Sales and Customer Service personnel are the primary customer contact for most businesses. So what does their attitude say about your company? If some of your team are not communicating the message you want, here are 10 questions to ask yourself to ensure they stay positive, focused on message and deliver an exceptional customer service experience.
1. Are you clear on your values and expectations? This is foundational to ensure that a consistent message is communicated across the organisation. Without clarity from the top, people may be unclear of expectations and rarely surpass them.
2. Are your priorities constantly changing? If you aren’t consistent with priorities and aligning them with activities that customer’s value you are leaving room for confusion. Eliminating confusion will keep your team focused.
3. Are you and your managers leading by example and consistently reinforcing desired behaviours? People copy behaviours and if you do not demonstrate what is expected how can you expect your team to behave otherwise?
4. Are you providing enough information? Providing a centralised location for information on all existing clients, products and services (CRM or Intranet) will give you the confidence to answer any question without having to rely on others for information.
5. Are you providing training for skills that your team may be lacking? If you have hired the right person based on their character and attitude (but they are making mistakes) make sure they have the necessary training to ensure they know how to do it right.
6. Are you providing too much direction? If you try to tell your people how to do everything step-by-step you are limiting them on providing quality customer service. If you free them up to do what they know is necessary — based on agreed expectations — you are providing the freedom to make your customers happy.
7. Do you have enough team members? If you have a team that is spread so thin they can’t provide quality service over the quantity of customers served consider the real cost to your business. Unhappy customers = ex customers! By hiring more team members you may enable your team to make more sales.
8. Do you personally motivate your team? If you reward your team for delivering a great customer service you will almost certainly win new business. Look for ways to provide positive reinforcement on a daily basis in addition to providing performance bonuses, gift cards, or something for your team to earn.
9. Do you provide too much information during training sessions? If you supply too much at once people may take longer to master those new skills. Consider breaking training into smaller sessions to allow time to master a few skills at a time. People who FEEL successful will BE successful.
10. Does the entire organisation understand the critical role they each play in delivering an exceptional customer service experience? Too many companies do not place the same importance on internal customers (i.e. colleagues and peers) resulting in customer facing teams not getting the support they need.
Ask yourself these 10 questions to identify areas for improvement. Then pick one and focus on it. Attacking too many initiatives at once will lead to frustration and probably failure! Once your team has mastered one goal, move on to another. Working together for a shared goal and seeing ongoing improvements will keep the team focused, motivated and positive
By Steve West
Marketing & Business Development Manager
One size does not fit all when it comes to motivating all of your customer-facing employees. I think different people are motivated by different things, and a manager should never assume she knows what those things are.
Shane,
I agree with your comment that one size does not fit all when it comes to motivating people. Whilst there are some general principles that a manager can follow there’s no substitute for knowing what each person needs to keep them personally thriving in the work environment.
Martin Blain