Wednesday, August 3, 2011

8 Rules For Good Customer Service

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won't be profitable for long.
Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy - happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers.
If you're a good salesperson, you can sell anything to anyone once. But it will be your approach to customer service that determines whether or not you’ll ever be able to sell that person anything else. The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers – a relationship that that individual customer feels that he would like to pursue.
How do you go about forming such a relationship? By remembering the one true secret of good customer service and acting accordingly; "You will be judged by what you do, not what you say."
I know this verges on the kind of statement that's often seen on a sampler, but providing good customer service IS a simple thing. If you truly want to have good customer service, all you have to do is ensure that your business consistently does these things:

1) Answer your phone.
Get call forwarding. Or an answering service. Hire Staff if you need to. But make sure that someone is picking up the phone when someone calls your business. (Notice I say "someone". People who call want to talk to a live person, not a fake "recorded robot".) For more on answering the phone 

2) Don't make promises unless you will keep them.
Not plan to keep them. Will keep them. Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception. If you say, “Your new bedroom furniture will be delivered on Tuesday”, make sure it is delivered on Tuesday. Otherwise, don't say it. The same rule applies to client appointments, deadlines, etc.. Think before you give any promise - because nothing annoys customers more than a broken one.

3) Listen to your customers.
Is there anything more exasperating than telling someone what you want or what your problem is and then discovering that that person hasn't been paying attention and needs to have it explained again? From a customer's point of view, I doubt it. Can the sales pitches and the product babble. Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem.

4) Deal with complaints.
No one likes hearing complaints, and many of us have developed a reflex shrug, saying, "You can't please all the people all the time". Maybe not, but if you give the complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one person this one time - and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service.

5) Be helpful - even if there's no immediate profit in it.
The other day I popped into a local watch shop because I had lost the small piece that clips the pieces of my watch band together. When I explained the problem, the proprietor said that he thought he might have one lying around. He found it, attached it to my watch band – and charged me nothing! Where do you think I'll go when I need a new watch band or even a new watch? And how many people do you think I've told this story to?

6) Train your staff (if you have any) to be always helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable.

Do it yourself or hire someone to train them. Talk to them about good customer service and what it is (and isn't) regularly. Most importantly, give every member of your staff enough information and power to make those small customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, "I don't know, but so-and-so will be back at..."

7) Take the extra step.
For instance, if someone walks into your store and asks you to help them find something, don't just say, "It's in Aisle 3". Lead the customer to the item. Better yet, wait and see if he has questions about it, or further needs. Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it. They may not say so to you, but people notice when people make an extra effort and will tell other people.


8) Throw in something extra.
Whether it's a coupon for a future discount, additional information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile, people love to get more than they thought they were getting. And don’t think that a gesture has to be large to be effective. The local art framer that we use attaches a package of picture hangers to every picture he frames. A small thing, but so appreciated.

If you apply these eight simple rules consistently, your business will become known for its good customer service. And the best part? The irony of good customer service is that over time it will bring in more new customers than promotions and price slashing ever did!


        


Saturday, February 26, 2011

FRINDS

Its friendship.......
When a person calls u by a
stupid name and never by ur own name.....
When they always get angry, whenever u tell them that u r busy and cant reply...
When they tell u everything about themselves even if its embarrassing...
When they come to c u, whenever they get a chance....
When u argues with each other on stupid things and then end up laughing....
Celebrate with ur friends.....

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

इंटरनेट टेलिफोनी


तुम्ही तुमचा जीमेल इबॉक्स सुरू केला की, त्याच्या डाव्या बाजूस इनबॉक्स, सेंट मेसेज आदी पर्याय असतात. त्याच्याच खाली आपल्या चॅट फ्रेंड्सची लिस्ट असते. या लिस्टच्यावर 'कॉल फोन' नावाचा एक पर्याय दिसेल. हा पर्याय म्हणजेच गूगलने सुरू केलेली नवी फोन सेवा. कॅनडा, अमेरिकेनंतर जगभरातील इतर भागात गूगल आता ही सेवा सुरू करत आहे. भारतात ही सेवा काही प्रमाणात सुरू करण्यात आली आहे.

याआधी गूगल चॅटवरी व्हाइस कॉलिंग नावाची सेवा उपलब्ध होतीच. मात्र यामध्ये आपल्याला केवळ आपण चॅट करत असलेल्या व्यक्तीशीच बोलता येत होते. मात्र या सेवेत असे होणार नाही. आपण फोनवरून जसे बोलतो तसे प्रत्यक्षात आपल्याला बोलता येणार आहे. आपण अगदी मोबाइल, लॅण्डलाइन कोणत्याही क्रमांकावर फोन करू शकणार आहोत. या सेवेचा फायदा घेण्यासाठी तुम्हाला जीमेलमध्ये दिसणाऱ्या 'कॉल फोन' या ऑप्शनवर क्लिक करावयाचे आहे. यानंतर तुमच्या कम्प्युटरमध्ये त्याचे सॉफ्टवेअर लोड झाले की, आपण या सेवेचा बिनदिक्कत फायदा घेऊ शकतो.

ही सेवा ऑगस्ट २०१०मध्ये कॅनडा आणि अमेरिकेत सुरू झाली. या दोन्ही ठिकाणी ही सेवा मोफत आहे. यानंतर हळूहळू ही सेवा जगातील विविध भागात सुरू करत असतानाच डिसेंबर २०१०मध्ये भारता आणली. याची अधिकृत घोषणा गूगलने अद्याप केली नसून प्रायोगिक तत्त्वावर ती सुरू करण्यात आली आहे. पुढील महिन्यात याची अधिकृत घोषणा होईल असे गूगलच्या ब्लॉगवर स्पष्ट करण्यात आले आहे. या सेवेसाठी लागणारे दर या सॉफ्टवेअर इन्स्टॉल करताना येत असलेल्या ऑप्शनमध्ये आपल्याला पाहवयास मिळतात. सध्या हे दर डॉलर्समध्ये असून भातासाठी ०.०६ डॉलर्स इतके आहेत. लवकरच रुपयांमधील यादी प्रसिद्ध करण्यात येईल असेही गूगलने स्पष्ट केले आहे. २०११च्या अखेरिस ही सेवा पूर्णपणे विनाशुल्क करण्याचा आमचा प्रयत्न असल्याचे ब्लॉगवर देण्यात आले आहे. या सेवेचा फायदा स्पष्ट करताना गूगलने म्हटले आहे की, यामध्ये फोनवर बोलताना कोणत्याही प्रकारचे अडथळे येत नाहीत. यामुळे बोलण्याची चांगली मज्जा लुटता येते. तसेच एकदा आपण या साइटवर रजिस्टर केले की, आपण डायल करत असलेल्या फोनची यादी यामध्ये सेव्ह होते. यामुळे आपल्याला वारंवार नंबर डायल करण्याची गरज पडत नाही. तसेच कॉल हिस्ट्री, एसएमएस अशा विविध सेवाही यामध्ये कालांतराने अॅड होणार आहे. या माध्यमातून गूगलने पुन्हा एकदा तंत्रज्ञान क्षेत्रात आघाडी घेत 'इंटरनेट टेलिफोनी'चा अविष्कार भारतात आणला आहे. परंतु, सद्य स्थितीत ही सेवा परवडणे तसे कठीण आहे. मात्र रूपयांमधील दर जाहीर केल्यावर ते इतर कंपन्यांच्या कॉलपेक्षा स्वस्त असतील तर ते नक्कीच परवडण्या जोगे आहे.