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.

To raise the visibility of your call center as a valuable contributor to your company’s growth and bottom line profits, follow these six best practices.

1. Know Where You’re Going

What are you trying to achieve? What are the goals of your company? How can your center support them?

• Meet with your senior executives. How do they want the company to be perceived in the market place? Are they trying to grow market share, reduce attrition, cut internal costs?
• Confer with the finance department. What is the lifetime value of a customer? If it’s small, you can hire less skilled workers, have a longer queue length, watch handle time closely, and afford to lose a few customers; if the value of a customer is large, each one is valuable. What does an average call cost now? You need to know the answers to questions like these in order to weigh the impact of hiring reps at various skill levels and to determine the appropriate service level and average handle time for calls.
• Interview the service manager. What is the cost of a maintenance contract? How many contracts are lost because subscribers are unhappy with the support they receive?
• Meet with the marketing department. What campaigns are coming up? How can the center help support the department's goals? It doesn’t reflect well on your company if a customer calls in about a promotion or other information they received if the agent knows nothing about it.

Gathering and analyzing the answers to questions like these is the first call center best practice. The results of your analysis will inform who you hire, which quality and service standards you set, and whether or not you’ve succeeded in your mission.

2. Hire the Right People

One of the most difficult aspects of call center management is finding and keeping the right people for the job. Regardless of how difficult it is to attract and retain quality agents, however, it’s crucial that you take great care in hiring for your center. Even though you may be in a rush to fill seats, attending to Best Practice #2 will save you considerable pain down the road. Not only is it expensive to replace employees who have been mis-hired, but it’s demoralizing for the rest of your team to see high turnover. You can learn more about the effects of turnover and the best practices for improving it here.

You’ll determine the most appropriate people for the job when you analyze the information gathered in Best Practice #1: Know where you’re going. Can you accomplish your goals with recent high school graduates? Do you need not only skilled engineers, but outgoing ones as well? Can you hire for attitude and teach product knowledge and technical skills? Analyze the attributes of your top performers and make a list. Then work with your human resource team to identify ways to screen for those attributes. Don't accept second best if you want to receive the benefits of this best practice!

3. Train for Success

Equipping your staff with the knowledge and behaviors to meet your company’s business goals is an investment that pays off many times over. Many call centers have high turnover and don’t want to invest a lot in training. However, if you adhere to Best Practices #1 and #2 so that you know who you’re looking for and you hire only those people who have a good chance of success, training will be a worthwhile investment to make. Keep in mind, research shows that effective learning depends not only on the learning event itself, but even more so on what happens after the learning event is over. This brings us to Best Practice #4.

4. Coach for Continuous Improvement

Giving feedback to call center agents isn’t a luxury. It isn’t a maybe. It isn’t a one-of-these-days-I’ll-get-around-to-doing-it aspect of your job. Making sure your reps get consistent feedback and recognition for a job well-done is one of the two or three most critical things you’ll do as a call center manager. Several studies have shown the dramatic results of pairing coaching with training. One, for example, as reported in Public Personnel Management found that training alone increased performance by 22.4 percent. But when training was followed up with coaching, the figure soared to 88 percent.

There are other reasons why giving feedback is so important. It shows your staff that you’re on top of things, that you’re keeping yourself informed, and that you’re dedicated to a course of continual improvement. Call center employees who receive ongoing feedback are more engaged in their job, and more engaged employees create more satisfied customers. What’s more, this call center best practice shows your staff that you care about them, about their performance, about the customer, about service levels, and about running a world-class call center. You can learn best practices for supervising call center employees here.

5. Manage the Mood

In call centers where morale is high, agents approach their work with energy, enthusiasm, and willingness. They want to come to work, or at least are enthusiastic about their work once they get there. Turnover is low. On the other hand, when morale is low in a call center, employees become bored, discouraged, and lethargic, and turnover is high. Attending to this best practice will reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction.

How to create a motivating environment?

• Be sure it’s positive. Smile. Be encouraging. Praise. Don’t tolerate uncivil behavior.
• Provide the best furniture and equipment you can. Paint the walls a bright color or put art on them. Keep common rooms clean and tidy. Be sure noise, lighting, and air quality are conducive to employee comfort.
• Make it fun to succeed. Recognize great performance—that which goes beyond what’s expected. Recognize agents for behavior or actions or ideas they initiate. Create relevant contests, ones that focus specifically on job performance. Avoid overzealous competition. Involve management in recognition programs.
• Help employees manage stress. Be clear in what good performance looks like. Provide as much control over working conditions as possible. Be sure employees have the tools, resources, and information to do their jobs. Provide breaks from repetitive or monotonous tasks. Allow agents to step away for a few moments to calm down after dealing with a challenging call.

6. Watch Your Numbers

Best Practice #6 is to focus on call center metrics. The goal of your call center is to help your organization meet its business goals. Metrics measure how well you’ve done that. Look at metrics related to quality (call quality, data-entry quality, fix quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty, etc.) as well as metrics related to quantity (average speed of answer, number of escalations or transfers, the time it takes to resolve the customer’s issue, etc.). The goal is to create the highest customer loyalty at the lowest cost.

Follow these six best practices and your center will be well-run, cost-effective, and seen as a valuable contributor to helping your company achieve its goals.

Which is more important?

I recall a conversation with a training colleague in India. I asked her which is more important, library or school. She replied: school. Her rationale: a library only contains books. However, a school provides books with structure and support. In the adult learning world, we have launched millions of e-learning programs; and that is comparable to building thousands of libraries and expecting everyone to learn. Libraries do contain enough knowledge for one to reach PhD levels. So why aren’t folk flooding this easily available resource — the library? For the average learner, a library lacks the structure that a school provides.

In addition to the lack of structure, libraries (no talking, quiet please, no cell phones) also lack the social interaction that all learners need to facilitate the learning process. Much of our e-learning today suffers from this same lost ingredient – a lack of interaction with other learners. Perhaps social learning provides this missing ingredient – peer-peer learning.

When I refer to the importance of structure, it is not solely the class schedule that a school provides. Structure also refers to the sequential learning process that includes practice and feedback. And while practice may not be critical when gaining basic knowledge, practice and feedback are especially critical when learning skills, defined as applied knowledge. In other words, e-learning provides the “what” component; but sometimes misses the “how”. Perhaps a couple of questions illustrate this point:

Do you know how to ride a bicycle? And how did you learn?

You probably did not learn by page turning through the “manual” that came with your unassembled bike. You learned through trial and error, practice and feedback. If like most adults you recall falling off a bike, you will remember the immediate if negative “feedback”. And yes, coaching should be added here. We learn skills by trial, error, adjustments and practice.

In a blended learn­ing approach, the baseline knowledge is obtained via e-learning. Then, this is followed by interactive skill practice, in a workshop. If you choose the right program — one that builds skill prac­tice into the online component — and fol­low that up with class­room prac­tice, then you've got the best of both worlds. For exam­ple, Impact Learn­ing Sys­tems' cus­tomer ser­vice skills train­ing course or cus­tomer ser­vice course for tech­ni­cal sup­port reps, each have e-learning learn­ing and class­room review fol­lowed by 21 days of on-the-job activ­i­ties to trans­fer learn­ing to the job. Library or School – the answer is not “or”; the answer is “and” – self-paced e-learning and synchronous classroom learning.

12% of customers leave if it takes 2 or more calls to resolve their issue. icmi.com

Listed below are 5 compelling reasons why FCR is important to your center’s success.

1. Increased Customer Satisfaction. When customer issues are resolved quickly and correctly the first time, customer satisfaction increases. When customers are happy with a product or service they share the news with friends and family.
2. Reduced Operating Costs. Increasing FCR reduces call center operating costs by decreasing the number of customers that need to call back because their issue was not resolved the first time.
3. Reduced Employee Turnover.  It is very stressful to handle a second or third call from a customer whose issue was not resolved the first time. Employees who are able to resolve a customer issue the first time feel good about themselves and the company. Increasing FCR boosts employee confidence and lowers employee turnover which decreases operating costs.
4. Increased Cross-Sell & Upsell Opportunities. Customers who experience FCR are open to hearing about additional products or services that may benefit them. Encourage agents to capitalize on this opportunity and suggest products or services to compliment the customer’s prior purchases.
   

For every 1% improvement in FCR, you get a 1% improvement in customer satisfaction. sqmgroup.com

Improving your center’s first-call-resolution performance will provide many short term and long term benefits. To read more on this topic please select one of the below links:

• FCR and Customer Satisfaction: A Match Made in Heaven
• The Business Case for First Call Resolution
• Altitude Software Flies High With First Call Resolution
•  Tracking Customer-Focused Metrics

Inspired to make changes? Smart managers know the key to sustained first-call-resolution improvements is to invest in training their employees to achieve first call resolution. Skilled employees who have acquired extensive product and service knowledge as well as superior communications skills will increase FCR and differentiate your company from competitors. To learn more about our comprehensive training programs follow the below links:

Cus­tomer Ser­vice Train­ing for Tech­ni­cal Support Technicians

Cus­tomer Ser­vice Training for Contact Center Agents

Cus­tomer Ser­vice Train­ing for Field Ser­vice Engineers

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:

• Speak louder
• Speak more slowly
• Enunciate the endings of words (s, ing, d, etc.)

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.

Here are some helpful tips to help you empower your employees:

• Always treat your employees as professionals.
• Know your employees’ strengths and areas of opportunity. This will help you, the manager, with your expectations of your employee.
• Initially, show your employees how to do something. Many times employees do not react positively to empowerment because they simply haven’t yet learned the necessary skill sets.
• Ask employees how they would do something, rather than telling them how to do it.
• Allow employees to take some risks. This includes allowing them to learn from their mistakes.
• Ensure that your employees have all resources they need to be successful, available to them.
• Share your knowledge and tips with your employees.

Make yourself available to employees—and receptive to their input. The tips above will help you encourage and empower your employees to take responsibility for their jobs and career development. On the other hand, if you do not empower your employees, you may not be doing all you can to create a successful environment. This can lead to a lack of motivation and feelings of powerlessness.

Keep in mind that empowering your employees doesn’t mean that you are completely out of the loop. You want to make sure you maintain contact with your employees and always let them know you are available for them. You don’t want to micromanage, but you do want to encourage and maintain healthy communication between you and your employees.

Coaching Tip

Really listen to what your employees are telling you. It is hard to know what your employees want and need if you do not truly hear and understand what they are saying. Set aside a designated time to meet one-on-one with each employee at least once a month. During your meeting, actively take notes on what your employee is saying and asking. Your notes will help you to listen more effectively.

To learn more about how to increase employee engagement and reduce employee turnover download this free whitepaper "Best Practices for Improving Supervisory Skills" .

1. Be willing to volunteer for projects

When there are opportunities offered and you make excuses or avoid them altogether, you send a clear signal about your initiative (or lack of it). Ask if there is anything you CAN help with.  Even if there isn't anything extra to do, your Manager will take note of your willingness to help.

2. Mentor others by being positive and encouraging

Are you the Agent the new hires like to sit with because you are knowledgeable and motivate them? Or, are you the Agent the new hires avoid sitting near because you complain about the customers or your work?  Be welcoming and motivating and help your teammates succeed.

3. Stay out of the internal conflicts on your team and gossip mill

When people work together in large groups under high pressure as we have when the calls are coming in back to back, there are some who will take out their frustrations on co-workers or talk badly about management.  Stay clear of these folks or you may find yourself accused of "stirring the pot" too.

4. Demonstrate the Customer Experience focus needed and Learn more about the Business

Ask for ways to improve your service skills and customer interactions.  Don't just wait for feedback and coaching.  Show that you are open and willing to take feedback.  Review the company goals, mission and educate yourself on how the business operates.

5. Suggest ways to help the business be successful and increase customer satisfaction

This is not complaining. This is, "I see an opportunity for ________ and I have a suggestion which will help by ______".  Don't bring complaints. Bring solutions and ideas. When you do have suggestions, make them in a positive, factual manner, not using emotional talk.

6. Show up for work! 

Enough said :-)

7. Express your interest in moving into Leadership

Ask your Supervisor to share ways you can reach your goal via classes, book recommendations, advice on skills needed.  Improving your skills in Time Management, Coaching, Verbal and Written Communication, Dealing with Difficult People, How to Motivate, Team Building and How to create a great Customer Experience will help you get a jump start on what you’ll use in Leadership.

8. Self Honesty: Why do you want the promotion? 

Be honest with yourself.  Is it because of the new challenge and opportunity to grow or just the money you feel you "deserve" after working there for a while?  There is a big difference between being a co-worker with your Agent friends and overseeing their schedules, quality issues and perhaps delivering "bad news" to them as a Supervisor. Do you feel you have what it takes to be successful?

…If  you have some more ideas to help Agents develop the skills needed to join Leadership, I hope you'll share them here.

We’re pleased to present the next 5 essential skills that will help improve your coaching ability.

1. Spend some time each day praising your agents. Taking time to give feedback is an essential skill of managing. Offering praise and constructive feedback—and knowing when and how—will help your agents improve—often dramatically.

When you praise your employees, genuinely and on a regular basis, you help validate their work and demonstrate your support. Call center environments can be harsh—especially if you have an abundance of upset or difficult customers—so it’s your job as a call center coach to ensure your agents feel supported.

When you find ways to praise your agents, you’ll notice that they’ll be more receptive to your constructive feedback. Think of giving praise as a foundation of sorts—by building a base and giving your agents confidence, you’ll then be able to refine their skills through constructive feedback.

You may find it helpful to develop a reminder system to ensure you give praise every day. For example, create an alphabetical form of all of your agents and highlight each name that you’ve given praise to that week. Repeat on a weekly basis. Or, select an aspect of a team’s work that they’ve done well and send the group a collective e-mail congratulating them on a job well done.

They’ll appreciate the sentiment.

2. Be observant and present. One of the best ways to build solidarity and show support is to be in the trenches, so to speak, with your agents. Spend time each day on the call floor and observing how your agents work. Take note of items that need to be addressed before a more serious problem emerges. Interact with your agents and give them praise and feedback as you make your rounds.

You don’t want your team to feel uneasy or as though you’re “spying” on them, so make sure you communicate that you’re there to support, not criticize or micromanage them.

3. Get to know your team members. One of the best ways to build rapport with your agents is to interact with them on a daily basis. It’s great to be on the floor, observing and working alongside your agents, as we discussed in point 3, but take it a step farther by interacting—meaningfully.

When you get to know your agents on a personal level, you set a tone of open communication and dialogue. Your agents will feel more comfortable approaching you with issues, and you’ll find it’s easier to solve problems once you understand the unique personality of each agent.

Interacting with your agents frequently doesn’t mean you need to need to take them out for beer or invite them over to dinner, but it does require you take time to learn their backgrounds, previous accomplishments, and interests.

4. Get feedback. In the world of call centers, you regularly work with all sorts of feedback, such as CSAT scores, resolution rates, and other call center metrics, to name a few. Metrics are essential to running a center efficiently—no doubt about it—but it’s also equally important to understand what’s going on with your agents that may be influencing your metrics. This is where agent feedback comes in. As a call center coach, how often do you solicit feedback from your agents on how you’re doing, what customer issues they’re dealing with, or whether they have suggestions for change?

How you ask for feedback will vary based on the topic, but sending out questions via email, creating a suggestion box, or asking directly are all great methods. When you solicit feedback from your team, make sure you ask open-ended questions (so you’re not getting “yes” and “no” responses) and be sure to thank your agents for their input. Need a survey to determine your employees' views of the workplace? Download one here.

5.  Empower your team. Our final call center coaching tip to add to your arsenal is empowerment.

Empowering your agents means that you demonstrate respect and equip each employee with a sense of responsibility. You’ll find that empowered agents will take more ownership in their work, have increased motivation, and look for ways to improve at their job.

Every call center environment is different, and the level of autonomy allowed varies based on experience, but you can make your agents feel empowered by following these tips:

• Communicate to your agents that they are professionals.
• Delegate appropriate portions of your job (with supervision) to help empower and spread the responsibility.
• Allow your agents to take some risks.
• Give your agents responsibility to make decisions that affect their work—don’t handicap them by making all of the decisions for them.
• Ask agents how they would do something instead of simply telling them what to do—first get their input and ask them to think the problem through.
• Teach agents what you know.

Effective call center coaching can improve your call center metrics, create engaged employees, reduce turnover, and help your operation be more cost effective. Most of all, developing and refining your managerial skills will result in a team that works for you, not against you, which is a win-win for all involved.

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.

For those of you who manage call centers and support centers, you are tasked with watching operational costs in addition to dealing with a team of agents. Your managerial skills can mean the difference between an effective call center or one that’s failing. Good management requires a heavy-dose of both intuition and technique, and each circumstance requires a personalized blend of skills. When practicing call center coaching, there are a mix of methods that we’ve seen work particularly well. Below we outline 5 top call center coaching tips to add to your toolbox. We’ll tackle another 5 in the next post.

1. Set specific and measurable goals. The ability to set targets for you and your team to meet will give you focus and motivation. Choose goals that are realistic. A quick test to see if yours pass muster? Ask:

What will be improved?

By how much or how many?

By when?

If you can’t specify how you’ll measure your goals, go back to the drawing board.

2. Create action plans. Setting goals is one thing; implementing them is another. Allow us to introduce you to the Action Plan.

For example, say you set a goal in Step 1 of completing a coaching course so you can become certified in the Support Staff Excellence program. That’s your goal—completion of the course. Your action plan will define how you reach your goal. Here's how you might write that action plan:

“Set aside two hours every week on Monday and Wednesday to go through the support center coaching curriculum. Next will be to pick three new skills from the course every week and apply it at work. Based on the study schedule, I’ll be ready to take the test by October 15th.”

3. Be positive. Your language and tone matter.

Positive thinking has been credited with everything from stress reduction to better health. In a work environment, staying positive is just as powerful. So how do you apply the “power of the positive” to your call center coaching? To start, examine your language. Take these two examples:

“Unless you make those callbacks to the customers right away, there’s no way we’ll be able to give them the information about the promotion.”

“We can still make this happen. If you can make those callbacks to the customers within the next few hours, we’ll be able to get them the promotional information before it’s too late.”

If you were a call center agent, which phrase would you be more apt to respond to: the sentence with the negative slant, or the sentence with the positive? Which would you find more motivating? Think about your language and all of the conversations you have daily with your agents and fellow managers. How often are you communicating using positive language versus negative? Try this: Next time, before you ask an agent to do something, or give feedback, re-phrase your words so they’re positive and see what type of reaction you receive.

4. Listen. Really listen.  Listening—effective listening—is a powerful skill that’s rarely used. Especially in a high-stress environment, it’s easy to get caught-up in rapid-fire mode and neglect the very fundamental coaching skill of hearing and understanding. However, listening is an art form worth spending some time perfecting. It will help your managerial abilities and productivity, and will help you strengthen relationships with your colleagues (it’s also useful to try at home with your family!).

In call center coaching, try the following tips to improve your listening:

• Focus: When someone’s speaking to you, don’t check e-mail or your phone. Look the person in the eyes and give them your full attention. This communicates respect and you’ll more fully absorb what they’re telling you.
• Don’t interrupt: Do you enjoy being interrupted? Chances are, you find it annoying. The person whom you’re talking to finds it annoying as well.
• Pause before you respond: Oftentimes, when you take a moment to formulate your thoughts before you respond, you wind up saying something different—usually something a bit more appropriate. The few extra seconds it takes to collect your thoughts before you respond will not dramatically impede everything else you need to cram in for the day.
• Paraphrase—show you understand: Finally, to make sure you understand what the other person meant to say, repeat back the key points and ask the person to confirm that’s what he or she really meant.

5. Lighten up a bit. You may find it surprising that one of the key tools in effective call center coaching is humor. Why is it so important that it belongs in the “canon” of effective coaching skills? Because humor is closely tied to attitude and your ability to read a situation. Be careful, of course, about when it’s appropriate to crack a joke or lighten the mood, and make sure you don’t offend or insult someone at the expense of a few laughs.

Knowing how and when to use humor will make you more approachable, more likeable, and more human to the people you work with.

For more quick tips tips on call center coaching and improving your managerial skills, watch for our next post in the series, "Call Center Coaching: 5 More Tricks to Ensure Success." And for a more comprehensive look at call center management skills, download our free, 8-page white paper, "Best Practices for Improving Call Center Supervisory Skills."

Engaged Employees Take the Time to Build Rapport

Before you start to worry about your center metrics, I suggest you take a moment to think about this scenario: A slight increase in average-handle-time results in a significant increase in first-call-resolution. Customer perception is reality. Customers who have their issues resolved correctly the first time are much happier than customers who have a shorter call duration but end up having to call back again. Encourage agents to take the time to engage with customers. Agents who connect with customers are likely to receive more detailed and honest responses which expedites the resolution process.

Engaged Employees Add Value to Products and Services

Engaged employees are excited about educating customers.

One word answers could be reducing your revenues. Millions of dollars are lost each year by sales and service people who “answer” questions correctly but not effectively, from a business standpoint. If you want to have a successful and profitable business, you need to have welcomers on the front lines. Richard Shapiro – The Welcomer Edge

No one can add value to your product or service better than front-line personnel. Front-line employees who position themselves as experts and take the time to answer customer queries not only correctly, but with details, ensures increased first-call-resolution since fully informed customer don’t need to call back. Engaged employees naturally exert extra initiative and use past experience and available resources to provide customers with the most comprehensive solutions.

 3 Easy Ways to Increase Employee Engagement

1. Say Thank You. Gratitude starts with you. Show your staff that you value them by thanking them for a job well done. Employees who have frequent positive interactions with management feel a stronger connection to the company and are more likely to provide consistent world-class customer service.
2. Acknowledge Achievements. Employees who are recognized for performing well are more likely to continue the desirable behavior and encourage others to do the same.
3.  Invest in Your Employees. Investing in communications skills training and product and service training for your employees demonstrates that you care not only for the success of the company but also their personal success. Agents who receive regular training and are properly coached and mentored by management staff are more likely to stay long term. Investing in employees increases engagement and reduces employee turnover.

As a contact center manager you have a heavy work load. Taking time to engage and empower your employees will lessen the load and dramatically improve your metrics. Contact centers that increase their employee engagement lower overhead costs and increase agent performance. To learn more about how you can increase employee engagement today check out our call center coaching training course Making It Happen™.

Are your employees happy? Find out today! Download the Employee Satisfaction Survey and learn what you need do to create a team of engaged, productive, loyal employees.

Of the tiny business population who can truly claim customer service superiority, one thing is certain: Every employee owns a piece of that prize. Simply put, a company cannot achieve customer service excellence without first attaining high levels of efficiency, quality, and productivity among its internal service providers.

Emphasize Internal Customer Service

All too often, companies place a strong emphasis on external customer care while losing sight of the fact that internal customers matter just as much. Why does it matter? Because somewhere down the line, the service provided to an internal customer will show up in an external customer transaction.

(Just in case it’s not obvious, an internal customer is defined as any employee who depends on the timing, quality and accuracy of a colleague’s work in order for them to succeed in their own work.)

As a customer service consultant, what I've seen is that those organizations in which a customer care culture is truly embedded do not make distinctions about internal and external care. Each employee's mission is simply to demonstrate excellence with each and every task. There’s an implicit understanding that every job is a “customer service” job.

Start With Awareness

In developing a company-wide customer service training program for a large insurance client, my colleagues and I created an activity called The Ripple Effect. Just like it sounds, the game aimed to show employees the impact of their work upon others’ ability to do their own job well). It proved to be one of the most popular sections of the course and provided some true a-ha moments on the part of the participants. Many of them admitted that they’d never seriously considered the ripple effect of their work on that of their internal customers—and ultimately on the company’s external customers.

In another initiative (this one too aimed at helping employees to recognize their interdependence), we created an Engagement Cycle which tracked a customer engagement from beginning to end and charted the various internal customer needs at each stage. Again the a-ha’s.

Define Customer Service as a Function, Not a Department

How does your organization view customer service—as a department, a specific job role, or as a responsibility shared by every employee?

To help you assess the level of internal customer service in your organization, begin by getting each employee to answer some simple questions:

1. Who are your internal customers?
2. What do these customers need from you in order to do their jobs well?
3. Are you in regular two-way communication with those customers?
4. If internal customer satisfaction were measured, how would you rate?

Managers can ask themselves a couple of additional questions:

5. How is frustration over internal customer service affecting morale and turnover?
6. What does my team need to do to both provide and receive excellent internal customer service?

Teach Them to Be Good Customers

What does an organization want from its customers? Satisfaction, loyalty, and maybe a bit of appreciation.

Internal customer service works the same way. Employees will be motivated to continue providing good service to coworkers if they’re given appropriate feedback and, at least every once in awhile, sincere thanks for a job well done.

Are your employ­ees sat­is­fied? Find out today. Down­load this free employee sat­is­fac­tion sur­vey or paste this link into your browser: http://info.impactlearning.com/reg_esatsurvey.html

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

Treat Your Current Customers Like Gold

In terms of marketing and referrals, loyal customers equal dollar signs.  It’s not enough to meet their needs by providing adequate service; to gain the loyalty of current customers and a reputation among prospective customers, the service offered by all the client-facing departments of your organization has to be exceptional.  Even companies with very good reputations for customer service don’t rest on their laurels; they continue to provide training and coaching for their client-facing representatives.

Watch Your Commitments

In the process of securing a sale, make sure not to promise anything your organization can’t deliver.  The long term effects are devastating and will come back to haunt even the most experienced sales professional.  Nothing undermines loyalty faster than a loss of credibility.

Make It Easy For New Customers to Love You

There’s a saying among ad agencies: “The day you sign a new client is the day you begin losing them.”  The sad truth is that many times we put our best resources into the acquisition of new clients, sometimes at the expense of what we need to do to retain them.  Since loyal customers are our best form advertising, and because it’s at least five-to-ten times more costly to acquire a new customer than to retain one, think about all you can do to welcome new customers.  Consider video tutorials, toll free numbers, surveys to see if they are using your product or service as easily and as often as anticipated, call backs to ensure they had an easy sales process and that any unexpected issues were resolved to their satisfaction.

Make It Easy For Customers to Complain

Robert Stephens, founder of The Geek Squad, believes that it’s important to make it easy for customers to complain.  Complaints are an essential part of customer feedback; if there’s something wrong, we want people to tell us.   The easier you make it for customers to complain, the more likely they will be to give you a chance to save them as customers.  It’s been shown that customers who have had their problems resolved quickly and professionally are more loyal than customers who have never had a problem.

Listen and Act 

It’s one thing to give people an opportunity to offer their comments; it’s another to take action on it.  This is one of the principles that Microsoft leveraged in their recent Windows 7 campaign with the statement “Windows 7 was my idea.”  Customers feel validated when the companies with whom they do business take their suggestions seriously enough to incorporate them into their products.  You want more customer loyalty?  Listen to them, and act on what they tell you whenever possible!

These are some ways to earn more of the currency that is customer loyalty. How is your company keeping customers loyal?

Click here to read Loyalty: The Currency of Customer Satisfaction — Part 1.

The experience

Here is the story of my experience and the conclusions I drew from it.

Our faithful old washing machine took ill and unfortunately died suddenly. I took it upon myself to find the replacement. I guess you could say that I was in “crisis purchase mode”, anxious to get it sorted, so the last thing I wanted was more stress than was already being created by the absence of a working washing machine.

The internet has made shopping wonderfully easy and I soon found a number of suppliers. I narrowed this down to two that I recognized and who had the widest ranges, at comparable prices. I started to compare machines on one supplier’s website, pages were slow to load and it was difficult to find specifications of different machines to compare them. Frustrated, I gave up on that supplier, even though it appeared to be slightly cheaper, it was too much like hard work!  I concentrated on the other supplier, who I had used on rare occasions in the past without any memorable problems.

The second supplier’s website loaded quickly and I was easily able to compare machine specifications; great, a much better experience.  I narrowed the options down and selected the machine I thought best. There was one problem, I wanted a specific function that wasn’t shown in the specifications.  Having checked a couple of times I couldn’t decide, so with some reluctance I decided to telephone the customer service help-line, as suggested on the site.

I dialed the number and prepared to put my feet up, expecting to queue and wait for a response. The phone was answered within seconds; and by the friendly voice of a human being too!  I explained my problem, the machine I was considering, and the specific function I needed. The agent didn’t know the answer but said she’d phone me back within the hour. Just 20 minutes later (she’d obviously been trained in under-promise, over-deliver) the agent called me back with the answer; the machine did have the function I needed. I was impressed with the quick response, but more impressed because, even though she couldn’t answer my question, she immediately took responsibility for finding the answer on my behalf. She could so easily have passed the buck (as so often happens) by giving me a number to call for technical advice. All great so far.

I placed the order online and paid painlessly (apart from the pain of parting with my hard earned cash). I was able to pick a delivery date to suit my availability, I also had the option of selecting fast delivery but I chose the following Friday.  Finally, the system promised me a phone call, one hour before delivery; so that I could make sure that I was available (I didn’t have to tie the whole day up waiting just in case the delivery arrived without warning). Perfect!

Unexpectedly, the day before the delivery was due I received an email confirming that the delivery would be on Friday as promised, and that it would be in the afternoon. Nice to be kept up to date and, even better, I didn’t have to wait in during the morning of delivery, just the afternoon. Excellent!

Friday arrived and at 1.00pm I had a telephone call (as promised) to say the delivery would be around 2.00pm.  The machine was delivered a few minutes before 2.00pm. The two delivery men were polite, fast & efficient, but still had time for a bit of friendly banter. They had been well trained too and clearly knew their stuff because they also gave me a few fitting tips and advice before they left.  I started the task of installing the new machine around 1 hour later we had a fully working washing machine again. Brilliant!

My take-away points

The company got it right in the following ways:

Reputation and customer pre-conceptions

• I had heard nothing bad about the company to deter me from using them in the first place
• My previous experiences, whilst not particularly memorable, were not tarnished in any way
• Nobody, friends, colleagues or relatives, had suggested that I don’t use them

Products and services

• They had the range of products/services that I was looking for
• They made their products and services easily accessible to me
• They didn’t make me (the customer) work hard to find and compare products.

Systems and processes

• I didn’t even notice their systems and processes; they made them invisible to me as the customer.
• They had trained their staff to operate the systems and apply the processes efficiently and with subconscious ease
• They didn’t ask unnecessary or unwarranted questions

Communication

• Their communication was accurate and timely throughout the process
• They always delivered or exceeded what they had promised
• They stayed linked with me throughout the process
• They pleasantly surprised (and reassured me) by over-communicating

The people touch points

• Either they were very lucky or they had carefully selected the right staff
• The staff had been trained well in both knowledge and behavior
• They had embodied the right attitude; one of ownership and taking responsibility in all of the staff that I dealt with

My conclusions

In the example I’ve described above, I can honestly say that I was delighted by the company and my experience as a customer. They did not however, do anything more than I expected or they had promised. They got all the basics right!

Delight; the icing on the cake

I would be the first to promote the concept of offering the customer more than just a good experience, aiming to delight them. Delight is the icing on the cake of the customer experience. By all means aim to delight your customers, but make sure you’ve got the basics right first. Placing emphasis on trying to delight your customers is a waste of effort if the basics are not right in the first place.

What are some of the major factors that impact customer loyalty?

• Exclusivity (“obligatory loyalty”):  If a company produces a unique product or is the only service provider in a certain area, the loyalty of their customers is obligatory.  This doesn’t mean that they don’t also earntheir customer’s loyalty; it simply means that it’s hard to gauge loyalty simply by looking at the customer base.Example:  Several years ago I lived in the mountains, and there was only one wireless service provider for our area.  If I wanted to make wireless phone calls from my home, I had to use that company.  As it turns out, their customer service was excellent, and when I later moved to the city I continued to use this company, although slightly more expensive than their competitors, because they had always treated me so well.
• Reputation: Some companies have gained the loyalty of their customers due to their reputation.  Whether it is the size of the company, their relative market share, how long they have been in business or the number of satisfied customers who have advocated for the company, it’s probably fair to say that most people like to do business with companies that have a good reputation.

Example: Aside from file servers, most of us who use computers in our daily work routines are running those computers on operating systems from one of two major companies.  The reasons for this are many-fold and include the ability to obtain timely support, the wide variety of applications supported by these systems, the likelihood these companies will remain in business during our tenure with their products, and our belief that they have too much to lose by not standing by their products.  In other words, their depth and breadth of market are positive attributes that make us want to do business with them.

• Inertia:  Some businesses achieve the “loyalty” of their customers simply because it becomes too hard for their customers to switch to a competitor.Examples:  It’s easier for many people to stick with the same software applications they are used to, even when they know better applications are out there, simply because they fear the learning curve of adopting a new program.Likewise, a person may not trade in her car for a better vehicle, even one that is safer, gets better gas mileage, is less expensive and whose aesthetics happen to appeal to her more, because of the hassle involved with terminating her current lease.

• Proven track record:  Those companies that have “proven” themselves to their customers enjoy the deepest type of loyalty.  These are the companies that:
  • Have had their products used successfully by many people;
  • Provide excellent service in all the departments with whom their customers interact; and
  • Stand by their commitment to service when support is needed.

These companies have earned the loyalty of their customers in an important way: they have “lived the promise” they made back when the customer was still a “prospect.”  They have shown they can deliver and now customers trust them.

This type of loyalty is the most highly regarded because it tends to have the strongest impact on customer retention.  Customers often stick with companies with a proven track record even if they are not the cheapest, offer the most convenience or have the most features in their products.  It is also more likely that if something goes wrong, customers of companies with proven track records will be more forgiving of the issue and more patient while a fix is put in place.

Click here to read Loyalty: The Currency of Customer Satisfaction — Part 2 and learn how your company can "prove itself" and earn the respect and loyalty of customers.

Coaching is one of the greatest things a manager can do for his or her employees, yet it’s often overlooked. The reason for this is that many managers may feel like they do not have time to coach, or that their employees are doing fine, so there’s no need to coach. While this may seem logical, the truth is that there is always a need for coaching.

To put it into perspective, think about your favorite sports team for a minute. Where would that team be if they did not have their coach? What would they do if they didn’t have their coach encouraging and directing them? For starters, the team, even though each member is talented, would probably feel a little lost or misdirected. They would probably just do whatever they thought was right, because no one was around to tell them any different. This is exactly what happens when there’s a team or department at work without a manager coaching them.

Coaching is vital to the success of the company and to each team or department. It is through coaching that managers connect with their employees, because it is through coaching that they show how much they care. Managers show they care by praising employees for what they do right, and they show they care by helping employees get on the right track when their performance is not up to par.

Coaching isn’t easy, but it is essential. When it comes to coaching, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Praise good work often and use positive language.
• Coach as soon as you see or hear the behavior taking place.
• Give specific feedback on behavior and performance.
• Treat all employees fairly.
• Lead by example.
• Let your employees know that you care.
• Make coaching a priority.

Since finding the time seems to be a common obstacle to good coaching, it’s important that managers don’t view coaching as an addition to their job. In reality, coaching is their job. With managers being in very visible and influential positions, they have the ability to lead their teams to victory, or let their teams fall. No matter how big or small a team may be, the practice of management coaching is critical.

Coaching Tip

It’s a good idea for managers to keep track of how often they praise their employees. One way to do this is to start each week with a tally sheet containing each employee’s name. This will make it easy for managers to note—with a simple tick or tally mark—each time they praise an employee throughout the week. At the end of the week, this informal “praise report” will yield valuable data about the manager’s coaching efforts. This tally sheet will also help to make praising become a habit!

This fast food restaurant, which will remain nameless, failed at meeting my expectation because it over-promised (through the now seemingly photo-shopped image above the register) and under-delivered.

Experts Disagree on Delighting Customers

Some customer service experts would look at my experience at the fast food restaurant and suggest that I should have not only enjoyed my “just as promised” sandwich, but I should have been delighted by the service staff. In other words, businesses should always over deliver on their promises to customers. In an interview with 50 Lessons, Gerry Roche, a high profile executive recruiter, suggested that “going beyond what’s expected, almost beyond the reasonable, is what service is all about”.

However, this begs the question, is going beyond what’s expected, reasonable? Where do businesses draw the line? And does this strategy apply equally to every type of business?

According to Matt Dixon’s 2010 Harvard Business Review article, Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers (an article that created a major buzz in the marketing sphere), delighting customers does not generate the best business results because it can be costly and its impact on the business immeasurable. Businesses should instead focus on meeting their customers’ expectations and fulfill the promises they make. This is not a blanket statement to say that all businesses should ditch their customer delight strategies. Some businesses actually specialize in offering ‘delight’ as part of their service and anything less would be a disappointment from the customers’ viewpoint.

Embody the Business Objectives

Upon its inception, an organization makes a choice on the business objectives it intends to focus on to maintain its competitiveness in the market. There are many business objectives to pick from, but the most important two are:

1) Product and service quality

2) Price

Examples of businesses that focus heavily on product and service quality as the main business objective are luxury goods providers (Ritz Carlton hotels, Ferrari car dealers, etc.). Customers that patronize businesses in this category expect premium products, premium customer service, and yes, delight.

Delight is a very important aspect of service for luxury oriented businesses because customers expect it! Anything less than ‘delightful’ is a disappointment from the customers’ perspective. Delight, in those instances, can be represented in the simple things: a personalized welcome note, complimentary food and drink in the customer lounge, complementary pick up and drop off service, etc.

On the other hand, economy oriented businesses (Days Inn hotels, Mazda car dealers, etc.) tend to focus on price as the main business objective that allows them to maintain a competitive advantage. Yes, product and service quality are also important for businesses in this category, but they are far less important than they are for luxury goods providers.

Customers who patronize those businesses do not expect to see a red carpet, Victorian chandeliers, complimentary luxury lounges with unlimited food and drink, etc. All they want is a cost effective product of decent quality accompanied with robust customer service. Delighting customers in economy oriented retail environment is a waste of dollars, time, and energy.

The bottom line is whether, or not, businesses should engage in delighting their customers is irrelevant. The important part is defining the business objective of the organization, communicating it clearly to customers, and then meeting the customer’s expectations. Customers expect delight when dealing with luxury goods providers, and their expectation should be completely met. At the same time, they do not expect delight when dealing with economy goods providers. Instead, they expect a low price and only a decent product that does what it promises to do, and those expectations should also be met.

Reflecting on the state of my sandwich at the fast food restaurant, by no means was I expecting for it to be served on a China plate, accompanied by silver utensils and a glass of wine. I simply wanted a good tasting inexpensive sandwich with fresh ingredients like the one advertised on the banner above the register. And I didn't get it. Just meet your customers’ expectations and success will be around the corner.

Photo cour­tesy of Horia Varlan

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.

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