The 3rd P your customer service staff need to master
Customers of every industry from Geelong, Melbourne and beyond decide if they want to access what a business has to offer by assessing 3 things beginning with the letter P:
1. Product: the cost and suitability of the items or services that a business sells or provides.
2. Process: the steps in place for the customer to access the products or services.
3. People: the employees of the business and how they interact with the customer.
No matter if you are in the hairdressing, home care, hospitality or home building the P that you and your team have 100% control over and should be aiming to keep sharp with reviews and refresher training is People.
The People P is all about how humans interact and the truth is, human to human interactions that include an exchange of time and/or money (business) require more than a pleasant smile, a ‘how can I help you’ and ‘have a nice day’. Those things are lovely but they are only words and words without self awareness can cause offence, misunderstanding and even anger.
How customer service staff communicate face to face (including Zoom/Skype) and over the phone with customers will determine if customers will like, trust and ulitmately respect the business.
To leave customers feeling all the good stuff, customer service staff need well developed levels of Emotional Intelligence and a big tool box of language that includes body language and tone of voice. Sadly, many people in customer interaction roles don’t have the skills to confidently handle upset customers and when Products or Processes cause customers problems, this can leave untrained staff feeling vulnerable and this is what makes the business appear unprofessional and makes customers tell everyone they know how ‘bad’ the business is.
Not good for the business and very bad for the confidence of customer service staff.
When a business has highly skilled and customer service focused staff, they are able to eleviate the anxiety, concerns and anger that customer feel because of events the customer service staff member cannot fully control ie: faulty products, processes that need refining, unvoidable delays, price increases, change and human error.
Remind your team of 3Ps and how third P - their people skills, is 100% within their control. Provide your customer servicet team with the training and support they need and you can sit back and watch as they confidently and professionally provide a level of service that leaves all customers feeling repsected and valued and gives the business a remarkable reputation.
If you want some help to maintain a level of service excellence in your team, then you need to get into The Zone - The Service Excellence Zone. It contains everything you need to create a culture of service excellence all year. All the thinking and planning is done for you and it’s ready and waiting for you in The Zone.
By Cate Schreck - Service Excellence Coach and Author of “The A - Z of Service Excellence”