Bolden is a full time internet marketer who works with other industry leading internet marketers from around the globe. He specializes in helping families build full time home businesses on the internet quickly and with leverage. For more information on leveraging massive team work and online success, visit => ROI Unlimited

Custom Services Marketing: Is Your Business Leaving Money On The Table?

Custom services marketing continues to meet the demand of a growing market starving for more personal service. In an impersonal world, where most people are numbers, statistics or ratios, people crave more personal service.

There's a growing demand for services that can meet individual needs. Are taking advantage of this growing demand? If not, make sure you read this message carefully. Why? Because if you're not taking advantage of this demand for customized service, you're leaving money on the table.

As this recession tightens it's grip on global economies, companies who ignore custom service marketing will have to close. No longer can businesses ignore consumers individual needs and expect to prosper.

A glaring example is the American auto industry, who failed to react to the changing demands of their customers. If you're a small business you have a powerful advantage over your larger competitors. Are you using this advantage to your benefit?Â
If you're smaller, leaner and meaner you can change, adapt and adjust much faster than your larger competitions. This is an enormous advantage, especially in a recession. The key is to find out what your target markets current needs are. The quickest and most effective way to do this is:

1. Surveys.
2. Questionnaires.
3. Personal Contact Interviews.

In a recession peoples buying habits can stop, turn and even reverse on a dime. Now it takes a business who can do that with their target market. Those who fail will soon stand scratching their heads and wondering where their customers went.

When the truth is their customers still exist, but they failed to adjust to their customers changing buying habits, needs and demands. As a result they failed to provide the customized services to meet the needs and demands of their target customers.

Customized service marketing helps you keep a closer hand on your target markets pulse. Often the business who fails is often the last one to know their target customers buying habits have changed. The business who succeeds is often the first one to know, even before their customers.

Today's savvy buyers are more educated and demanding that ever before. Therefore, the days of the cookie-cutter and one size fits all products and services is slowly going the way of the buggy whip.
The successful products and services of the future will come from companies who focus on catering to their customers individual tastes and needs.

Find little ways to customize your products and services to meet the individual needs of your customers. Why? Because it's also an effective way to build customer loyalty.
Personally, the companies I gravitate back to are the ones who know my individual tastes and bend over backwards to meet them. Don't you? In fact, I'll drive past similar companies to go to one on the other side of town that meets my individual needs.

In the past, people expected to pay extra for custom services and products. But as the business climate grows more crowded and competitive, customized products and services will come with the territory. The businesses who can provide it will have an edge over those who can't or won't.

Shame on the business or person who ignores the individual needs of their customers. They'll soon have to step aside and make room for the business or person that fills the personal needs of their customers. Why?

Because customers continue demanding customized services more and more. Are you preparing to meet the demand? If not, your customers will eventually find the business or person who does.

By Roy Primm.

TheNicheMan.com - Get the free Market Niche couse everyone is talking about.

Create A Vision For Your Customer Service Training

During a cold winter season, smart organizations get busy preparing for spring.

One way to prepare is to create (or confirm) a clear and motivating vision of what you want to become. Back this vision up with customer service training and other measures and you can transform your business

for the better. Your engaging service vision is one of the "12 Building Blocks for a Superior Service Culture" we teach at UP Your Service! College. This vision can serve as a guiding light for customer service

training and to focus your efforts now and in the future.

1. Why do I need an engaging service vision to assist with customer service training?

An engaging service vision is fundamental. It gives people a sense of purpose, value and meaning. It provides a platform on which to build customer service training programs.

An engaging service vision is inspiring. It arouses feelings of ambition, enthusiasm and commitment that lasts well beyond customer service training.

An engaging service vision gives direction. It provides an unmistakable idea of what is sought, and what is not, delivering valuable customer service training in the process.

Many organizations have some statement of commitment to service. And most of these statements fall flat and do nothing to bolster customer service training.

An engaging service vision captivates attention. It is distinctive, motivating and clear. It is unique, and powerful, and yours.

Customers should hear your vision and say, Yes! That is who you are.

Staff members should read your vision and say, Yes! That is who we want to be.

2. Why should my service vision be different from others?

How do you want to be known? Why are you different from the competition? What makes you stand out from the crowd?

Promising "excellent service" is no longer enough to interest customers or staff. Excellence sounds good, but you intend to be excellent at what? A vision guides your actions, customer service training and can even

mold your future.

Discover the style of service your customers value most, then craft an engaging service vision to address and fulfill their needs.

For example, excellent service in a hospital should be warm and caring, but that's not what you want at a computer store or car wash. You need a unique vision to guide customer service training for your distinct

business.

Some restaurants are known to be elegant and expensive, but that's not what most customers want when the whole family goes out for dinner.

A leading Roads and Transport Authority promises "Smooth and Safe Transportation for All."

Think smooth roads and railways, but also smooth licensing procedures. Think safe travel, but also safe handling of your personal details and data.

The Raffles Hotel has a mission statement that includes this vision: "...delighting patrons with many memorable experiences." People go to Raffles for good times and great memories, and Raffles staff members are

delighted to make them happen. The vision backs up customer service training for the unique environment.

Wipro, a world class IT services provider from India, who caters to both domestic and international markets, promises to be the "Proactive Value Adding Service Partner" of choice.

Their customers get new ideas from a company they can partner with for the future, not just a low cost vendor who only meets minimum specifications. This vision guides customer service training and inspire staff

to perform.

Singapore Airlines has a tag line that sets an extraordinary standard: "Service even other airlines talk about." Annual service awards praise those who go beyond the call of duty to make this tag line real. Customer

service training programs back up the vision and help reinforce it.

Xerox Emirates promises to be "Much Better than Expected." They are always coming up with new ways to surprise their customers and excite their staff.

The Japanese have twenty different words for "quality," each with a different meaning: craftsmanship, design, durability, efficient use of materials, packaging, power consumption, presentation and more.

Your customers have as many different words and meanings for "excellent customer service". Which ones are right for you?

3. What guidelines should I follow when writing an engaging service vision?

Create a mantra to motivate your team and incorporate it into everything from daily work life to customer service training. Your engaging service vision must be easy to remember and act upon, even in a crisis.

Mantra means "a tool for thinking". Make sure yours really works and incorporate it into your customer service training.

Align to the core values of your brand. The service vision of "UP Your Service! College" is: "A world where people are educated and inspired to excel in service, to customers and to one another." This is consistent

with our core values of Personal Responsibility, Continuous Improvement and Abundant Generosity (among others). Does your service vision match and magnify your values?

Align to your customers' values. A budget airline says "We make flying fun!" Their customers want safe and inexpensive flights from point A to B. But they value an experience that doesn't make air travel a chore,

even on a low cost airline. By sharing jokes with passengers, being playful with each other and even singing songs, crew members add value for customers without raising costs. They make their own work lives

more enjoyable, too.

Be clearly understood throughout the organization. An engaging service vision must make sense for those in the front office and the back office and at every level from top to bottom. Use clear and practical

language, not theoretical and intellectual prose. Be sure to reinforce the organization's vision through customer service training.

Easily translate into action. When you hear an engaging service vision, you know what it means and you can figure out what to do. If someone reads your vision and asks "What does that mean?", then keep

working. When they say "I get it. Let's do it!", then your vision is already in action.

Keep your vision up front. Put it on the wall and website. Put it in the wallet of every employee. Print it on your stationary. Pin it on your chest. Record it on your voice mail. Store it on your screen saver. Bring it

up in every message, meeting and conversation. Use it in your customer service training.

Finally, make your vision a challenge. Meeting expectations and complying with specifications will not turn your people on. You need bolder language to drive them UP and onwards. Your vision should challenge

and offer a lesson in customer service training on its own.

A teacher was told that a few of her students had exceptionally high intelligence. Naturally she expected them to excel. Although their IQ was in fact similar to other students, those few performed much better.

You are the teacher of your team and the principal of your future. What service performance do you want? What expectations do you require?

Make your service vision a challenge your team will deliver. Include your vision in your customer service training to help send the message home.

By Ron Kaufman

UpYourService

Ron Kaufman is the world's leading educator and motivator for upgrading customer service and uplifting service culture. He is author of the bestselling "UP! Your Service" books and founder of UP! Your Service. To enjoy more customer service training and service culture articles, visit UpYourService.com