June 15, 2017
Customer Management in 60 Seconds! A quick guide ….
- Know who ALL your customers are – those outside the company who buy your products and services and colleagues who help to produce or deliver them. You can’t manage the one without the co-operation of the other.
- Successful managers are emotionally intelligent – knowing their own strengths/ weaknesses; able to keep control of their emotions; and socially skilled to ‘read’ customers and colleagues to bring out the best in both.
- Retain the human touch – making eye-contact, coming across verbally on the phone or expressing yourself clearly in writing – are all increasingly important in retaining customers. Loyalty works on a personal basis.
- Be assertive with others and speak with integrity – always be clear about what you want and how you see things, while respecting others. Less time and energy is used in telling the truth than covering up poor performance.
- Customer complaints need not be feared – it is how you deal with them that counts – establish the facts openly, deal promptly with the issues raised and use what you learn to get it right first time, next time. Make sure you find customer complaints before your competitors do.
