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Save Hyper – How do we continuously improve our service?

August 19, 2014 by Brenda Leave a Comment

I’m always fascinated at how similarly – and yet how differently - the teams from various firms approach the question, ‘What do we need to do to continuously improve our customer service?’

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At present we are running a six-week customer service programme with Save Hyper.  The management team developed their lists of their answers and these have been consolidated as follows: 

  1. Revisit the company vision and goals on a regular basis.  And explore what they really mean to the organisation and to the staff.  How do the staff see them?  How could they interpret and align their behaviour better?
  2. Create a culture of ‘continuous improvement’.  Practice ‘positive discontent’.  Regularly examine and question each element of your service.  And for each ask:  ‘is this the best it can be’?  If the answer is ‘yes’, we review that same element at the assigned review time and ask the same question again.  If the answer is ‘no’, then look at constructive and creative ways in which to remedy or improve that aspect of service.  And implement. 
  3. Go the extra mile.  I love the expression:  ‘there are no traffic jams on the extra mile’.  So few companies go there so this becomes a competitive advantage. 
  4. Make customer service memorable – it is an integral part of everyone’s work, regardless of job description. 
  5. Listen to what customers are really saying (rather than ‘listen to your customers’).  There I would add, ‘and take steps to find out what they are not saying’!
  6. Listen to your customers in a way that makes them feel valued. The quality of your listening is important.
  7. Consider everyone in the organisation as a brand ambassador.
  8. Observe how the staff present themselves.  And this is deeper than just how they appear, although that is very important.  Individual hygiene comes into this, too.  How professional and loyal do they appear in everything they do?  
  9. Take note of how staff members interact with customers and is their attitude positive?  Are they warm and friendly and building relationships?  Or are they just answering questions as part of their job?
  10. Engage with customers – both the external customers and the internal customers.  Build relationships.  Advise them on their needs and hi-light opportunities.
  11. Adapt to the customers’ changing wants and needs.  And here we need to becognisant of past and potential customers, too.  What do they want and need from your organisation or business?
  12. Find ways to creatively tap in to what people really think about your service and products.  Have effective, regular surveys with people who shop at your shop – and also with those who don’t.
  13. Have effective measurement tools to track customer service. Get regular relevant and useable feedback from customers.  Use it to improve business.
  14. Identify ‘stumbling blocks’.  What is making it more difficult for customers to shop with us?  How could we make it easier for our staff to do a good job?
  15. The managers and staff need to be visible and available.  This applies particularly when a query needs to be resolved.  It is pointless their being there, engrossed in ‘team-talk’ and not being available to customers.
  16. Address complaints promptly within the framework of your sound ‘bounce back strategy’.
  17. As managers, coach and mentor others.  Transfer your skills. Mentor team members and communicate regularly and effectively with them.
  18. Empower staff through regular training and other initiatives.
  19. Good customer service should be acknowledged and rewarded.  And this is an interesting point.  The sooner a member of the management team or team-leader says ‘well done’, the more effective it is.  And consider what reward would be appreciated?  Sometimes, the acknowledgement is enough and they don’t need any other reward.
  20. Monitor the cost effectiveness of improved service to all aspects of the business, including admin and warehouse.
  21. Display products in the most appealing and effective manner.  And merchandise productively.
  22. Everyone who answers a phone needs to be trained in telephone etiquette and use it effectively.
  23. Visit other retailers.  Know as much about your competitors as possible.  Use that information to build better service. Also explore diverse businesses to see if there are ideas you could adapt and incorporate.
  24. Everyone needs to practise self-leadership.  Be flexible and open to change and improving the way you do things.
  25. Make customer service a functional requirement of everyone’s job.
  26. Have fun!  Enjoy your work.

The conversations in groups provide a platform for quality conversation.  By sharing ideas and perceptions, not only is information transferred, but relationships are built.  Relationships both within the business and externally as well provide the framework within which customer service can flourish.

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For more information on Sustainable Customer Service strategy or any of the other services we offer, please contact brenda@146.66.90.172 or phone +27 82 4993311.

Get your message across – creatively!

April 10, 2012 by Brenda Leave a Comment

Poor communication is often stated as a major problem in business and prevents progress.   This applies to both the organisation’s internal and external communication. 

In ‘Brenda Eckstein International’s’ training programmes, we help individuals to enhance their competence in this field.  By improving their personal effectiveness, productivity increases. The ripple effect can be enormous. 

I usually consolidate participants’ input after each session and reflect on what I can learn from it.  That way I can ‘continuously improve’ on my own performance as a trainer and also explore ways to ‘self-generate’. 

Recently after one of our most popular EYES (Enhance Your Executive Skills) Communication Skills Workshops in which we cover ‘effective delegation’, ‘giving instructions’ and ‘how to be more assertive’ I was updating the input from ‘Lessons from the Tree’.  In this exercise, participants observe and then instruct their partners to draw a specific tree.  There are many lessons to be learnt from this simple exercise.  And the CEO’s in the group learn as much as those in less senior positions!  Improving their communication skills through these concepts enable them to generate more time to spend on strategic issues. 

What fascinated me after this particular workshop was that I copied-and-pasted the participants’ combined input into a ‘Word Cloud’.   Have a look at the picture!  It came out looking like a tree.  What a co-incidence! 

Yes, creativity adds energy and can help to broaden our perspectives.  We constantly need to find new ways of ‘getting our message across’.  Different people vary in the way they of absorb information.   So, use a range of ways of providing information and you have more chance of closing the gap between your intention in sending your message and the recipient’s perception of your message. 

Most of our training is ‘in house’ and specially tailored for companies.  However we do run occasional ‘public’ workshops on this topic.  The next will be held in KwaZulu-Natal in May 2012 - Pietermaritzburg on Thursday, May 10 2012 and Mooi River on Thursday, May 17 2012. 

For more information on our training sessions on this topic please contact me – Phone: +27 33 3425432, Mobile: + 27 82 4993311, brenda@146.66.90.172

Using models for our business and private lives

March 6, 2012 by Brenda 1 Comment

A business model which has a huge impact on my thinking emphasises that your likelihood of success in a specific type of business is linked to your:

  1. Passion
  2. Skill, knowledge, experience or ‘feel’
  3. Ability to generate the right amount of money in that field.

Some of the questions asked are:

  1. How much does the topic or that aspect of the business energise you?
  2. What is the extent of your skills in this area?  What is the depth of your knowledge?  How much ‘tacit’ knowledge have you built up?
  3. Will your involvement in this enterprise be able to generate the right amount of money for you in proportion to 1 and 2 above?

These three aspects must be ‘in sync’.  Let me give you two examples of what can happen where there is lack of balance.

A friend of ours was an expert in the field of intricate cake icing and specialised in wedding cakes.  When she immigrated to another country, she decided to set up a business in this field.  When we test her intention against the above model, she had the passion and the skills and experience.  However, number 3 was lacking.  The hours taken to craft the icing were out of proportion to the monetary amount she could charge for the cakes.  Hence, the demand at that price was limited and she could not generate proportionate income to align with 1 and 2.

Another friend used to run an office administration business in our city.  But she lost interest after many years.  Her passion (1) was gone.  She had the skills, the knowledge and experience (2) to continue running a very successful business and it brought in the right amount of money (3).  But she did not feel successful because 1 was missing.  So, she sold the business and moved to something that brought her success through 1, 2 and 3 being ‘in sync’.

I believe that being aware of the importance of these three factors (and their combined impact) can help us to make wiser decision in our business or professional lives.  We can also look at factors similar to this in our private lives.  Questions to ask ourselves are:

  • Are we engaged in those activities which make us feel ‘whole’?
  • How can we incorporate more of those sights, sounds, smells and kinaesthetic experiences that bring out the best in us?
  • In what way are we building, conserving and spending our personal energy?
  • What are we doing to use our existing skills to better advantage?
  • How are we continuously improving our skills?
  • What are we doing to ensure that our financial rewards are in proportion to our expectations?
  • How fair is our monetary compensation in relation to our enthusiasm, knowledge and experience?

So, applying business models can help us to make decisions that are more likely to lead to success.  Some models can also be adapted to enhance our private lives.  Reflection can help us align and build a stronger future.  So, how can you take the above ideas and use to build a stronger future?

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