What do you do if you don’t have the answer?

This question became apparent to me in a real way when I was in an electronics store recently. I wanted something to “dock” my I-Phone so that I could listen to music (like an I-Pod) and eagerly anticipated getting some expert help and advice on what products make sense for an I-phone, the pro’s and con’s of various items, and what the store suggested. The manager escorted me to the most expensive product and then ushered one of his salesmen to continue helping me. This salesman (possibly new to the job?) did not have any expertise on the products and every question we asked seemed to be the first experience he had in attempting to respond. His responses were not helpful at all and in fact his lack of assurance and confidence made for a rather frustrating experience as my friends and I muddled along trying to figure things out for ourselves. Luckily, one of my friends is quite savvy with technology and he figured out what would make sense for me. The lesson? What do you do when you don’t know the answer? How are you training your managers and staff members to field questions? How are you making sure that the most anticipated questions that customers ask are taught in sales training programs? The bottom line – if you don’t train your sales people to first of all, know your products, and second, know how to answer customer’s questions- you are losing a sale.

I did end up buying what I wanted – but this was despite the sales people’s help!

Great Service Takes a Team. Appreciate Your Team.

Have you ever had this situation? Moments before I presented my speech on Creating a Culture of Service to the conference attendees at the Faith and Legal conference in Dallas last week, my PowerPoint crashed. I said a quick prayer and the AV person who had set this up an hour before, suddenly reappeared and quickly got it running.

I was praised for my presentation but it wasn't just me. The AV guy, the wait staff, the janitor, and my able assistant. They all made it possible. Without them the presentation wouldn't have happened.

So what does it take for you to close a deal? Do you do it all by your lonesome? Not likely. You have support staff don't you? Appreciate them? If not why not? If you don't know where to begin simply start by saying thank you. In a recent supervisory class that I conducted for the state of Washington, one of my participants said that he thanked his staff members at the end of every day.

I recommend offering heartfelt and sincere thanks. And saying it regularly.

The days of the lone ranger in service are over. Good service is a team effort. Make sure your team knows they are valued.

Service sells!

I just had the pleasure of visiting a restaurant in Albany, Oregon. In fact, many people from all around the U.S. travel to visit this restaurant. The experience was incredible! Here's what struck my guests and me:

• The waiter was a hoot. He knew all about the food and how to make us taste it just telling us about it. He also made it fun by paying just the right amount of attention to us with a dash of humor.
• The atmosphere was beautiful. Little alcoves made the seating cozy and each guest felt like the experience was private to them.
• The food was exceptional. Here we were, in a small town, and yet the food was cooked by chefs who could have been cooking for royalty.

What can we learn from this experience that can help us deliver service that sells like that? Be good at what you do, pay attention to the small details, create an environment that invites, and deliver more than what people expect. And lastly, make sure that each customer encounter with your business - from the receptionist who answers the phone, your website, the sales people, staff, and management - all show excellence.

Customer Service Feedback

Have you ever taken the time to share constructive and helpful feedback with an organization or service provider that you may have used or done business with for a long time? Most of the time you would expect some response, especially to someone that has been a loyal customer of their establishment or business for an extended period of time. How would you feel if you took the time to share this feedback, hopefully to improve their service, and it was similar to knocking on a door when no one answers even though you KNOW they're home! Well, I've had two recent experiences where I was sorely disappointed with service, took the time to give this feedback and was totally ignored. What can we learn from this? Well, I can think of three lessons:

1. Honor your customers with some kind of response when they take the time to communicate with you even if you disagree. When there is NO response, the customer feels invalidated.
2. Feedback is a gift. Without customer feedback, how will you know how to improve your service if you don't listen to them?
3. When you or your employees are unresponsive to constructive feedback it will ultimately cause a loss of that customer's business (and all of their friends and acquaintances)

Surviving Tough Times

Many of my colleagues have mentioned that the current state of the economy is presenting unique challenges. These challenges cut across a wide range of issues that affect the survival of their businesses:

• Travel considerations
• Fuel
• Severely reduced budgets

We should view these challenges as opportunities to restructure the fundamental ways we do business! The almost instantaneous access to information and communication demands that business owners, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders take full advantage of the benefits that technology now offers. One of the things I will be doing in the next few months that I'm very excited about is a new series of teleseminars that I will be launching later this summer.

Other options include:

• Real Time Forums
• Telecommuting
• Corporate Blogs

For information about my upcoming teleseminars, forum and blog please take a moment to register for my ezine: REGISTER