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Hub You - Handling Challenging Situations with a Customer-Focused Mindset
Cell phone users, all around the world, love their phones for a number of different reasons. One of those reasons is because many come equipped with voicemail. Voicemail is similar to an answering machine. The only difference is that many voicemails can be retrieved from a number of different locations. If you are a small business owner, you may want to examine what a voice mail service can do for your business.If you are wondering why you need voice mail when you have an answering machine, you are not alone. A large number of business owners are wondering the same thing. When it comes to answering machines, a large number of answer machines only replay the messages on that specific machine. If yo
• Prepare by identifying common problems and win-win solutions.
Your strategy should be to arrive at a solution that will be a win for both your company and the customer. If you are successful, you will retain the customer, exceed the customer’s expectations, and provide a very positive customer experience so that he/she will want to continue doing business with your
It’s just so impossible to imagine a life without electricity or electronic goods. Electronic goods have become such intrinsic part of our lives that we have started taking them for granted. Would not life be such an improbability without refrigerators, water heaters, iron, coffee maker, dryers, air conditioners and dish washers?!Though these items are easily available on high streets, yet owing to several factors, purchasing them always proves to be a harrowing experience. The electronic goods market in UK has reached such a crescendo that a customer is spoilt for choice and gets all confused before settling down with a product from one of the merchants. Best option available in such a scenario is to go in for
• A customer who is upset about the quality or delivery of our product/service.
• A product return or a cancellation of services.
• Incorrect information given to the customer.
• A customer who is negative toward your company due to past experiences.
• Confrontational issues and conflict.
• Angry customers.
• Explaining a company policy or procedure.
• Fielding a request to escalate a call to management.
The ultimate goal in these challenging situations is to provide a win-win solution. We want our customer to leave the interaction feeling listened to, well taken care of, and valued. A customer-focused mindset will have a tremendous impact on accomplishing these goals. Along with customer focus, an invaluable tool for dealing with challenging situations is the Five-Step Process.
The Five-Step Process
Have you ever been an upset customer, calling your product or service provider with a serious problem? If you receive a satisfactory resolution AND you feel listened to, well taken care of, and valued during your interaction, aren’t you likely to consider doing business with this company again? The Five-Step Process will help us to provide our customers with this positive experience. Aside from reaching a win-win solution, the goal of the Five-Step Process is to leave our customers feeling listened to, well taken care of, and valued. Let’s examine the specific steps of the Five-Step Process.
Step 1 – Strategize
How do you develop a strategy?
• Develop your goal for the interaction. What do you want as the end result? (i.e., save the customer, resolve an issue, etc…)
• Identify your parameters: what can you do or provide the customer independently or with your supervisor’s approval? What CAN’T you do because of policy or business reasons?
• Prepare by identifying common problems and win-win solutions.
Your strategy should be to arrive at a solution that will be a win for both your company and the customer. If you are successful, you will retain the customer, exceed the customer’s expectations, and provide a very positive customer experience so that he/she will want to continue doing business with your
Here is a funny story. An event coming up next weekend that will benefit a local charity. This event, like other special events, is a revenue stream for nonprofit organizations and requires corporate sponsorships. A big car dealer was contacted and asked for his consideration. After a call or two and a package sent, his reply was, "I just can't get excited about your cause." Can you imagine? His reason for not sponsoring was about his lack of enthusiasm for the cause. Yet, if he had a giving plan in place that aligned with the company values and market, he would know that this event aligns perfectly with his company for various reasons. I know this for sure.At your place of business, I bet that you receive several (oka
• Fielding a request to escalate a call to management.
The ultimate goal in these challenging situations is to provide a win-win solution. We want our customer to leave the interaction feeling listened to, well taken care of, and valued. A customer-focused mindset will have a tremendous impact on accomplishing these goals. Along with customer focus, an invaluable tool for dealing with challenging situations is the Five-Step Process.
The Five-Step Process
Have you ever been an upset customer, calling your product or service provider with a serious problem? If you receive a satisfactory resolution AND you feel listened to, well taken care of, and valued during your interaction, aren’t you likely to consider doing business with this company again? The Five-Step Process will help us to provide our customers with this positive experience. Aside from reaching a win-win solution, the goal of the Five-Step Process is to leave our customers feeling listened to, well taken care of, and valued. Let’s examine the specific steps of the Five-Step Process.
Step 1 – Strategize
How do you develop a strategy?
• Develop your goal for the interaction. What do you want as the end result? (i.e., save the customer, resolve an issue, etc…)
• Identify your parameters: what can you do or provide the customer independently or with your supervisor’s approval? What CAN’T you do because of policy or business reasons?
• Prepare by identifying common problems and win-win solutions.
Your strategy should be to arrive at a solution that will be a win for both your company and the customer. If you are successful, you will retain the customer, exceed the customer’s expectations, and provide a very positive customer experience so that he/she will want to continue doing business with your
Fleet Management is an issue that any company will be faced with if they have a number of trucks that are used in the course of business. Fleet management is a means of controlling, tracking and monitoring the vehicles that are used in the company. Examples of business that may find fleet management useful are delivery services, public transportation systems, limousine companies, cab companies and any business that uses multiple vehicles in the course of business. The importance of fleet management is to help keep track of schedules and budgets. Choosing a fleet management system will greatly depend on the needs of the business and what the owner wants to accomplish.For tracking purposes, a GPS fleet management sys
The Five-Step Process
Have you ever been an upset customer, calling your product or service provider with a serious problem? If you receive a satisfactory resolution AND you feel listened to, well taken care of, and valued during your interaction, aren’t you likely to consider doing business with this company again? The Five-Step Process will help us to provide our customers with this positive experience. Aside from reaching a win-win solution, the goal of the Five-Step Process is to leave our customers feeling listened to, well taken care of, and valued. Let’s examine the specific steps of the Five-Step Process.
Step 1 – Strategize
How do you develop a strategy?
• Develop your goal for the interaction. What do you want as the end result? (i.e., save the customer, resolve an issue, etc…)
• Identify your parameters: what can you do or provide the customer independently or with your supervisor’s approval? What CAN’T you do because of policy or business reasons?
• Prepare by identifying common problems and win-win solutions.
Your strategy should be to arrive at a solution that will be a win for both your company and the customer. If you are successful, you will retain the customer, exceed the customer’s expectations, and provide a very positive customer experience so that he/she will want to continue doing business with your
Heads up to business owners. The recent Federal Reserve short-term interest rate hike was the 15th consecutive increase since June 2004 and the first since Ben Bernanke took over as chairman of the central bank in February.The Fed indicated that even more rate hikes may be necessary in the next few months. "Some further policy firming may be needed to keep the risks to the attainment of both sustainable economic growth and price stability roughly in balance," the Fed said in its statement.Translation: more rate hikes ahead, let’s hope it doesn’t hurt the economy and your business.The target for the federal funds rate is now 4.75 percent, the highest it has been in five years. This overnight bank lending r
Step 1 – Strategize
How do you develop a strategy?
• Develop your goal for the interaction. What do you want as the end result? (i.e., save the customer, resolve an issue, etc…)
• Identify your parameters: what can you do or provide the customer independently or with your supervisor’s approval? What CAN’T you do because of policy or business reasons?
• Prepare by identifying common problems and win-win solutions.
Your strategy should be to arrive at a solution that will be a win for both your company and the customer. If you are successful, you will retain the customer, exceed the customer’s expectations, and provide a very positive customer experience so that he/she will want to continue doing business with your
Today image is everything and consumers are demanding more from the companies they do business with. The Internet has been growing at an incredible rate over the last ten years and more and more people are getting online each day. Businesses need to start embracing the Internet and a key part to that process is bringing their online image into the 21st Century.Far too many businesses are still making do with amateur looking email addresses and websites and it is these very businesses which need to get their image branding in order. A car valet company called Soapy Joes UK was using soapy_joes_uk@aol.co.uk. as their email address and they didn’t have a website. The proprietor, Darren Worlock didn’t realise that he coul
• Prepare by identifying common problems and win-win solutions.
Your strategy should be to arrive at a solution that will be a win for both your company and the customer. If you are successful, you will retain the customer, exceed the customer’s expectations, and provide a very positive customer experience so that he/she will want to continue doing business with your company.
Step 2 – Acknowledge
The acknowledgement is essential to communicating in challenging situations. Use phrases like, “I understand how you feel”, “I see”, “I apologize”, “I am sorry”, “I can see how you might feel that way” so that customers feel that they have been heard and that we respect them. It clears the way for us to move forward by helping diffuse the emotion and placing us on the side of the customer.
Step 3 – Clarify
Sometimes we mistakenly proceed to resolve a problem based on what we THINK the customer was saying. This third step of the process allows us to clarify and draw out information to make sure that we understand the customer’s true concern. Examples of clarifying might include:
• “What I hear you saying is……is that right?”
• “Can you tell me more about…..?”
• “How may I help you….?”
• “What were you hoping would happen…?”
Clarifying leads us to the appropriate solution in a more efficient manner.
Step 4 – Present Resolution
The fourth step is to present a resolution. Presenting a resolution is not a challenge if we’ve done the first three steps properly. As we present the resolution, we want to state specifically what we are going to do for the customer. We may also offer alternatives. Note: As we discussed in Step 1: Strategize, it is critical to understand your parameters – what you CAN do for the customer and what you CAN’T do.
Step 5 – Checkback
The checkback is our opportunity to make sure that the customer is satisfied and feels good about the resolution.
Examples of checkbacks include:
• “How does that sound?”
• “What do you think about x?”
• “Are you with me?”
• “Does that make sense?”
• “Will that meet your needs?”
• “Would that be satisfactory?”
Applying the Five-Step Process
The
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