As "A" Players Meet customer expectations

It is not enough to get some or even most of the expectations of your customers - your goal is to satisfy everyone. However, this can be quite a challenge during peak hours when the counter is backed up, the phone keeps ringing and you're short on staff will call.

Definition of a player "A" is not difficult if we focus on customer expectations and striving for excellence of service. These objectives require specific skill sets. Remember, one of the key factors of success is building relationship equity. Good relations are the basis for the development of "A" habits of the players. Everything that could harm the relationship, misrepresent a product or aggressively pushing the elements of a customer does not wish it could damage relations and ultimately losing the client.

It 'much easier to help a customer buy something than it is to sell something. I can almost read your thoughts: "What does it mean exactly?" Well, it means helping a customer buy everything to help him understand what is really needed and what will give the best value. He earns his trust by offering choices and let him decide. Of course, you can make recommendations. In fact, determine his or her needs, problems and is part of the formula largest photo service and become a total solution provider. This is what being a player "A" is everything.

The profile of player "A"

o The customer is always foremost in his mind.

Or he or she understands and can explain the difference between price and cost.

Or he or she understands value propositions and they can sell based on value overcoming price objections.

or listens carefully and asks questions to really understand the needs of customers.

or embrace with confidence suggestive selling, offering additional products to complement or enhance an order.

or the excellence of service is a priority.

or know the first 20 customers.

Willingly or pitches to help other staff to maintain the overall excellence of the service.

or it takes calculated risk in the interest of equity ratio. Not afraid to think outside the box in which customers of maintenance (for example - the purchase of the product from the competition).

or maintains a very low error rate.

or actively seek revenue growth and margin improvement through the development and penetration of new customers, increase the share of existing customer spending.

As the player "A" focuses on Service Excellence

The tasks actually performed by customer service personnel vary widely from company to company. Job responsibilities depend on experience, product knowledge and company size. The smaller the company, the greater the tendency for the staff of customer service to "wear different hats." The bigger the company, the greater the potential for specialization where counter sales handle customer walk-in traffic and follow-up with the other incoming call management, purchasing, shipping, quotes or provide technical support , for example. No matter the level of expertise or lack of it, all incoming calls and customer contact is an opportunity to enhance your sales relationship and prove you deserve the business of a customer.

Actual recommendations from "A" Player Customer Service People

# 1: Pay attention to detail relationship

The problem with customers is: they're just like us! They like dealing with people who are pleasant and smiling. Customer support team who seem to enjoy their jobs and do customers want to deal with them achieve greater success. The fully processed and delivered order experience can be ruined by an unenthusiastic attitude. Even if the customer service staff to handle calls and many walk-ins every day, all contact must demonstrate energetic and positive "can do" attitude. Attitudes of staff may be identified from observations of customers. For example, a customer says: "They do a good job of managing orders, but they make me feel like I've just interrupted something important or that I'm asking the impossible every time I walk in."

Do not underestimate the power of your tone of voice or facial expression. Like it or not, we judge others and customers judge us that way. You seem harassed, annoyed, bothered or too busy to care? Or your voice, your face and your body language project an attitude that encourages customers to build a relationship with you?

Quality Products and Service Quality # 2 Begin with the thought of quality

Service excellence is built around a series of "moments of truth" that your customers experience during their interaction with you. Each person in the organization, even those can not be thought of as a personal customer service, has the ability to have a positive impact on quality of service. The way you answer the phone, using voice mail, without error orders, invoices accurate and realistic promises made and kept, for the integrity of the information provided  these are all moments of truth that affects service excellence. But you are on the line and the first level of "offense". You are the customer's primary contact, and customers expect to help them do business with your company and make it a pleasant experience. They also want to solve problems and coordinate with other people and departments.

or "What is the reason for the difference in price between this and my ultimate goal?"

or "Who should I talk with about a billing problem?"

or "How should I handle this return?"

or "Do you have a catalog you can mail me?"

or "Can you send a sample of that?"

or "Can I get freight paid on that order?"

These are all questions are expected to respond. Quality thinking means focusing on customer needs and making sure those needs are met.

# 3 Take care of your customers and they will take care of you

You've probably heard of the KISS principle: keep it simple stupid. Strange as it may seem, is actually just good business practice. When customers find it easy to do business with you, who keep coming back for more, because people do business with people they like. Consider the reason why select the suppliers with which they do business. Why go to a bank against another? Why have your car serviced by a distributor against another which may be closer to you? Why do you prefer a certain restaurant? Why choose a particular dentist or doctor or favorite retailer? Chances are the selection criteria parallel to those of your customers. Probably like people and know they can depend on their efficient service.

Or maybe you like the fact that you recognize and remember your name and make you feel important, or you think they are professionals who know their business, understand your needs and take care of them. There is no secret to what keeps customers coming back for more, thus contributing to the growth and profitability of your company. If you do not provide a service of excellence, if you do not build equity ratio, if you really do not genuinely care needs of clients, rest assured someone else will. Basically, do not care means you will lose that customer.

# 4: Do It Right the first time

What is the cost of a mistake of placing my order? How much is the company for authorization to return merchandise because the customer received the wrong product? What does a cost pricing by mistake? What is the real opportunity cost of a lost customer due to poor quality or lack of service excellence? Each time an order is handled more than once, management costs increase through what is called cost-redundancy, ie, the same operation several times. Mistakes mean corrections are necessary, the work is duplicated, a claim may need to be issued, another delivery to be made, the wrong product must be returned, and the customer is generally annoyed if not angry. Errors can lead to permanent loss of a company: a lost customer.

Remember this guiding principle: it is a parody of losing an order. But, it's never OK to lose a customer.

The real loss for the company is not only the value of the order in question. And 'life-long value the customer represents to the firm, assuming that repeat business with customers is maintained. Often, situations or errors that cause accounts to become inactive go unnoticed for some time by the company. No one realizes the customer is unhappy. In fact, sometimes you do not notice that the customer is gone and no one works to get the customer back. As a matter of fact, the most unhappy customers do not complain, with only about five per cent of dissatisfied customers actually aggressively express their dissatisfaction with society. Most customers can identify the problem, but say nothing about their total dissatisfaction with the company. Eventually, this frustration builds to the point that the customer just goes elsewhere. Do not just go away, but on average, the dissatisfied customer will tell up to 20 others about their negative experiences with your company. They fail to recognize that negative word-of-mouth is more influential than advertising.

# 5 Always give customers more than they expect to gain (the factor of "WOW")
How would you define your competitive advantage? What is it? What is the difference between your company and competition? "A" player customer service staff can answer this question distinctly without thinking twice. However, many counter personnel reply: "We are about the same .. We all have approximately the same products sometimes have something in stock that competition does not, so it's a difference."

The primary competitive advantage lies in the hands of employees for assistance. We must recognize that and be proactive in leveraging. If what you're selling is really good, but employees do not focus on service excellence eventually loses because the competition that recognizes the role employees play in customer retention will take your business.

Nowadays, the staff of customer service must be problem solvers able to generate solutions for clients in need. Therefore, they must have a great deal of knowledge about the business of your customers. They must actually define what those requirements because the customer may not know, nor take the time to explain, if I know. Customers expect to have the knowledge and intelligence to understand and analyze their problems and provide solutions. Customers can listen and buy from the customer service people who understand their "pain" and take him away. "...