"It's important that people know what you stand
for. It's equally important that they know what
you won't stand for."
- Mary Waldrop
Recommended
book of the week:
'Moments
of Truth' - Jan Carlzon. Published by Ballinger
Publishing
This
week's "moment of truth".
Uniformity
in greetings.
"Ya
right?" "Next!" "Who's next?" "Are you being served?"
"Yes please." "Good morning, ABC company." "Smith
here."
And
on it goes, an assorted array of customer greetings
based purely on what spontaneously comes into the
staff member's mind at the time of serving the customer
or answering the call. Not, in my opinion, the fault
of the staffer, but the fault of management for
not implementing standards and training on how customers
are to be greeted.
I
don't think Peters and Waterman in their book 'In
Search of Excellence" were too far from the mark
when they said that for many businesses "customers
were viewed as a bloody nuisance, an interruption
to business". The way many of us continue to be
treated sadly demonstrates that for many businesses,
not much has changed in the last twenty years.
Excellent
companies leave nothing to chance, not even the
words that staff use when greeting a customer on
the telephone or in person.
The
key to greeting customers in a retail setting is
to use open ended questions, that is a question
that cannot be answered with a yes or a no. For
example, 'good morning, how may I help you?" or
"welcome to Smith's, how may I help you?"
On
the telephone, things are a little different because
there is no face to face personal contact, so fifty-five
percent of your communication faculties, i.e. body
language, is missing. The best and most efficient
words that I recommend for answering the telephone
are "good morning, ABC Company, this is Graham."
The
reasoning behind this sequence of words is firstly
that it starts with a courteous greeting, secondly,
confirmation that the caller has the right business,
and lastly the name of the person answering the
phone. It is vital that the last word the caller
hears is your name, so please don't add the word
"speaking", or "how may I help you." The reason
for ending with your name is that you want the caller
to remember your name. The chances of this happening
increase many fold if your name is the last word
they hear.
Many
clients vouch for the success of using this format,
particularly in sales organisations (is there any
business not in sales?) where it is desirable to
obtain the name of the caller. You'll be surprised
how willing, most times voluntary, callers are in
providing you with their full details simply because
you have offered your name first.
Make
sure your company greetings happen by choice and
are not just left to chance.
Until
next week, stay true to yourself and your customers,
and remember that great service happens in the moment,
moment by moment.
