Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Wow Stories About Customer Services

Excerpt form the internet/ yahoo.com.sg post it on Dec 22, 2010

CELEBRITY AT A RESTAURANT
Demi Moore was stunned when a restaurant manager asked a worker run to a local store to pick up her favourite drink.
The actress was dining with her husband Ashton Kutcher in Beverly Hills when she requested a glass of coconut water. The tipple has high levels of potassium and minerals, and is often marketed as a sports drink. It can help raise metabolism and boosts the immune system, and is a favourite among stars.
The eatery’s manager promised to fetch her the drink, before hastily sending another worker to fetch some as he knew they were out of supplies. Demi finally received her drink 15 minutes later, prompting her to laughingly ask if they’d had to get it in specially.
“Actually... yes,” the manager admitted.
Demi immediately asked to meet the man who’d run to fetch the drink, and tipped him $50. “Next time, it might be easier just to say you don’t have any,” she laughed.

QUOTE : There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.    ---- Roger Staubach


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How to deal with Inbound Call ?

Time Management Telephone Tips For Inbound Phone Calls
1) Answer your telephone with a proper business phone greeting.
For instance, when answering the phone say something such as, "Cypress Technologies. Susan speaking. How may I help you?" This not only lets the caller know that they've reached a business, but puts the onus on him to answer the question, saving time on exploratory questions such as, "Is this Cypress Technologies?", and idle chit chat.
2) Think and prioritize as you speak.
Is the call best handled right now or later? Many of the telephone calls businesses receive are quick inquiries that are easily answered, such as, "How late are you open?" But others involve more complex and time-consuming answers. If that's the case, tell the caller so, and ask when it would be convenient to call her back to discuss it.
3) Use techniques such as paraphrasing and summarizing to keep phone calls on track.
If you're speaking to someone on the phone who seems to want to chat or stray from the point, say something such as, "So what I hear you saying is..." or "So the key points are..." or "Is (insert summary) a fair summary of what you were saying?" It's hard to be chatty with someone who refuses to chat.
4) Get in the habit of closing each inbound phone call with a summary of whatever action you and the caller have agreed to take.
While this will only take seconds in most cases, it can save you a lot of time by avoiding errors and the need to double-check. For instance, after a conversation during which you arranged a meeting with a client, you might say, "Good. I'll meet with you at your office at (insert location) at 10 a.m. tomorrow and we'll go over the samples together."
There are another six time management tips for handling inbound phone calls on the following page; click "next" to continue on to page two.
5) Keep a message pad and writing implements by all your phones, so you can jot down details during the inbound phone call.
This is not only good time management at the time, helping to keep you focused on the call, but a help to time management later if you need to find and/or review the details of a particular conversation.
6) Give your clients and customers the email option.
Many of them will use email to contact you rather than phoning if they know what your email address is. Ensure that your company's email address is prominent on your business cards and on your website, if you have one. If you have their email addresses, send email to your current clients and customers, mentioning the email option and presenting it as a way to improve communications.
7) Use technology to manage the time you're spending answering the phone.
As a minimum, your business should have an answering machine and voice mail. Set these up with appropriate business scripts, and use them to answer the telephone for you when you're out of the office or need to work on something uninterrupted. Then schedule time to answer these telephone messages each day. In terms of time management, you'll gain valuable time by grouping telephone calls together.
8) If you're running a home-based business, get a separate business phone or line.
You need to have a second "business-only" telephone with its own "business-only" answering machine and/or voice mail. Not only is this more professional, but it will save you the time it takes to wade through messages and determining which ones are business-related.
9) It's always best to have a person answer the phone.
Having a machine pick up or worse, an automated "choose one of these numbers" system is a real turn off that will cost you business when people don't bother to leave messages or call back. If answering inbound phone calls is taking up too much time during your day, consider hiring a receptionist or a professional answering service to answer the phone for you. The cost of having someone else do it may be more than offset by the increase in your productivity and better sales.
10) Keep a written script of frequently asked questions (and answers) posted by your phone.
It saves you and your employees time if they don't have to search for answers or think about how to answer a particular request when answering the phone.
Telephone Tips Summary
Remember, the telephone is supposed to be a business tool, not an intrusive timewaster that rules your working day. Handling your inbound phone calls according to these time management tips will help you better manage your time, improve your productivity, and put your telephone back in its proper place - helping you run your business rather than running you.

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Do's and Don'ts - 8 Golden Rules

excerpt from internet ; I cannot remember which website. sorry :<
Dos and Don’ts
Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won't be profitable for long.
Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy - happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers.
If you're a good salesperson, you can sell anything to anyone once. But it will be your approach to customer service that determines whether or not you’ll ever be able to sell that person anything else. The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers – a relationship that that individual customer feels that he would like to pursue.
How do you go about forming such a relationship? By remembering the one true secret of good customer service and acting accordingly; "You will be judged by what you do, not what you say."
I know this verges on the kind of statement that's often seen on a sampler, but providing good customer service IS a simple thing. If you truly want to have good customer service, all you have to do is ensure that your business consistently does these things:
1) Answer your phone.
Get call forwarding. Or an answering service. Hire staff if you need to. But make sure that someone is picking up the phone when someone calls your business. (Notice I say "someone". People who call want to talk to a live person, not a fake "recorded robot".) For more on answering the phone, see Phone Answering Tips to Win Business.
2) Don't make promises unless you will keep them.
Not plan to keep them. Will keep them. Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception. If you say, “Your new bedroom furniture will be delivered on Tuesday”, make sure it is delivered on Tuesday. Otherwise, don't say it. The same rule applies to client appointments, deadlines, etc.. Think before you give any promise - because nothing annoys customers more than a broken one.
3) Listen to your customers.
Is there anything more exasperating than telling someone what you want or what your problem is and then discovering that that person hasn't been paying attention and needs to have it explained again? From a customer's point of view, I doubt it. Can the sales pitches and the product babble. Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem.
4) Deal with complaints.
No one likes hearing complaints, and many of us have developed a reflex shrug, saying, "You can't please all the people all the time". Maybe not, but if you give the complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one person this one time - and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service.
5) Be helpful - even if there's no immediate profit in it.
The other day I popped into a local watch shop because I had lost the small piece that clips the pieces of my watch band together. When I explained the problem, the proprietor said that he thought he might have one lying around. He found it, attached it to my watch band – and charged me nothing! Where do you think I'll go when I need a new watch band or even a new watch? And how many people do you think I've told this story to?
6) Train your staff (if you have any) to be always helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable.
Do it yourself or hire someone to train them. Talk to them about good customer service and what it is (and isn't) regularly. Most importantly, give every member of your staff enough information and power to make those small customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, "I don't know, but so-and-so will be back at..."
7) Take the extra step.
For instance, if someone walks into your store and asks you to help them find something, don't just say, "It's in Aisle 3". Lead the customer to the item. Better yet, wait and see if he has questions about it, or further needs. Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it. They may not say so to you, but people notice when people make an extra effort and will tell other people.
8) Throw in something extra.
Whether it's a coupon for a future discount, additional information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile, people love to get more than they thought they were getting. And don’t think that a gesture has to be large to be effective. The local art framer that we use attaches a package of picture hangers to every picture he frames. A small thing, but so appreciated.
If you apply these eight simple rules consistently, your business will become known for its good customer service. And the best part? The irony of good customer service is that over time it will bring in more new customers than promotions and price slashing ever did!
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Quotable Quotes

I got these from the internet and selected some to share on this blog site :
1.
Well done is better than well said.Benjamin Franklin
2.
The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best but legendary.Sam Walton, Founder of Wal-Mart
3.
It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.Henry Ford
4.
 If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon.com
5.
Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it.Peter Drucker

6.
Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.Donald Porter, V.P. British Airways
7.
Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game.Tony Allesandra
8.
You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied.Jerry Fritz
9.
Rule 1: The customer is always right. Rule 2: If the customer is ever wrong, re-read Rule 1.Stew Leonard, CEO Stew Leonard’s
10.
If you’re not serving the customer, your job is to be serving someone who is.Jan Carlzon, ex-CEO SAP Group

11.
Make a customer, not a sale.
Katherine Barchetti
12.
 Customer service is not a department, it’s everyone’s job.Anonymous
13.
Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you.Mark Cuban
14.
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.
Mahatma Gandhi
15.
Don’t try to tell the customer what he wants. If you want to be smart, be smart in the shower. Then get out, go to work and serve the customer!Gene Buckley, President Sikorsky Aircraft
16
Whatever the business, the customer comes first.Kerry Stokes
17.
 I won’t complain. I just won’t come backBrown & Williamson Tobacco Ad
18.
Every company’s greatest assets are its customers, because without customers there is no company.
Michael LeBoeuf, Author of: How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life
19.
Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence – only in constant improvement and constant change.
Tom Peters

20.
Service, in short, is not what you do, but who you are. It is a way of living that you need to bring to everything you do, if you are to bring it to your customer interactions.Betsy Sanders


21.
Here is a simple but powerful rule: always give people more than what they expect to get.Nelson Boswell
22.
Revolve your world around the customer and more customers will revolve around you.Heather Williams
23.
The customer’s perception is your reality.
Kate Zabriskie, Author of: Customer Service Excellence: How to Deliver Value to Today’s Busy Customer

24.
Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.
Walt Disney
25.
When the customer comes first, the customer will last.Robert Half

26.
Right or wrong, the customer is always right.Marshall Field
27.
Your customer doesn’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Damon Richards
28.
Every client you keep, is one less that you need to find.Nigel Sanders
29.
If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends
Jeff Bezos

30.
Good customer service costs less than bad customer service.Sally Gronow, Welsh Water



31.
Whether you are big or small, you cannot give good customer service if your employees don’t feel good about coming to work.
Martin Oliver, MD Kwik-Fit Financial Services

32.
We don’t want to push our ideas on to customers, we simply want to make what they want.Laura Ashley
33.
You are serving a customer, not a life sentence. Learn how to enjoy your work.Laurie McIntosh
34.
There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money
somewhere else.
Sam Walton, Founder of Wal-Mart
35.
Unless you have 100% customer satisfaction…you must improve.
Horst Schulz


36.
If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will.
UNKNOWN
37.
The quality of our work depends on the quality of our people.
UNKNOWN
38.
Customer Service is doing right the first time.
TBH Industrial & Marine Pte Ltd
39.
The Customer is King.
UNKNOWN
40.
Be the change you’re trying to create.
Mahatma Gandhi




41.
Care more than others think wise. Risk more than others think safe. Dream more than others think practical. Expect more than others think possible.
Howard Schultz, CEO Starbucks Coffee
42.
Choose to deliver amazing service to your customers. You’ll stand out because they don’t get it anywhere else.
Kevin Stirtz

43.
Customers will want to talk to you if they believe you can solve their problems.
Jeffrey Gitomer
44.
Do what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it, in the way you said you were going to do it.
Larry Winget , Author of: Only The Best On Customer Service
45.
Excellence is not an accomplishment. It is a spirit, a never ending process.
Lawrence M. Miller.  Author of: Lean Team Management

46
Focus your business on what you do best. Let everyone else worry about the rest.
47
If I pick up the phone, I accept the responsibility to ensure the caller is satisfied, no matter what the issue is.
48
If the shopper feels like it was poor service, then it was poor service. we are in the customer perception business.
Mark Perrault
49.
If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
Mother Teresa
50.
If you wish to be a leader you will be frustrated, for very few people wish to be led. If you aim to be a servant you will never be frustrated.
Frank F. Warren

51.
If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.
52.
In the world of Internet Customer Service, it’s important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away.
Doug Warner

53.
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Charles Darwin
54
Know what your customers want most and what your company does best. Focus on where those two meet.
Kevin Stirtz
55.
Make it easy for your customers to talk to you.
Kevin Stirtz

56.
More business is lost every year through neglect than through any other.
Jim Cathart
57.
Never leave your customers wondering.
58.
Never underestimate the power of the irate customer.
Joel Ross
59.
One customer well taken care of could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising.
60.
People don’t want to communicate with an organization or a computer. They want to talk to a real live responsive responsible person who will listen and help them get satisfaction.
Theo Michelson


61.
People perform best and deliver the best customer service when they like what they do.
Unkown
62.
Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.
Gucci Family Slogan
63.
The customer’s perception is your reality.
Kate Zabriskie, Author of: Customer Service Excellence: How to Deliver Value to Today’s Busy Customer
64.
The interesting thing is when we design and architect a server, we don’t design it for Windows or Linux, we design it for both. We don’t really care, as long as we’re selling the one the customer wants.
Michael Dell

65.
The secret to successful customer service starts with YES!
66.
To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.
Donald A. Adams
67.
To my customer. I may not have the answer, but I’ll find it. I may not have the time, but I’ll make it.
Unknown
68.
Treat your customer, as you want to be treated as a customer.
Catherine Pulsifer
69.
What do we live for if not to make life less difficult for each other?
George Eliot
70.
When you start viewing your customers as interruptions, you’re going to have problems.



71.
Would you do business with you?
Linda Silverman Goldzimer
72.

You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That’s the mark of a true professional. Professionalism has nothing to do with getting paid for your services.
73.
"Amazon's philosophy, for as long as we've been a company, has been to be Earth's most customer-centric company, with everything we do, we start with the customer, and we work backwards."
Patty Smith, AMAZON.







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