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Archive for the ‘Customer service’ Category

How to Have More Brain Energy and Less Stress

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on September 7th, 2010 View Comments

Do you leap out of bed every morning full of energy and enthusiasm? Do you go home at the end of the day full of energy and enthusiasm? Would you like to remember what it’s like to have energy and enthusiasm?

The successful business person needs lots of Energy!
You need Brain Energy and you need Body Energy. However as with any other kind of energy, it’s constantly being drained away and needs replacing.
Dealing with people, your customers and your team, can both drain your brain and your body – and you probably don’t need me to tell you that.

But for the moment, let’s look at Brain Energy.

Imagine that you receive a call or an email from your boss saying – “Could you come in and see me, I need a word with you.”

If you react to that with – “Oh no! What does he want, what’s wrong now? What have I done?” That sort of reaction drains your brain of energy and gives you stress.

Successful business people don’t react – they think!

Reacting drains the brain – thinking, less so.

Get the thinking bit working and say to yourself – “I’ll phone him now; I’ll speak to him and see what he wants. If it’s about the poor business results, then what information do I need to make my case? Perhaps he wants to talk about that vacant manager’s position that I could fill.”

Whatever you’re thinking – stop the negative stuff – it’ll kill you!

If one of your colleagues comes to you with a problem or you receive a complaint from a customer; don’t react!
Start thinking – “Let’s see what I can do about this.”

Do not, and I repeat – Do not say – “Oh no! What am I going to do now?” Every time you say – “Oh no!” Your brain has a huge drain of energy, and that leads to stress!

People will tell you that there’s good stress and bad stress. I’m talking about bad stress, and it occurs when your brain is drained of energy. Some business people seem to believe that it ‘goes with the territory’ and some even wear it as a ‘badge of honour’ telling you how stressed they are all the time.

They also believe that it can’t be avoided; it’s part of being in business and the world we live in. Organisations do have a responsibility to minimise levels of stress in their workforce, but we have a responsibility for ourselves.

It’s very important to minimise your levels of stress and you can do that by thinking rather than reacting. Challenge your inbuilt programs, stop saying – “That makes me really mad” or “That really gets on my nerves.”

Start saying – “This is something I have to deal with, and I’ll deal with it” – You have the choice.

I know your probably thinking (or is it reacting) – “That’s all very well Alan, but its hard sometimes not to get stressed.”
You’re absolutely right however; let me give you some more reasons why you need to work at minimising it.

Stress can cause heart disease, sleeplessness, sexual problems, overeating, drinking too much, loss of concentration and stomach upsets.
Research is now telling us that many, if not most of our illnesses can be related to stress.

When we get stressed, a chemical is released into our bloodstream called Cortisol, sometimes known as the Stress Hormone. High levels of Cortisol can lead to diabetes and skin problems.
There is also a suggestion that Cortisol attacks our immune system and leaves us vulnerable to many of the bugs and viruses that come along. This also includes cancer.
So if you’ve ever suffered from skin complaints or perhaps too many colds, it could very well be the results of stress.

I don’t want to scare you death, or give you any more stress, I just want you to – think!

If you want to listen to this article or download it to your MP3 player, please click here

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Posted in Customer service, Difficult people, Motivation

Make Your Customers Too Embarrassed To Go Elsewhere

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on August 24th, 2010 View Comments

Let me ask you a couple of questions. Do you want your customers or clients to come back to your business and spend more money? Do you also want them to say positive things about your business to other people?

I think I can answer these questions myself – of course you do! Because, as you’re no doubt aware, it costs five times as much to find a new customer as to retain existing ones.
A quick story – a few weeks ago, I broke my reading glasses; well, to be more accurate, they fell apart in my hand. As you’ll gather, I wasn’t too pleased, especially as I’d bought those super-duper, titanium, ‘unbreakable’ ones that would last forever.
On Monday, I took them back to the opticians. Turns out I’d bought them about two years before, however, the receptionist said she speak to the optician about them.

Later that afternoon, she phoned – “Mr Fairweather, we’re going to replace your glasses and I’ll phone you when they’re ready.”
Next day, Tuesday, she phoned to say that my new glasses were ready to be picked up. However, they closed at five thirty, and I told her there was no way I could get there in time. “No problem” said the receptionist, “I’ll drop them off on my way home.”

The next day the receptionist phoned to ask – “Did you get your new glasses okay, are they alright? If you need them adjusted just drop by and the optician will fix them for you.”

Now I don’t know about you, I think this is fantastic service. Not only did they replace the glasses and deliver them to my door but they kept in touch checking that everything was okay.

They made the balance between the business side of this customer interaction and the human side. They made me feel special and that my business was important to them.
I’m due to have my eyes tested in July and I’ll probably need new lenses; guess where I’ll be taking my business? I’d be too ‘embarrassed’ to go elsewhere.

So there you have it, if you want customers to return, spend more money and tell other people about your business – make them too embarrassed to go elsewhere.

You do this using logic and emotion. It’s not enough just to replace a faulty product; that’s the logical business part of the customer interaction and your competitors will be doing much the same thing. You need to meet the customer’s human needs by showing that you’re interested in them and that you care. And that’s something your competitors are less likely to be doing!

If you wnat to listen to this article or download it to your MP3 player; please click this link.

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Posted in Customer service, Management

There Is No Try

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on August 20th, 2010 View Comments

Just imagine for a moment that the weather has been really good and you decide to have barbecue this weekend.

You phone all your friends to invite them over, and one of them says, “We have a couple of things to do that day, but we’ll try and come.”

What does that statement mean to you? When I put this scenario to a group of seminar participants, the majority come back with, “Your friend’s not coming!” Some people think the friend might turn up, and the others have no idea.

If you use the word ‘try’ to another person, the majority tend to hear it as a negative. “I’ll try to get this in the post tonight” means “You probably wont” “I’ll try and phone you tomorrow” means “You won’t”
Of course, it all depends on your relationship with the other person and perhaps their tone of voice and their body language, but I repeat; the majority of people hear the word ‘try’ as a negative.

So ‘try’ is a word to avoid whether you’re dealing with a customer, a colleague or a member of your staff. It can be replaced with something more honest such as – “This is what I can do” or “This is what I’m unable to do”

Instead of saying; “I’ll try and do this for you today” Why not say; “I’d like to think I could do this for you today, but I will do it for you tomorrow morning.”

You could even be more direct and say; “I’m unable to do this for you today, but I’ll be pleased to do it tomorrow morning.”

Customers, staff and all other people would rather know where they stand rather than hear the ‘wishy-washy’ ‘try’ word.

“Do, or do not. There is no ‘try’ - Yoda (from Star Wars)

To listen or download to your MP3 player, please click this link: There is No Try

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7 Steps to Become a Powerful Persuader

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on July 12th, 2010 View Comments

Don’t you just hate it when people won’t listen and accept what you say?

I’ll always remember the first sales course I ever attended and the definition of selling that was drummed into my brain.

“Selling is the art of creating a desire in the mind of a buyer and satisfying that desire so that buyer and seller benefit.”

Now that may seem a bit old fashioned for many of today’s salespeople; but I believe the principle still holds true, particularly if we’re attempting to persuade another person. That could be a member of your team, a colleague, a customer, of even someone in your personal life.

If you’re going to persuade someone to change their behaviour, their viewpoint, their attitude, any other aspect of their business or personal life, then you’re talking about changing a mindset.
If anyone is going to change their mindset, then they need to envisage benefits for them that outweigh their present circumstances or situation.
If you’re the person doing the persuading, then you need the following skills, qualities and characteristics which make you believable and credible.

Belief - Successful persuaders believe in themselves and what they’re talking about. After all, if you don’t believe in what you’re saying, how do you expect anyone else to?

Enthusiasm – I’ve known people who totally believe in what they’re saying but fail to communicate with any enthusiasm or passion. Many people find difficulty with this; however, if you want to persuade someone, you’d better find a way to get enthusiastic about it.

Knowledge – you must know what you’re talking about, so make sure you have all the information, facts, figures and statistics to make your case.

Empathy – Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. What do you think is important to them? Consider carefully why they should accept what you’re saying.
If someone is frightened of flying, then there’s no point in telling them not to be silly and to stop behaving like a baby. You need to think about how you might feel in these circumstances, and what might persuade you to change your mind. You need to outweigh the fear with benefits relevant to the individual.

Persistence – if you want to persuade someone, don’t give up on the first “no” or rejection of what you say. Persist and persist – but do it nicely!
People wont necessarily react in a negative way to your persistence when they realise you really believe what you’re saying.

There’s a fine line between being persistent and being a nuisance. Watch the other person’s reactions, and if it looks like you’re persisting too much – stop!
Energy – put energy into all your interactions with other people. Energy fuels enthusiasm; we are persuaded by people with energy.
Many TV presenters use their energy to sell us their ideas. Think of the celebrity chefs on TV persuading us to produce fabulous meals, or other presenters who get us all excited about re-modelling our homes or gardens.

Consistency – Everything you do or say is important, everything counts. If you want to be a powerful persuader then you must be consistent. If you’re trying to persuade someone to keep their promises, then you must always keep yours. If you say – “I’ll phone you back in ten minutes” then phone them back in nine minutes.

To be a powerful persuader you need many skills, qualities and characteristics. Even with them all in place, there is still no guarantee of success. However, people are more likely to be persuaded by people they trust, they like and have a good relationship with.

If you want to listen to this article or dowload it to your MP3 player; please click this link.

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Posted in Customer service, Difficult people, Leadership, Management, Sales

5 Benefits of Positive Feedback

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on June 29th, 2010 View Comments

Do you remember how you felt after your last interaction with another person either on the phone or face to face? That person – it could have been a customer, a colleague, a salesperson, a friend or even a member of your family.

  • Did they make you feel good, uplifted and more positive?

Or

  • Did they leave you feeling neutral?

Or

  • Did they make you feel down and more negative?

Unfortunately, most of us have grown up in a negative culture where it’s much easier to tell people what they did wrong rather than praising them when they succeed.

Research in the United States found that 65% of employees received no recognition for good work in the past year.  Similar research in other countries of the world shows comparable results.
Other research has shown that the number one reason people leave their job, and customers take their business elsewhere, is that they don’t feel appreciated.
And if you think about it; many people leave their partners for the very same reason!

If customer’s leave an interaction with you or one of your team feeling better than they did before, then they’re much more likely to:

  • Come back
  • Recommend you to other people
  • Spend more with you.

If one of your team feels better after an interaction with you then they’re much more likely to pass that feeling onto a customer.

“The way you treat your staff is the way they’ll treat your customers” – Karl Albrecht

If you give five positive comments to one negative comment to the other people in your life, then you’ll have:

  1. More happy customers
  2. A workplace that’s more productive and more fun
  3. More friends
  4. Better relationships
  5. A healthier, happier and longer life

Remember – “Hand out warm glows, not dampeners.”

To listen to this post, please click -  The Benefits of Positive Feedback

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Posted in Customer service, Difficult people, Leadership, Management, Motivation, Sales

Discover the Cure for Cranky Customers

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on June 10th, 2010 View Comments

Article from Today’s Manager – Singapore

If you have difficulty reading this, please let me know and I’ll send you the original copy.

Posted in Customer service, Difficult people, Management

Managing Difficult People – Don’t Let Pet Peeves Hook You

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on June 8th, 2010 View Comments

Do you have any pet peeves that annoy you about other people?

When I’m running a Managing Difficult People seminar, I ask the participants to make a list of pet peeves that they have about other people, either in their business or personal life.

Some of the participants are reluctant to admit their pet peeves. They believe they shouldn’t have any, or they’re too embarrassed to admit to them. With a bit of encouragement from me, and some of the more outspoken members of the group, we eventually end up with a huge list on the flip chart.

People will talk about things that irritate them about other people, and drive them crazy. Things they disapprove of, find embarrassing, or just don’t like. Here are some of the pet peeves I’ve heard from seminar participants:

Speaking with your mouth full
Bad breath
Body odour
Not saying please or thank you
General bad manners
Answering a mobile phone in the middle of a conversation
Squeezing the toothpaste from the wrong end
Putting a toilet roll on the holder the wrong way around
Untidiness
Bad timekeeping
Smoking
Obesity
Drunkenness
Not looking you in the eye
Slurping food or drink
Not listening
Loud music
Loud people

As you will see, the list goes on and on.

Once we have all these pet peeves on our flip chart, I then ask the group to vote on each one. In a group of, let’s say, 20 people; 12 people might say ‘speaking with your mouth full’ is a pet peeve for them. Another 6 people might say ‘untidiness’ is a peeve for them.

What comes out of this, as you will see, is that not all of us have the same pet peeves. If you consistently arrive late, this can drive some people crazy, while others don’t really care if you’re late or not.

You develop these pet peeves based on how you were brought up; how you were programmed. You probably learned them from your parents and all the other people you grew up with.

When I was a child, I was never allowed to waste food. I had to eat everything that was on my plate before I could leave the table. This programming is so strong, that as an adult I admit to being a bit peeved by people who pick at their food and leave lots on the plate without eating it.

When we interact with other people it is highly possible that we allow our pet peeves to influence that interaction.

I was running a seminar for some bank employees and several of them stated the same pet peeve. They hate when a customer answers their mobile phone in the middle of a transaction or a conversation. Because the bank employee finds this behaviour annoying, it could potentially affect how he or she deals with the customer.

The staff member’s annoyance, albeit slight, may be transmitted to a customer by tone of voice or body language. It is then possible that the customer may become difficult. Any customer’s behaviour, which is a pet peeve for you, may hook you into negative behaviour, and that will potentially cause problems.

The other aspect of this is; we all have pet peeves, however, what may be a pet peeve for you may not be for the other person. You may think that being a bit late with your report is not such a big deal; but the other person does, and that, potentially, causes them to be difficult.

Some food for thought!

If you want to listen to this article or download it to your MP3 player; please click here.

Posted in Customer service, Difficult people, Leadership, Management, Motivation

Don’t Recruit People Based on Experience

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on May 28th, 2010 View Comments

What do you look for when you’re interviewing someone for a job? I’m sure there are many factors that are important to you, and probably experience is one of them

A job applicant’s previous work experience is often used to judge whether they have the capacity to do the new job.
Many managers go through the resume discussing each previous job with the applicant. The applicant then goes on to tell the manager how clever they are and how successful they were in all their previous jobs.
It’s almost a case of – “Have you worked in our industry before?” – “Yes, I have lots of experience in your industry” – “Great, can you start on Monday?”

I’ve been in the situation where I’m interviewing someone for a sales job and they have several similar jobs on their resume. I’ve often asked myself – “Who on earth employed this person in a sales job, because I have no confidence in their ability whatsoever.”

Put your customer hat on for a moment and think about the people you’ve dealt with in the past who were pretty hopeless. The salespeople, the plumbers, the maintenance engineers or the customer service people on the end of the phone. When these people were interviewed for their job, they probably discussed with the interviewer about their experience, how good they were in their current job and all their previous jobs. However, based on your interactions with them, I bet you’d have something to add to that discussion.

Experience shouldn’t be ignored, but it’s not a reliable indicator as to whether someone can give you the outcomes you want.

What you’re really looking for is talent!

It doesn’t matter how long they have been in your industry, or how long they have been in the type of job you’re trying to fill. You need to establish whether they can give you the results you need.

Depending on the job you’re trying to fill, keep asking yourself, does this person have the talent:

  • To make customers want to come back?
  • To generate more sales for the business?”
  • To make customers say positive things to other people about my business?
  • To manage my people and make them top performers?
  • To make my life easier and help me achieve my outcomes?

Concentrate on the factors that you will ultimately be judged on and keep those at the forefront of your mind.

I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.
John Wooden (1910-, American basketball coach)

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Posted in Customer service, Leadership, Management

How to Get More Sales Without Selling – Free eBook

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on May 26th, 2010 View Comments

It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, I’m sure that you’re very much aware of the need to find new customers and clients for your product or service.

This FREE eBook is not about getting on the phone and making cold calls or making sales calls face to face (however, if you want to know how to get better at cold calls, please get in touch). This book is about creating a situation where customers will beat a path to your door – it’s about getting customers to come to you.

It will show you how to get other people to sell your product or service and it not cost you anything. And it’ll turn you into a marketing and promotion expert.

We’ll look at the reasons why people buy and why they should buy from you. We’ll then look at how to build your business image, how to network and get referrals and how to conduct promotional activity.

As we go through I’ll suggest certain books that’ll help you. Some of these I’ve read and some I haven’t. It’s up to you to decide whether it’s the right book for you.
The links will take you through to an Amazon website either in the UK or the US. You’ll be able to get more information there and either order or try somewhere else.

I’ll also suggest certain websites where you’ll get information, or where you can do things (such as design your own business cards). Again I’ve used some of these sites and not others – it’s up to you to decide if they can help you.
I’d also suggest that you sign up for the newsletters from some of these sites. There’s lots of free information that could be heading your way (naturally, I expect you to sign up for mine as well)

I’m constantly approached by people, that have either just started a business or have been going for some time. So many of these people are absolutely brilliant at ‘working in their business’ but not so good at ‘working on their business.’

What everyone wants to know is – “What does it take to succeed in business? Is it a great product or service, or perhaps plenty of money or even modern premises and dedicated staff?”

All of these are great but what you really need is - Customers!

No customers – no business – one customer – you’re in business – hundreds of customers – you’re in big business.

Whether you want a small business or a big business, you need customers. And of course you need to be constantly looking for more because you’ll always lose some through no fault of your own.
There’s only one thing to do to receive this FREE eBook and get more customers for your business – sign up for ‘Booster Shots’ newsletter at the bottom of this page.

There’s always a catch isn’t there! However, ‘Booster Shots’ is packed with tips and techniques for building business, it arrives in your inbox every fortnight and if you don’t want it, you can easily unsubscribe (as if you would!)

Click this link:

For Email Marketing you can trust

Posted in Customer service, Sales

How to Lose More Customers

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on May 21st, 2010 View Comments

Have you ever heard people in your organisation saying – “This would be a great business if it wasn’t for the customers?”

Well it’s really easy to get rid of customers, you don’t have to do very much at all; but let me come back to that, I need to have a whinge first!

I recently phoned the manager of the local Virgin Active Gym where I’m a member. He had previously asked me to contact him if I had any concerns about their service.
I politely pointed out that I was less than happy with the way the club kept changing the times of fitness classes, at short notice, and with no concern for what the members want.
He said he’d look into it and get back to me – I never heard a word!

Turnover of members in gyms and health clubs is extremely high. They spend a great deal of time and money trying to recruit new members.
I’m sure you’ve heard that it cost five times as much to find a new customer as it does to hold onto an existing one.

So let’s consider why you lose customers. A survey suggested that customers leave a business for four basic reasons:
1.    14% leave because they’re dissatisfied with the quality of the product or service
2.    9% leave because of price
3.    5% leave for other reasons such as they die, leave the area or have no further need for your product or service
4.   And wait for it – A whacking great 72% leave because of “supplier indifference”

Over the past few months four of my friends have cancelled their membership of the gym. They haven’t given up on their fitness regime they’ve just moved to other gyms, much smaller and more personal.

They just felt that the gym, we were members of, didn’t seem to care whether they were there or not. (Supplier indifference)
The facilities at the gym are good but the communication with the staff could be much improved.

Too many organisations give customers the impression that they don’t care about repeat business. I’ve stayed in hotels, dealt with banks and stores and dealt with many suppliers who didn’t seem to care whether I came back or not.

A member of staff at one budget airline recently told me that if I didn’t like being delayed for two and a half hours then I could always go elsewhere.

We need to continually let our customers know that we care about them. We need to keep in touch, write to them, send them information and occasionally ‘phone them. And we certainly need to call them back when they phone us!

When they contact us we need to make sure we sound warm and friendly, pleased to hear from them, efficient and maybe even look and sound like we’re fun to do business with.

It’s not a lot different from our personal relationships. If we don’t keep telling the people close to us how much we care, or keep writing and ‘phoning, then we shouldn’t be surprised if they leave us one day.

Remember the saying – “When should you tell your partner that you care about them – before somebody else does!”

Use logic and emotion to keep customers. Give them the best products or service and give value for money. However, always remember, your competitors will be doing much the same thing.

The difference will be determined by how you communicate either face to face, on the ‘phone, by letter or email.

Overall, customers just want to feel good. They want to feel better after they’ve dealt with you or anyone in your business, than they did before.

If you can create that feeling, then you’re well on the way to keeping your customers.

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Posted in Customer service, Difficult people, Leadership, Management
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