What Happened to Customer Care

Do you remember terms like 'Customer Care?' Are you familiar with slogans like 'The Customer is King' along with 'The Customer is Always Right?' Where have all those fine sayings gone to? OK, the sayings might still be there somewhere, perhaps even on a dusty poster in the stock room, but the treatment and actions that these sayings should engender no longer exists, it seems.

A Timely Reminder of Service

I recently returned a faulty item to the local store and explained that it was not fit for the purpose for which it was bought. This scenario lent itself to some great Customer Care, don't you know. She could have apologised and offered me the choice of changing the product or taking a refund. You'd think. But no. She asked if I had selected the item myself, in which case it was my fault. My fault, you understand for walking into the shop to spend money.

The local fitness club was not much better when I approached the reception desk to make an enquiry. No fewer that 3 people stood talking among themselves while I waited. And when someone deigned to speak to me, there was not a word of apology - until I asked for one; and even then it was offered as if under duress. If you rely on customers for your survival you could do worse than to remind yourself of this important fact; you don't have a business without your customers so STOP taking them for granted and START respecting them and CARING for them.

All well and good; but why does Good Customer Care seem to be on the decline? Well obviously there is the lack of training but it is a bit more than that because your local high street shop owners don't usually go on customer care courses. No, it seems to me that we are incubating a culture of Fear and Loathing; no one seems to like anybody and we seem to fear everybody we don't know. Have you noticed that every single store has a security gate through which you must pass to spend your money? As if the gates weren't enough, there are guards as well. And security cameras.

Is this because we are a nation of thieves? No. In my experience most people are fine upstanding members of the public - and they don't steal. But if you came from a different planet you wouldn't want to let go of your ray gun whilst out shopping, would you?

Five Fabulous Tips for Cold Calling

Sylvia Modu presents her 5 tips to help with cold calling and telephone sales.

I remember as if it were yesterday, joining a company that had been looking for people to make cold calls. I was the first one to walk through the door; they gave me a huge box of cards with names of companies and telephone numbers, which nobody had touched in years and now I was expected to ‘cold-call’ these companies and sell them my (new) company’s products.

Was I scared?! Yes, I was but I ended up being the biggest producer of sales by telephone. I eventually grew the team from 1 (myself) to 10 and became the telesales manager. I learned from experience and have since gone on to train hundreds of people in the subject. Here I offer you 5 tips, which you might find useful. You will see that they are very much ‘skills-based’ this time. Next time we’ll look at how to create a positive mind-set to help keep you on track when the going gets a bit rough!

1. GET READY
Preparation is the key to success in all that we do in life – try getting married or taking a holiday without it! First, clean up your list. Make sure that those companies, telephone numbers and people still exist. You can do this by making a call ‘just for a little information’. Next, find a reason to call. A reason to call could be ‘they used your company sometime ago’, or ‘you sent information recently’ or ‘you want to inform them of something new’. A reason to call makes you feel comfortable in making the call. Next, decide on your objective. To determine your objective, ask yourself ‘what do I want to happen as a result of making this call?’ Next, have EVERYTHING you need to hand and then MAKE THE CALL!

2. GET THEM LISTENING
This stage is crucial because people are not waiting for your call. So plan a good opening to get the ‘prospect’s’ attention. This opening statement needs to have some benefits built in so they can see why they should talk to you, which in turn earns you the right to continue speaking. Here are some reasons why people might want to talk to you: you can save them money, you can save them time, you can offer security or your products can massage their ego. Once you start to look at what your company can offer you will find reasons for calling. Plan your opening until you are happy with and then hit the phone.

3. FIND OUT WHAT THEY WANT
The only way to get into people’s minds is to ask them questions. Don’t assume that because your product or idea is good you should simply talk about it. Try to find out about people and their business before making suggestions. To find the best questions to ask prospects about their business, as yourself this question: ‘what do I need to know about their business to determine whether or not my product/idea will suit their company?’

4. PRESENT YOUR IDEAS FAVOURABLY
If you have established by good questioning that this company could use your product or service, the next step is to present your ideas favourably. This means using the benefits of your offer. There are 3 key ingredients that will help you to do this: what it IS, what it DOES and what it MEANS. What it is – it’s made of metal; what it does – it’s strong; what it means – it will last a long time. So for example ‘it’s made of metal so it is very strong which means that it will last you a long time and save you money’.

5. ASK FOR THE BUSINESS
That’s right; go ahead and ASK. People rarely say ‘you’ve done such a good job, I would like 10 of those’. There comes a point in your conversation with your prospect when you know you have asked enough questions, you have matched your products to their requirements as in idea 4 and you know that this is a good time to ask for the business. Try words like ‘shall we go ahead on that basis?’ Or ‘which would suit your company best, the metallic or the plastic?’ Don’t be afraid to ask for the business – the worst thing that can happen is that they say ‘no’ and nobody ever lost family or friends as a result.

Good luck and see you next time!