Name: Sarah Hedayati
Email:
Web Site: http://about.me/sarahhedayati
Bio: We are advocates for providing customers the best experience possible. Impact Learning Systems is the leader in customer service skills training and consulting. Customer service is all about the positive experience you provide.
Posts by Sarah Hedayati:
- Speak louder
- Speak more slowly
- Enunciate the endings of words (s, ing, d, etc.)
Employee Retention: Y You Need a Strategy
May 15th, 2012
Employee retention has become a common topic in call centers as the economy starts to improve. According to a 2011 survey included in an article written by Calabrio, 70 percent of Generation Y contact center agents are contemplating leaving their current role when the economy improves.
In addition to agents leaving for higher paying jobs, Gen Y is motivated by better perks and benefits and more opportunities for advancement.
If you’re not already convinced your efforts need to lie in employee retention, consider this: the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employees aged 25–34 stayed on the job 3.1 years on average compared to baby boomers who stayed 10 years. Are you prepared to retain your top Gen Y talent?
Below are top strategies to get employee retention efforts rolling:
Get to Know Gen Y
Every generation has unique characteristics in the way they view the world and how they operate. Below are Gen Y characteristics to help you adjust the way you manage this group:
Gen Y Wants Frequent Communication: According to a survey of Gen Y, 35% want to communicate with their manager several times a day. The report from this survey says, “They seek managers who are willing to let them figure out their own strategies for getting the job done while at the same time being approachable and available to provide advice, assistance, and support.”
Gen Y Needs to Feel Valued: Gen Yers are just starting their careers and they want to know they have the skills to succeed and that their work matters. This generation is used to constant feedback, so they will crave it from their manager.
Gen Y Wants Mentors: Gen Y wants to learn from their managers. They want their manager to share their knowledge. Are there quick tips you can share on a weekly basis?
Employee retention takes getting to know your staff.
Appeal to Gen Y Strengths
Now that you’re a little more familiar with Gen Y, uncover strengths you can use to the company’s advantage. According to an article from Melissa Kovacevic, Gen Y employees have high integrity, the ability to prioritize and deliver results, and technical skills. How can you make the most of these strengths? What additional tasks can you assign Gen Y employees?
For example, if an employee exhibits strength in understanding the software you use in the call center, empower him or her to mentor new employees. This will reduce your work-load training new agents and make current agents feel like valued members of the company.
Create a Flexible Work Environment
The work environment is extremely important to the morale and productivity of employees. What factors can you adjust to help Gen Y to be successful? According to the survey of Gen Y, “Workplace factors that are most important to Gen Y are working with a manager they respect and people that they enjoy, and striking a balance between personal and work obligations.”
Understanding these aspects is the first step. The next step is to see what you can do to help employees create their ideal work environment. Encourage employees to get to know each other. Try pairing two employees to take a lunch break at the same time. This may be an opportunity to start a mentorship program.
Offer Company Perks
Many perks come at a minimal cost to a company, but speak volumes to employees. What kind of perks would appeal to your Gen Y staff?
“Employee of the Month” – Gen Y likes to feel appreciated as mentioned in the “Get to Know Gen Y” section above. Start an “employee of the month” program to spotlight top performers.
Tuition Reimbursement – Gen Y looks for opportunities to grow and advance their skills. Inform employees about training opportunities or tuition reimbursement programs. Employees will feel you are invested in them and they will learn new skills to apply to their jobs.
Working Lunches –Offer a free lunch once a month or once a quarter, whatever is feasible for your company. This gives employees an opportunity to socialize and get to know their co-workers (an attribute that contributes to an ideal Gen Y work environment).
If you’re uncertain these perks would appeal to Gen Y, offer an anonymous survey! Give employees an opportunity to tell you what perks they want to see offered.
Employee retention is an initiative to start immediately. Your staff wants to feel comfortable in their work environment and you want them to stay, so make adjustments now to keep your staff engaged. If you’re interested in learning more about employee retention, download this free white paper on Best Practices for Reducing Employee Turnover.
Insurance Customer Service: Five Tips for Serving Older Callers
May 1st, 2012As a large portion of the baby bo
omer population prepares to retire, call centers in the insurance industry will field more calls from older customers. To help agents successfully serve this base of customers, they need to learn skills and specific tactics to help them succeed. Use the following five tips to coach your employees in how to successfully serve older members when they call about their insurance:
Tip #1: Speak Clearly and Enunciate
When helping older callers, agents may notice that a member has difficulty hearing and understanding what the agent says. Employees need to keep in mind that even someone with perfect hearing can have trouble understanding what the person on the other end of the line is saying. As insurance representatives handle more calls from older customers, they need to keep the following in mind:
An appropriate volume may differ from customer to customer. Let employees know it’s perfectly appropriate to ask the caller, “Can you hear me ok?” It’s better to ask for clarification than assume the member understands everything that’s being said.
Tip #2: Set Expectations for the Call
When customers call an insurance company, they need to have account information and personal identification numbers handy. To help older members through the process of the call, coach employees to set expectations. For example, at the beginning of the call, agents should let the customer know what information they will need and what they will be able to accomplish during the conversation. If an employee is not authorized to handle some aspect of the member’s request, he or she needs to inform the member up front. If members understand what information they need to have accessible and what they can expect to get out of the call, agents can reduce confusion and complications. This will both reduce call length and increase member satisfaction.
Tip #3: Be Patient and Guide the Call
Another difference insurance representatives may find while dealing with older callers is their speed at processing information and responding to questions. Members may have trouble articulating why they are calling or have trouble remembering where their account information is stored. If this happens, the agent needs to be patient and empathize. The agent needs to assist members by asking questions to guide the conversation and help them process what is being asked of them.
Agents need to be especially cautious of assuming they know what the caller needs. When a member is slow to respond or can’t articulate why he or she is calling, it’s easy for a representative to rush through the call, assuming they know how to solve the customer’s problem. This is not the correct approach, because the customer will call back and end up wasting more time than if the agent took time to understand the caller’s issue in the first place.
Tip #4: Control the Call
Controlling the call is an extremely important skill for serving older insurance customers. While the representative needs to be polite and let the client share information to help them uncover needs, it’s important to keep members focused on the reason for the call. If callers stray off topic, coach insurance representatives to listen for appropriate times to cut into the conversation.
Tip #5: Clarify Understanding
The final tip is to always clarify the agent and the customer have the same understanding of what was discussed. For example, if the agent has just explained a complex insurance benefit, the agent should give members the opportunity to clarify their understanding by saying something like, “Did I explain that clearly?” or, “That was pretty complex. What questions can I answer for you?” This better serves members and will eliminate callbacks into the center.
These five tips will help your insurance call center agents address the needs of older members. If your call center representatives need more assistance, read this blog post that addresses customer service training and ongoing learning for continuous improvement.
Customer Service in the Insurance Industry: the Baby Boomers Are Coming
April 17th, 2012
With the number of retiring baby boomers increasing, it’s time to assess customer service in the insurance industry. Is your insurance call center ready to serve this population? Do your call center employees know how to uncover needs, recommend plans, and explain coverage? The Baby Boomers are coming, are you ready?
Preparing for this increase in service needs takes three important steps: hire quality agents, train your staff, and create an environment of continuous learning.
Step One — Hiring: What qualities do you look for?
Have you heard of the saying, “Hire the smile; train the skills?” Customer service representatives are truly the voice of your company. When you’re looking to hire new employees to prepare for the increase in service needs, keep the following five characteristics of the HEART Model in mind:
Hear and Understand: Does the prospective insurance employee show good listening skills? Does he or she ask clarifying questions to ensure understanding?
Expect the Best: Does the candidate exhibit a positive outlook? Is he or she excited about the prospect of working for your company?
Act with Integrity: Can the applicant give examples showing how he or she has responded with integrity in prior work or school situations?
Respect Diversity: Is the candidate open-minded? Ask the applicant to share how he or she would handle a call with customers from diverse backgrounds, of various ages, and with different health care needs.
Transcend Yourself: Ask the prospective employee to share some current goals. Is he or she willing and interested in learning new skills?
Step Two — Training: How do you prepare employees to succeed?
When hiring new employees, it’s important to equip them with the skills to achieve success. Call center agents need to be able to serve callers quickly in a way that leaves customers satisfied and prevents callbacks. How do you achieve these results? Provide customer service training! Training will improve customer satisfaction scores, reduce the number of call escalations, and keep insurance representatives engaged and motivated.
Step Three — Ongoing Learning: How do you set a precedent for continuous improvement?
Once new employees are meeting call quality standards, training shouldn’t stop. In order to keep your staff performing at their optimal potential, create opportunities for continuous improvement through ongoing coaching, brown-bag learning lunches, on-the-job activities, and mentoring programs. Studies have shown that effective learning depends largely on what happens after training is over. This is the stage when the ideas learned in training are reinforced and become a part of the employee’s skillset.
If you want to be prepared to serve the aging baby boomer population, implement these three steps. Agents will have the confidence to answer insurance questions and serve customers to their best ability. You will not only have satisfied customers, you will have satisfied employees.
Customer Service That "Wows"
April 3rd, 2012
Have you ever had a customer service experience that left you saying “wow”?
The other day, I had one of those “wow” experiences. I was staying at a hotel in Hollywood for work. The only way to park was through valet. The attendant asked me for my name and wrote it on a tag to hang from my rear view mirror. I gathered my luggage from the car and walked into the hotel. I made my way to the reception desk and as I approached the counter, the employee behind the desk said, Sarah? I was blown away! I even said, “Wow! How impressive!”
Working in the customer service industry has made me extremely sensitive to service issues. The employee that knew my name wowed me. So how do you go about creating experiences that wow customers?
Set Your Service Apart from the Crowd
Sometimes, it’s the little details that can set service apart from the competition. Think about what touches you can add to the customer experience.
For example, the restaurant Roy’s has this concept mastered. They include personal messages in their menu when customers celebrate special occasions, they pull chairs out for guests to be seated, and they refold customers’ napkins when they step away from the table. These gestures may be small, but when I had the pleasure to dine at Roy’s, I noticed their effort! To learn more about the little touches that can boost the customer experience, read this blog post.
Exceed Expectations and Build Opportunities for Repeat Business
Keep in mind, a positive customer experience can lead to repeat business. Employees need to be prepared to answer and respond to customer questions and requests with grace and eagerness to serve. James Barnes, author of Secrets of Customer Relationship Management, says, “A typical business only hears from 4% of its dissatisfied customers—the other 96% leave, 91% for good.”
Set the precedent with employees and customers that feedback is appreciated, both positive and negative. If you’re not hearing feedback, I promise someone is. It’s more beneficial to hear the complaints, so you have a chance to respond both verbally and through improvements in service standards.
Offer Consistent Service by Implementing Training
If service is truly a priority, ensure you provide consistent service across all departments. Imagine what it would be like to walk into that same hotel mentioned at the beginning of this post, experience superior service at the front desk, make my way to the restaurant to grab a quick bite to eat, and be treated like an imposition rather than an opportunity to serve. My overall impression of the company would plummet. Remember, all it takes is one bad experience to taint a customer’s impression of a company.
So how do you provide consistent service? Train employees! Customer service training teaches employees how to communicate positively and professionally with customers. If everyone is on the same page, you can ensure consistent service across every department.
Outline the Importance of “Wow” Customer Service
Sometimes it’s hard for employees to see how the service they offer affects customers. Play a little game with your employees and have them keep track of customer service experiences they’ve encountered good and bad. Once they start to pay attention to the way different styles of service affect them, they will start to understand why the way they treat customers is important.
Photo courtesy of Camdiluv
Selling Skills: Close the Sale
March 13th, 2012
This is the third and final post in a sales series. The first post covered product knowledge and the second post focused on features and benefits. You might be thinking, “The final post has to be about closing the sale.” You’re right!
Closing the sale is the ultimate goal for sales reps. So, how DO you close the sale? The first step is to confirm that your product or service meets the customer’s needs and then ask for the sale.
Meet the Customer’s Needs
The features and benefits post reviewed how to uncover a customer’s wants, needs, and desires. Ray Silverstein from Entrepreneur.com elaborates on understanding the customer: “By immediately demonstrating to buyers that you understand their wants, you'll increase their comfort level with you, which is the first step to gaining their trust. Once a base level of trust is established, the buyer's inclined to keep an open mind, instead of closing the door.”
Now that the sales reps have gathered that information, they need to explain how a product can fulfill the customer’s wishes. Sales reps have to present the product in a way that shows it meets the customer’s needs. An article from Inc. Magazine says, “…you may be able to use your knowledge about the customer, their industry, or the product or service they want to buy in order to help move the process along and get the customer to commit.”
Ask for the Sale
Many sales are lost because the sales rep never asks the customer to actually purchase the product or service. Read this blog post that goes more in depth about the costs of not asking for the sale.
If asking for the sale is an intimidating process for your sales reps, they need to understand that their effort up to that point is lost unless they follow through and ask the customer if he or she is ready to buy. If sales reps skip this step, customers may think the sales reps lack confidence that the product will meet their needs
Example of asking for the sale
Sales Rep: Would you agree that this sunscreen meets your need to spend more time in the sun without getting burned?
Customer: From what you’ve told me, it sounds like it will.
Sales Rep: Excellent! What I would like to do is send you the recommended set for customers who travel. It comes with one large sunscreen and two small size containers perfect for day trips. Does that sound like the right package for you?
Customer: Yes! I’m excited to take it on my next trip.
Asking for the sale takes a couple of steps according to CBS News, “First, give the customer a concise, powerful summary that reiterates the benefits of your products or services. Once you've done this, make one final check — not for understanding but for agreement.” Questions that confirm agreement help the customer and the sales rep feel confident in the sale.
Do your sales reps have a hard time closing the sale? Do they forget to ask for the sale? If you’ve identified areas your sales reps need to improve, invest in telesales training to help them improve their selling skills.
Employee Satisfaction: It Starts With You
March 9th, 2012
When managers hear they need to improve employee satisfaction to achieve customer satisfaction, they often don’t know where to start.
Employees are at the front line, assisting customers first hand. If employees are unhappy, there’s no telling what kind of service they will provide. Unhappy employees negatively impact your company’s earning power. According to Gallup Consulting, unhappy employees can cost the U.S. workforce $300 billion in loss of productivity. My guess is you don’t want to be a part of that loss.
Mercer consulting conducted a survey to find out where employees stand. Research shows “…one in three US workers is seriously considering leaving his or her organization at the present time.” This means employers need to figure out what will improve their employees’ satisfaction or risk the alternative.
The following are three methods of achieving employee satisfaction:
Recognize and Reward Employees
Employees like to know their managers or supervisors are aware of their good work. Don’t let a job well done go unnoticed. When exceptional work is rewarded, expect to see those actions repeated. If you fail to react, employees will feel discouraged and unappreciated. Chances are you can find something about an employee’s efforts or performance to complement. Take the time to observe good work.
1. Encourage Employees to Find Their Voice
Employees need to feel like they are part of the team, not just another cog in the wheel. Regularly meet with employees to keep them informed about what’s going on in the company. Ask for input, feedback, and any concerns they may have. Employees need to be comfortable expressing their thoughts and feelings. If you encourage open dialogue, employees will naturally connect to their work and the company.
2. Create a Flexible Work Environment
More companies are adopting a flexible workplace to allow employees to find a balance between their home and work life. If possible, let employees create their own schedules that incorporate both work and personal responsibilities. According to an article in the Huffington Post, companies that offer a flexible work environment had 25% lower turnover in 2010. A flexible work schedule may take some adjustments, but the payoffs are well worth the investment.
Introduce these three methods and you will start to see an improvement in employee satisfaction. Remember, if the end goal is to achieve customer satisfaction, start with your employees. If you want to learn more about this topic, read this blog post that explains the link between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.
“…as we improve employee satisfaction and a lifetime of loyalty, we are improving everything about our customer service.” – Cheryl Hanna
Selling Skills: Features and Benefits
February 28th, 2012
The first post in this sales series focused on product knowledge and the ways sales reps can use that information to help make a sale. Presenting products to potential customers is when understanding features and benefits becomes crucial to an effective sales presentation.
In order for sales reps to be successful, they need to know how to translate the features of a product into benefits to the customer. An article from ClickZ suggests, “Focus on emotions, not intellect. Emotions are the gateway to making a buying decision. Benefits are the language of emotion. Features are the language of logic. Even people who insist they buy logically or based on features do so because that's what makes them feel better.”
To put this into perspective, think about why you buy clothes. If you were to buy purely on logic, you would only buy clothes to keep you warm. If you were to buy with emotion, you would buy from a store with the best sale, a designer with the best style, a line of clothing made with the best materials, etc. When you buy with emotion, you are looking for benefits.
Step One: Determine Customer Desires, Needs and Problems
In order for sales reps to be able to translate the features of a product into benefits to the customer, they need to find out what the desires, needs, and problems are for the customer. With that knowledge, the sales rep can explain the direct benefits of their product.
How does a salesperson find out the customer’s desires, needs, and problems?
Simple. Some needs are universal: time, wealth, esteem, ease of use, convenience, and security. If the sales reps can uncover how their product meets each of these universal needs, they are one step closer to defining why a customer needs their product. Some needs are more important to one customer than to another. For example, if a sales rep is trying to sell me sunscreen with a high sun-protection factor, I would be more inclined to buy because of an explanation that focuses on how much longer I can stay out in the sun without getting burned versus how inexpensive the product is to buy. A different customer may need a different explanation to persuade him or her to keep listening.
Another approach to uncovering needs is to ask customers what is important to them. If sales reps don’t ask, they may never know!
Step Two: Translate the Features Into Benefits to the Customer
Now that the salesperson understands the customer’s needs, he or she can tailor their description to fit those needs.
Share these phrases with your sales reps to help them explain benefits:
What this means to you is…
This allows you to…
Using these phrases will help the sales rep put the features into words that relate directly to the customer’s needs. Going back to my example, if a sales rep uncovered my need for long lasting sunscreen, he or she could explain the benefits of the sunscreen like this:
Sunscreen prevents the sun’s ultraviolet radiation from reaching the skin. Our sunscreen has an SPF of 30. What that means to you is that you can spend 30 times longer than you used to be able to without getting burned.
With this statement, I can picture how I would benefit from purchasing the sunscreen. Personalizing the benefits is the goal.
Do your reps struggle with translating features into benefits? Do they have a hard time uncovering the needs of potential customers? If you’re not sure, listen in on calls or call in yourself and see what it’s like to be a customer. Provide telesales training for your staff so they can become confident sales reps that better understand buyer needs and can easily match products to meet those needs.
Stay Tuned: This post is the second in a series of three on helping reps close more sales. Coming up is the final post on asking for the sale: a critical and sometimes uncomfortable step to closing the sale. Find out how to ask for and close the sale with confidence!