My last blog post was about 5 critical elements necessary to create great customer service for your small business. Today’s blog post is about the power of language and the role it plays in creating exceptional customer relations. It’s time to start thinking about ALL of the communication you have with your customers – e-mail, employees, marketing, website, voicemail – and make sure that you are using the appropriate language.
Micah Solomon and Leonardo Inghilleri talk in their book Exceptional Service Exceptional Profit about establishing a consistent style of speech. When you think about it, we all come from different backgrounds, and we all have our own way of communicating with others. Solomon and Inghilleri suggest that every company come up with a language handbook. Included in it would be the phrases recommended for use with customers, and then train employees to use those phrases. Better yet, have your employees help you draft the language, taking into consideration different scenarios that can occur in regular customer interactions. At the same time, identify harmful phrases that should be avoided. Be sure to concentrate your language efforts on key customer moments, such as the hello’s, goodbye’s and when things fall apart.
Here are some tips for creating a great customer experience:
Make sure that none of your employees (or you!!!) have your backs to arriving customers. Ensure that furniture is arranged so that you can easily see them when they come through the door, and be able to quickly acknowledge them.
When a customer asks for directions to a particular item or area of the company, don’t just give them directions. Actually walk them over over to it. I had this happen recently at a store where customer service has always been lousy, but they had the products that I wanted. On this day, I asked for the particular item, and the employee walked me over to it, and then took an extra step and told me which of the items was their biggest seller with customers, based on its effectiveness.
Don’t screen your calls. This may sound crazy, but Solomon and Inghilleri recommend not screening your calls, and I agree with them. Clients usually tell them they’re crazy when they bring this one up. But their philosophy is that nothing can turn a customer away more rapidly than having to go through several iterations before speaking to the person called. They suggest that if someone wants to talk with you, let him. If you aren’t the appropriate person, then reroute him to the appropriate person or department.
If for some reason you really really have to screen your calls, here’s the right way to do it.
Wrong way: “Who’s calling?” “Does he know why you’re calling?”
Right way: “Absolutely. May I tell Mr. Smith who is calling?”
Answer your phone in a timely fashion. Be sure to answer it within 2 or 3 rings, if at all possible. After 3 rings, callers begin to be anxious. After 5 or 6 rings, they are getting frustrated, and after 8 or 9, they have lost it. After more than that, they will probably just hang up.
Make sure that your “request for info” forms on your website actually get to where they should be going when a customer fills them out and submits them. Also make sure that they get answered quickly. You may need a technical person to assist you in testing your systems to make sure this is happening.
When sending an e-mail, begin with a salutation, such as “Dear Mark,” “Hi Mark,” etc., instead of just “Mark.” Make your e-mail customer connections warm and friendly.
Hi, my name is Sheila and I am a Human Resources geek. I am passionate about sharing HR best practices, resources and tools for small business owners to use.