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Training and Coaching for Inside Sales and Customer Service Staffs is Vital to Business Growth

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

Training and Coaching for Inside Sales and Customer Service Staffs is Vital to Business Growth

When you are trying to grow your business during those first few years, the ability to turn prospects into customers and to keep customers satisfied with your products and services is MISSION CRITICAL.

However, some entreprenurs and small business owners may have a common misconception thinking their inside sales professionals and the customer service staffs also possess the same abilities and desires in keeping the business running and growing

Every sales trainer has heard the: “not in the budget” “we are not big enough for training and coaching” and “I am the sales manager-trainer” answers before and that type of response only makes me more committed to help them see the importance of investing some monetary resources into turning their operation into a successful and cohesive sales and service organization.

I have first-hand experience not thinking it was a necessary investment. As a result of a major business crisis for my sales organization in the mid-90s, I became convinced that sales and customer service training was needed to save the company. After finding that I needed to retool and retrain my staffs in order to weather the storm of losing our largest vendor, I had no alternative but to make a necessary monetary investment in trying to recover from this loss. In looking back at the results before and after the training, I see that I had made a HUGE mistake and probably lost significant revenues by not taking that step 5-8 years earlier.

The sales training that I chose was not appropriate for my team of “inside sales” account managers, but it was all I could find at the time. Without the convenience of the internet and websites, I had to rely on a referral from a business associate who gave me the name of the trainer and the program. The trainer tried to modify the program to address the needs of my company and ultimately it did help me to retool the entire sales and customer service team.

It was at that time that I decided that there was a lack of assessment and training programs that were targeted to the small inside sales team and small customer service staff — but these companies need that type of process training and coaching more than the Fortune 100 organizations.

As a small business owner, investigate the overview of training and coaching systems. Make sure they meet your appropriate needs and offer the following services: A comprehensive Assessment and Sales Training System for smaller inside sales organizations (2 – 20 Inside Sales Executives), an Assessment and Training for Inside Sales Managers and a complimentary coaching system for Customer Service Departments (3-10 CSRs).

Several training organizations have developed programs like these and they can be the best investment you make in your own company.

Some of the most well-known training programs demand months of training and high-ticket pricing. That is overkill for most businesses. The training should have elements of onsite training, follow up, and offer teleclass and teleseminars on an ongoing basis for brush up and advanced skills. Any program you choose should be able to assess if the sales and service teams to assure they are well-suited for their jobs. If they are – the training will be completed in less than 3 months with a minimum of disruption in the company.

Results are almost immediate. Proper assessment, training and ongoing coaching provide a way to set goals, develop a process, overcome fear of cold calling, a method of improving their vocal skill to make a greater first impression on those critical calls. Training organizatins should have additional modules as needed for more advanced training. The basis of successful programs are very simple: If you have a passion for sales, or the emotional empathy to be a great customer service representative, then any program you choose must provide the training and coaching to make your employees excel. For Business Owners, it is an opportunity to insure results and growth in revenue and satisfaction with customer service and support.

Melissa Vokoun – From 1983 to 2005 she was COO and VP of Sales and Marketing for a telecom distributor. Her passion for recruiting, training and managing these staffs was instrumental to the company. To learn more about the NuVo Partners Programs please visit the website at: http://www.nuvopartners.com or call 847-392-6886.

Customer Services Versus Sales Representatives – The War of Incentive

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

by monstro

Customer Services Versus Sales Representatives – The War of Incentive

Customer service can often be seen by businesses as a necessary evil, a burden on the finances and something to try to provide at minimal cost. To see it this way is, however, a gross oversight. Ask yourself what is the most important asset a company has? In almost every case it will be the customer base.

Customers make or break a company. Too few customers and no business can survive. Effective, high quality customer support can create an image for a business which sets it apart from its competitors. If you treat your customers with care, consideration and patience, providing a service which genuinely tries to help resolve concerns or issues, then customers are far more likely to return to your company time and again.

Not only is customer loyalty an issue which your service representatives can actively develop, but very often your customers are one of your strongest means to promotion. Internet technology today allows for quick and easy access to many thousands of review sites. Enter almost any company name into Google, along with words such as ‘review’ and you’re bound to find rating and experiences.

These can have a tremendous effect on how well you drive customers to your business, or drive them away. Customer service is the means by which your customers will be interacting with your business; as far as customers are concerned, your customer service is the business itself. Many large, global corporations outsource their customer support centers, and this can lead to poor quality communications. This is where smaller businesses can excel, filling the quality gap which exists.

From a customer’s perspective, very little can be as frustrating as the experience of having a highly enthusiastic, deeply personal and seemingly committed business woo you and persuade you to buy into its product or service range, only to then cut and run, leaving you in the hands of an outsourced, underfunded and less experienced customer service team. It can often feel as though the outsourced customer service team is put there as a direct barrier between the customer and the business.

Certainly it can easily be the case that customers perceive not one, but two quite distinct businesses, with the possibility of a third lurking in the background. Initially there is the friendly and courteous business, almost bending over backwards to be helpful and understanding, though once the payment has been made and the contract signed, this part of the business becomes unreachable. The customers are then transferred to a less technical, less responsive, slower and less capable business which is labeled customer service, and which pays little attention to the customer and offers little in the way of proactive help.

The two businesses appear quite distinct in character. This discovery can give rise to a previously unconsidered business element, which are those lurking behind these two faces, driving the business forward by portraying these two quite opposite and contrasting faces by way of a sales tactic. This can completely undermine any faith, loyalty or appeal generated by the first face that the business chose to portray.

This is a shame, because those few businesses that are able to maintain this same attitude through from the sales team to the customer service team are highly likely to engage customer loyalty through customer satisfaction. This in turn is likely to see customers recommending the business, leaving positive reviews on the many review boards across the internet, and helping to drive more customers to you without you even having to advertise to reach them.

Good customer service leads to satisfied customers, which can be the best form of advertising there is, simply because you can’t buy it. Granted, the extra cost of having in-house, fully trained customer service staff who are as committed and motivated as the sales staff will cost a little extra, but it is important to see this not as an extra cost, but one in lieu of your advertising costs. Good customer service is not just an end in itself, which is the mistake made by too many companies.

Good levels of service for existing customers will be highly likely to act as a form of advertising, bringing in extra revenue you would not otherwise have seen. Add to this argument the fact that bad customer service is more likely to drive not only existing customers away, but put off potential customers you might have had as a direct result of poor reviews and a low reputation, and you can see that in the long run, investing in high levels of quality within your customer service department can be seen as a solid and profitable investment if approached in the right way.

Sales people often have incentives, such as targets, number of sales per hour, and other such tables which can lead to bonuses. Customer service representatives often have no such incentives; perhaps there’s a link between the different standards of enthusiasm?

Naz Daud – CityLocal UK Business Franchise Ireland Business Franchise Business Franchise Opportunity Latest Businesses

Providing Good Customer Service In Direct Sales

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

by lunaweb

Providing Good Customer Service In Direct Sales

Providing good customer service to your customers and hosts in direct sales needs to be a consultants top priority. In this day and age, there are millions of consultants all competing for the same customers, the same party hosts and the same potential recruit.

1. Answer all questions that a customer has for you. Answer them completely and in as much detail as possible. Speak normal language. Customers are not familiar with abbreviations or slang words used by an individual business.

2. Make sure you calculate all totals correctly. Customers get irritated if you make errors in adding up their orders, over charging them etc. Always double check your totals when a customer is paying cash. You don’t want to embarrass yourself by short-changing a customer. If its a home party, make sure you take a calculator or adding machine with you. The math you do in your head is not as accurate as using a calculator.

3. Always provide contact information. If you are doing business online or through mail order, it is important that a customer get your contact information and you should provide several avenues for a customer to make contact with you. I provide my phone number, fax, 2 email addresses and home address.

4. Always thank your customer for their order. Make them feel like they are important to you! If its an online order, send them a free email thank you card or a thank you email. Again, include your contact information on that. If its an offline book order, follow up with a postal postcard or thank you note via postal mail. Include a business card. This is very important if its a FIRST TIME customer with you. You want their repeat business and future referrals. I try to thank all my customers all the time whether they are a new customer or a repeat customer.

5. Allow 2 weeks for a customer to receive their order then follow up again with that customer. You can email them, call them or jot a note to them via postal mail. Let them know that you are still there for them. Make sure their order arrived on time and was complete and accurate. Ask them if they are satisfied with the transaction and if not, do your best to make it correct promptly. Don’t let customers hanging when something goes wrong.

6. I usually wait 3 months and make contact with that customer again. Let them know of any upcoming sales specials, hostess specials etc. You can do this by emailing them or sending them a postcard, note card or catalog. You want to keep your customer exposed to your business but not overwhelmed or pestered by you, so I suggest contacting them every 3 months unless they have signed up to receive a more often email newsletter etc. from you. These days al ot of customers don’t want overwhelmed by constant emails so keep them limited.

7. If a customer calls your home or place of business and leaves a message for you, make sure you follow up within 48 hours. Customers don’t want to wait days or weeks for you to respond back. Again, be as prompt as possible when dealing with customers. If you are out of town, make sure your loyal customers who order very frequently know you will be unavailable. You don’t have to say You will be on vacation, just say your home office will be closed on such and such day or week.

8. Attitude….this is also important! Do not use vulgar language at any time. Do not eat, smoke or chew gum while speaking to a customer in person or while on the phone with them.! Make sure you speak in a pleasant tone of voice.! If you are on the phone with a customer, please do not have a bunch of “phone interruptions” by other members of your household while you are speaking to the customers, they consider this rude. If you have children, try to call your customers while they are napping or when your spouse is at home to entertain them while you make your call backs.

If you are in a bad mood, hold off in returning calls. Customers can sense your bad mood, just like your children can. Do NOT use a cordless phone for this as you will be tempted to do “other” things while you are speaking to a customer., Your customer deserves your undivided attention when you are speaking to them.

9. If you are delivering your customers order, make sure you are presentable. You don’t have to be wearing a suit or dress, just make sure your clothing is clean and presentable, casual clean wear is fine. Don’t wear cut-off jean shorts, sloppy t-shirts etc. This sets a bad impression and is not professional. Your appearance speaks volumes on how you run your business!

In addition, Make sure you bag or box your customers order in a presentable way. Do not bag their orders in the free plastic or paper grocery bags you get at the store. Try to use bags from your company or go to a outlet business supply store or buy solid color cheap gift bags to bag their orders in but never bag them in a nasty store grocery bag. Make sure you provide a receipt and a future contact business card. If you can afford it, throw in a inexpensive surprise, Thank You for ordering Freebie gift. (the dollar store is great for this).

10. Another way to make your customers special is to offer extra services to them such as:

a. Local Delivery: if the item they purchased is a gift. It is okay to charge a minimal fee for local delivery to cover your expenses.

b. Gift Wrap Service: its okay to charge a small fee for this or better yet, offer it free. The dollar store again is cheap to buy plain gift bags, wrapping paper, bows, cards etc!

c. Postal Shipping: if the customer is shipping a gift out of town and you live near a postal office, offer to ship it to the recipient if the customer pays for the additional shipping.

11. If you do home party plans, Your Hostess of the party is also a customer so don’t neglect her. You need to make her feel special. Offer encouragement and support, make sure she has everything she needs to have a successful party for you. Afterwards, make sure you follow up with her. If you don’t impress her the first time she has a party with you, I guarantee you she won’t have any more from you and you wont get any referrals from her. You could loose a lot of business by not treating your party Host like a Queen!

When running any type of home based business, its a building process, one customer at a time and one party hostess at a time. Once you build a great foundation, you can then build the rest of the “house aka business” upon that. If you start out with a “weak” foundation you will have a “weak” business!

Shelly Hill has been working from home since 1989 in Direct Sales. You can visit Shelly online at: http://www.classybusinesswomen.com or at http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com

Tags: Adding Machine, Avenues, Business Card, Customer, Direct, Doing Business Online, Email Addresses, Free Email, Good, Good Customer Service, Home Address, Jot, Mail Order, Party Hosts, Phone Number Fax, Postal Mail, Postcard, Providing, Providing Good Customer Service, Recruit, Repeat Business, Sales, Service, Slang Words, Time Customer, Top Priority
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Customer Service — Customer Loyalty Wins Sales

Friday, July 30th, 2010

by Graela

Customer Service — Customer Loyalty Wins Sales

Batteries not included. Three of the dumbest words.

Your Company spent millions of dollars to develop this wonderful product. Engineers spent countless hours creating and refining it. You spent additional millions of dollars in advertising to get me to buy it.

I bought it. I took it home and now it won’t work because YOU neglected to include the only part that WILL make it work. For a couple of extra bucks, your cost and mine, I’m frustrated and angry with you and your Company.

It’s the same with customer service.

No matter what you sell; whether it’s goods or services, big ticket or small, sales and customer service are not two separate pieces. Every sale must come with the customer service built in.

Exceptional customer service is NOT an extra cost of doing business. It is an investment in your own future success.

In the early 1950s, my uncle had a very small clothing store in Miami, Florida. In those days, Miami was a major entertainment center, with the biggest names in show business appearing at the major hotels, very similar to Las Vegas today.

One evening, as he was leaving the stage at the end of the early show, a young singer ripped his tuxedo jacket on a nail sticking out of the wall. It was after 8 P.M., all the clothing stores were closed.

The hotel management called the major stores and owners because the singer didn’t want to go on stage with a torn jacket or worse, no jacket.

None of the fancy clothing shop owners would leave their homes to accommodate the young man. Finally, in desperation, my uncle got the call. Would he come downtown with a couple of tuxedos?

Within an hour my uncle was at the hotel with 4 tuxedos. He did the fitting and tailoring right on the spot.

The young singer and the big hotel management were ecstatic. The singer tried to shove a few extra hundred dollar bills into my uncle’s hand, but he wouldn’t take the money, explaining that he was honored to have the opportunity to earn the business.

The singer promised that he would never forget my uncle’s kindness and would tell his show biz friends about my uncle. True to his word, the singer continued to tell his friends about my uncle, even as his singing career skyrocketed.

The young singer – Frank Sinatra.

My uncle – went from a tiny clothing store on the edges of oblivion to “Mickey Hayes – Clothier to the Stars”; his walls covered with hundreds of photographs of the biggest names in show business.

On the other side of the coin is INTEL, the major manufacturer of computer chips, and, a great company.

Some years ago, Intel’s newest chip had a design flaw that caused a problem in only the tiniest number of calculations, and only in highly complex situations. As this problem began to get reported in the press, owners of computers built with these new chips wanted replacements.

Intel’s management stated that these customers were somewhat stupid since only highly complex calculations in specialized situations would experience that problem and then, only on the rarest occasions. They said that they would replace the chip if the customer could substantiate the claim that their chip was flawed.

How stupid. If it only goes bad once in a zillion times, why not give a lifetime guarantee? Most of the customers would never run into that problem. If they had immediately offered the lifetime replacement guarantee, ALL of the customers would have had a very high degree of confidence that they would never need to take Intel up on their offer.

Intel finally did offer lifetime replacement – after worrying, offending and insulting millions of their customers.

We can all learn a valuable lesson from Nordstroms; the department store famous for customer service. Their service to customers is so incredible, that people go out of their way to shop there.

Mr. Nordstrom calls it ‘customer heroics’. “We do it because we want more business – NOT simply because we’re nice guys.”

I’ve always told my employees – “don’t save me ‘MY’ money. If it helps the customer, SPEND my money. Even if they make a mistake, they won’t be criticized if it helped the customer”.

Nordstrom, over a period of many years, has developed a corporate culture of service to the customer. Any corporate culture, if it is going to endure successfully, MUST take on a life of its own, apart from the wishes of management. It has to be adopted by every employee, because THEY each think that it’s a good idea.

Whether you are a 1 person operation or the largest company, you know what good customer service is. It’s the Golden Rule applied to business – “Do unto others”.

Listen to your customers’ spoken requests – and unspoken. They’ll tell you what they want. Add a large portion of your own good common sense. Make a commitment to yourself that you will give your customers, service beyond their highest expectations

If you will do these few simple things, I can guarantee you success beyond YOUR expectations.

Gary Wollin is a Warren Buffet style investment advisor with 45+ years of Wall Street experience. He has been regularly featured in many financial publications around the world. He writes and speaks on sales, customer loyalty, and the stock market. http://www.garywollin.com

7 Valuable Customer Service Tips That Increase Sales

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

by lunaweb

7 Valuable Customer Service Tips That Increase Sales

Providing great customer service puts you ahead of other competing businesses. It’s what your business needs to develop a loyal customer base.

When your competitors lose business because of poor customer service and their lost customers become your first time customers, it’s your customer service that will keep your new customers coming back. It will cause your business to rise above its competition.

The following tips will help you to satisfy your customers better, get more repeat business and realize higher profits. Use them to increase your sales and create a business that you can be proud of.

1. Have a strong customer service policy in place.

First of all, create a strategy for interacting with your customers that focuses on providing great customer service. Make it part of what your business is all about.

If you make customer service your top priority, your employees will know that excellent customer service is expected of them. They’ll provide better customer service and you’ll have more satisfied customers and repeat business.

Without a clear cut strategy, your employees may come up with their own ideas about what customers want and how they should be treated. Letting this happen is very dangerous to your profits. It can cause your competition to take customers away from you.

2. Hire the right people.

Employees should treat customers with respect and courtesy. They should make it easy for people to want to do business with you and not eliminate your chances of your customers buying from you again.

Pre-employment tests can help you to determine whether the person you’re considering will be an asset. Will she cause you to lose money? Is she the right person for the job? These tests put the odds in your favor. Your hiring decisions can become a lot easier.

3. Listen and act on complaints.

Not taking complaints seriously will cause the same negative situations to happen again. You’ll lose business when your other customers have the same problem.

Instead of shrugging off complaints, use them to make your business more profitable and to offer better service. Complaints, when taken seriously, can make your service, policies and systems for dealing with your customers better. They can add to your bottom line.

4. Survey your customers.

Surveys provide an anonymous way for your customers to give you feedback. They make it easy for you to find out if your business is satisfying your customers or not satisfying them.

People can be brutally honest, so it’s wise to have very thick skin, when using this strategy. Also as in the previous tip, use any negative feedback that you receive to better your business.

Surveys also give you the opportunity to find out what you’re doing right. Compliments about your service, how you treat your customers or how you resolve issues show that you’re hitting your target. You have proof that you’re doing a great job.

5. Get questions answered quickly.

You can cut down on the time you spend answering questions by email and phone by having a detailed FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section on your site and by using FAQ management software.

Live customer support software can also help you to provide excellent customer service. You can answer your customer questions and pre sale questions, right on your site, and increase your sales by getting questions answered faster than your competition.

If you choose to use software to help you fill your customer service needs, know that you still need to provide superior customer support by email. Questions need to be answered within 24 hours. Problems need to be addressed and overcome.

The same holds true when providing phone support. Questions and problems need to be handled in an efficient manner. Don’t keep customers waiting for long periods of time or make it difficult to talk to a “real person.”

6. Provide ongoing training.

Training can bring your customer service from where it is to where you would like it to be.

Whether your employees work in a call center or face to face with your customers, they still need to provide better service than your competitors. Your goal is repeat business not one time business. Training your employees can help you to achieve this goal.

You can train your employees in house, through seminars, or by using an outside firm. Whatever you choose, involve your employees by gaining they’re feedback. You’ll get better results by letting them know that their opinions and ideas matter.

7. Treat your customer service team with respect.

It is difficult for employees to treat customers well when they are treated poorly. Your working environment needs to be one of mutual respect. When this is the case, it is much easier to provide excellent customer service.

Basically, you want your employees to be treated the way you would want to be treated if you were the employee. You also want your customers to be treated the way you would want to be treated if you were a customer.

Accomplishing both of these things and using the other tips that you’ve been provided will help you to provide great customer service and increase your sales. You’ll be able to surpass your expectations for your business. You’ll be able to put yourself above your competition.

Digital Coach, Robin Matuk addresses the needs of entrepreneurs and business owners looking to maximize the use of the Internet to build, manage, and grow their businesses. Check out her website My Digital Coach and her blog Creating with Impact.

Tags: Ahead, Better Customer Service, Customer, Customer Service Policy, Customer Service Tips, Decisions, Employment Tests, Excellent Customer Service, Great Customer Service, Increase, Job, Lost, Loyal Customer Base, Money, Odds, Poor Customer Service, Profits, Repeat Business, Sales, Satisfied Customers, Service, Time Customers, Tips, Top Priority, Valuable
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Service Wueste

Posts Tagged ‘Sales’

Training and Coaching for Inside Sales and Customer Service Staffs is Vital to Business Growth

Customer Services Versus Sales Representatives – The War of Incentive

Providing Good Customer Service In Direct Sales

Customer Service — Customer Loyalty Wins Sales

7 Valuable Customer Service Tips That Increase Sales

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