Are Your Frontline Associates Killing Your Business?

You can’t be everywhere at once. That means you will have to depend on others to serve your customers. And that doesn’t always work out so great.

The customer experience is an important part of generating repeat business. A good experience with your staff means a customer will more than likely return again and again. A not so good experience means customers will likely look for an alternative.

Frontline associates — the person who actually touches the customer — are the interface between your company and your customers. You need to make sure that is functioning well. A good experience means bigger profits for you.

In his new book, The Welcomer Edge: Unlocking the Secrets to Repeat Business, customer relationship management expert, Richard R. Shapiro, founder and president of The Center For Client Retention, details how businesses like yours can improve their customer service — and boost their profits. Here are three tips he offers up to help you do just that.

1. Engage Customers.

Providing good customer service does not automatically result in repeat business; a relationship needs to be established. Relationships can be created by making an excellent first impression, by smiling and being friendly, letting the customer know the associate’s name even if it is on their badge, asking the customer for their name and having a dialog with a customer that communicates to them that the frontline associate sees them as a person first, a customer second. The retention journey must start with an engaged consumer, otherwise the business is focusing on today instead of leveraging the consumer encounter to generate business for tomorrow.

2. Express Customer & Associate Appreciation.

In most retail transactions, consumers feel that their business is not appreciated. Most frontline associates act robotically or indifferent. Even when they say the words “thank you”, the customer is left with an empty feeling. Expressing customer appreciation in a meaningful manner conveys that the customer’s business is welcomed, important and appreciated. Customers do not like to feel their business is being taken for granted and if it is, they will make their purchases at another establishment. Equally as important is having companies demonstrate the same appreciation to those associates who appreciate their customers. It’s a two-way street.

3. Provide Hassle-Free Experiences.

Too many companies have rules in place whereby customers feel it is a hassle to do business with them. Companies such as Zappos and Nordstrom have built their reputations on easy return policies. Companies should use the return process as a way to build or start a customer relationship, not to make the process so difficult for the customer that they make the decision never to return. Every company needs policies and procedures in place, but organizations should ensure that the policies not deter the customer from returning tomorrow.

See anything you can improve in your business? Here are 10 ways to provide the best customer service every day of the year. What other ideas do you have?

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10 Ways to Provide the Best Customer Service Every Day of the Year

I don’t know about you, but it’s the exception rather than the norm to get good customer service these days. So that means it’s important to make sure your business is providing the best service it can. Here are 10 ways your business can provide the best customer service 365 days a year.

1. Make sure that every one of your frontline associates is capable of making a good first impression. First opinions are formed within the first 10 seconds. You never have a second opportunity to make a warm and welcoming first impression.

2. Show appreciation to your customers. Thanking customers in a meaningful and thoughtful manner on every customer/frontline encounter shows customers you care and appreciate their business.

3. Review your letters and email communications to ensure that they sound welcoming, personalized and make your customers feel important and appreciated.

4. Create a culture whereby your associates are treated as family and neighbors and they will, in turn, treat your customers the same way. Customers notice and appreciate when a company appreciates their associates.

5. Answer questions from customers by not only responding to their direct inquiry, but by providing them with additional useful information. Customers often enjoy learning more about a potential purchase than what’s written on a tag or in a brochure.

6. Understand that the underlying ingredient of customer service is “helping” people. Make sure that every frontline associate has a history of helping people. It will almost guarantee a great customer service experience.

7. Say hello and smile. In this era of technology, people are more stressed than ever. Getting a big, warm hello can go a long way in giving a customer the feeling of “Hey, this company is really happy to see me.”

8. Leverage the return counter in a retail store environment to make customers feel comfortable about returning an item and offering special attention to help them find what they need. Customers don’t like making returns. Make the return process an enjoyable and non-defensive process. Customers will really appreciate it!

9. Listen to customer comments such as “This is the first time I used your site”, “I just moved into the neighborhood”, “I just happened to stop by,” etc. and take those opportunities to engage the customer to build a relationship and lifetime of loyalty.

10. The final piece of advice for guaranteeing repeat business, generating positive social media posts, and making customers feel the company cares, all starts with the first hello in person or over the phone, or the first click of the mouse. A company’s frontline associates are the “voice of the company”. When you find frontline associates who can make every customer feel welcomed and important, make sure you continually thank those special folks and reward them appropriately.

Customer Service Week is only 7 days a year. Remember to make sure that your customers know that your company cares about them as person first, customer second, 365 days a year!

This guest post is by Richard Shapiro, the founder and president of The Center For Client Retention and author of the forthcoming book, “The Welcomer Edge: Unlocking the Secrets to Repeat Business” (Feb 2012).

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I’m A Bose QC3 Lover Again! A Great Customer Service Story…

Bose QC3 Noise Canceling Headphones

About three years ago I ordered a Bose QC3 headphone. When I received them, they had a bit of a quirk in the left ear — I had to fiddle with the cord to get clear sound. At that time, I should have sent them back for an exchange, but I didn’t. Fast forward a couple of years and they stopped working completely out of that ear. [Read more...]

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