© 2009 TCB Cameron Consulting & Tracy C. Baker —All Rights Reserved

Fish Market

Normandy, France

Customer relations and service, regardless of the number of call centers or contact points, is one of the most underrated areas of a value-based company.

All too often, the focus is placed on “how many customers can we service in an hour” rather than the service those customers actually receive.  In our experience, we have witnessed many a small problem blow up into an escalated mess due to bad communication or “script or nothing” attitudes. The results are not pretty.  Lost customers, lost opportunities to cross or up sell products or services, lost productivity as highly skilled senior employees have to spend all their time putting out fires instead of working toward important goals.

Our programs DO NOT teach employees to smile and say “thank you.” They’re designed to go right at the crux of the matter of customer service...dealing with customer issues and problems.  Regardless of your industry, what you sell, or who you sell to, the process and skills to tackle customer problems and issues are key to retaining and enhancing customer relations.

Customer Relations & Service

The Service Zone

 

Anger, frustration, confusion…these are just a few of the emotions people feel when they have a service issue that is not resolved in a timely manner. Everyday, customers present service representatives with every possible attitude.  While you cannot control someone else’s attitude, you can choose how you react.

Too often, the representative’s approach is to go on the offensive. He or she “educates” the customer in the proper ways of the world, or goes on the defensive, i.e., “It’s not my fault!”

The end result is rarely satisfying for either party.  The customer may give up (for the time being), the representative may give in (“I’ll do what you want just to get you out of my hair!”), or it may escalate to the ballistic level as each tries to out-shout the other.

The alternative is to find a way to deal with customer emotions and attitudes that allows for a resolution that makes sense to both representative and customer.

The Service Zone is designed to help service representatives in almost any service situation, even when they have to say “no”. The skills covered will help them turn different customer attitudes into:

· A satisfied customer.

· An up-sale.

· An opportunity to service or sell to in the future.

The Service Zone involves customized skill exercises, video and/or audio discrimination examples, and “real world” example practice sessions.  It uses extensive modeling to provide a blueprint of the skills.  After an assessment of current company situations, the course is adapted to reflect and target those situations that the Reps and their supervisors actually encounter in the day-to-day world.

Service Issues/ Sales Solutions

 

We did an informal study of customers on why they switch a service such as cellular phones, banking etc.  What we found wasn’t surprising when you got right down to it.

“My needs changed.”

Okay, maybe that is surprising.

You might have thought it was because they were mad or moved or got a better price, yet in reality, it was simply because they didn’t think they could get what they wanted from the company they were at.

Service Issues/ Sales Solutions is a way to look at the sales and service process as a continuous loop.  Service Reps, instead of being looked at as separate entities from the sales team, are trained to become a part of that team.  Interdependence is built as the sale leads to service and the service supports the sale.

Service Issues/ Sales Solutions involves customized skill exercises, video and/or audio discrimination examples, and “real world” example practice sessions.  It uses extensive modeling to provide a basis for the three step process that will turn everyday service encounters into sales opportunities.