Terreeia is the founder and principal of Tocch Performance Development. She is a certified executive coach, consultant, speaker and experienced facilitator.
My credo: "Common sense is instinct and enough of it is genius." These 7 steps are basic common sense to providing consistent and inspired service.
1. Be confident. Know your stuff. Product knowledge can be a deal breaker so make sure you are up on all you need to know to provide the service or respond to a customer inquiry. If you are not up to date you will appear unprofessional, ill informed and the customer will go somewhere else.
2. Smiles sell. Smiling makes you happy. Test the theory right now by putting a big broad full teeth smile on your face right now. Within a short period of time you will feel different because your brain reacts to distinct facial movements and will release endorphins (the happy chemical) altering your mood and you become happier. When you are happy you make others happy and happy customers buy more.
3. Be LAST. When a customer has a complaint use the acronym. Listen, Apologize, Satisfy, Thank. Customers want to be heard so listen to them, authentically apologize for their experience, find out what would be a mutually satisfactory solution and offer it, then sincerely thank them for bringing this to your attention. Remember this is a time when it is okay to be LAST.
4. Be Extra Ordinary. Do the little extra things to serve your customers. Rather than just telling a customer where to find things – show them. Offer solutions or ask questions to learn more about what they need. The only difference between Ordinary and Extraordinary is the little ‘extra’ up front. Customers notice these ‘little’ things and they remember!
5. Eye contact. Look your customers in the eye when you are speaking with them. They know you are sincere when you are engaged with them.
6. No Jargon! No one wants to feel dumb and the easiest place to feel that way is when employees use jargon, techy talk or science speak. It is patronizing and makes customers uncomfortable. Customers expect you to be an expert and they respond better if you speak in plain language they can understand.
7. Beefs are private – customers do not want to hear staff grumbling. Really they don’t. Customers want to feel they’ve chosen a winner and if they overhear disparaging remarks about your business they will second guess their choice. So don’t share your minor complaints with them and what ever you do don’t let them hear you talking among yourselves about your issues.
~Terreeia Rauffman
- Related Videos
- Related Articles
- Ask / Related Q&A
- Customer Service Principles
- Providing Outstanding Customer Service to Ebay Buyers
- Customer Service - A Proactive Step
- Customer Service Training 101 Guide
- Six Step to Improve Customer Service Right Now
- Training and Coaching for Inside Sales and Customer Service Staffs is Vital to Business Growth
- Customer Service Training Courses Need to Concentrate on the 2 Ps of Customer Service
- What is Extraordinary Customer Service ?
Stainless steel catering - strong but safe
By: Rick Dahne | 25/12/2009The consequences of food poisoning can be dire to any budding catering business. The health and safety laws ensure that this is not gone unnoticed. It is for this reason that most catering companies will find a reliable company that will provide them with stainless steel catering equipment.
Do your bit to help the Bluefin when eating sushi
By: Gen Federico | 25/12/2009When you next cut into your favourite tuna sashimi or sushi delivery take time to consider where the tuna came from. The Bluefin Tuna is an impressive fish that originates from the Atlantic Ocean but over the past few decades has declined rapidly seeing an 80 per cent decrease in stock.
Shipping abroad made easy
By: Charlie | 25/12/2009It is a truth universally acknowledged that people care a great deal about their personal possessions. This does not stop being the case if we choose to start a new life elsewhere. Perhaps we are motivated to move by a good job opportunity or maybe we are tempted by a different culture- why we move does not stop us wanting to keep our valuables safe as we do so.
The Habit of Art – a review
By: Ronald Kresten | 25/12/2009‘The Habit of Art’ by Alan Bennett is proving to be one of the hottest London theatre tickets for the National Theatre, which should be no surprise as they have used many of the ingredients of their biggest hit of recent years, ‘The History Boys’.
The survival of a catering business
By: Charlie | 24/12/2009Immediacy and convenience are very important to us in the UK, as such we don’t like to cook our own food and prepare our own meals as much as we like to dine out. As more and more people eat out at restaurants, takeaway venues and other areas, there are more eating places being introduced to meet this increasing demand.
Use the number one recruiting software online!
By: MikeAfshin | 24/12/2009StaffingSoft staffing software was created for recruiting agencies, search firms and also staffing organizations.
Building Income Online Quickly - Easy As 1 - 2 - 3 As Long As You're Using Article Marketing
By: Dale Dupree | 24/12/2009Second, post this article to any high traffic online article directory under an appropriate category. If this is your first time, now take a few moments to create a free account for yourself. It is also worth while at this time to complete the profile page as you will for sure want prospective viewers of the article to know a little more about the author.The final step in
Ensuring Quality In Property Maintenance London
By: Dan Davidson | 24/12/2009Maintenance of any property is important not only for the purpose of using it well, but also because proper maintenance preserves its value. A fresh, clean and well looked after residential or commercial property, brings accumulated benefits in terms of safety, value and aesthetics.
Wanted: Google Generation CEOs!
By: Terreeia Rauffman | 07/10/2009 | LeadershipI admit it - I used to be a bit worried about the Gen Y’s. They seemed a bit coddled, caught up in sound bytes, pre-occupied with games and appeared to want a quick fix or ‘right now’ success. At least I thought that way until the world economic collapse.