Putting the “Service” Back in “Customer Service”

by: pianopl123

The future of customer service is here. Technology has made seeking out support faster and easier than ever. But, has your digital age company sacrificed true service in the name of automation?

Today, finding customer support is as simple as writing an e-mail or picking up the phone. But, even though you’re not face-to-face with your customers, you still leave a lasting impression. Do you come across as caring and competent, or menacing and mechanical?

Offering stand-out service on the Internet isn’t as hard as it is rare. Take these simple steps towards old-style service in the digital age:

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

Sales Games- From Call Center Games

Here is a selection from our product “Call Center Games“. This booklet contains over 100 activities to use with your teams to drive sales, motivate performance, and just have some fun as a team. Learn more about the complete product by visiting http://motivators.righttolead.com/.

Description: Prior to the shift the supervisor prepares 10 – 15 3×5” cards which have the same value (i.e., dress- down pass, extra 5 minutes at break, summer dress- down pass, etc.).The cards are kept in a container on the supervisor’s desk. At some time in the shift, the supervisor announces that for every sale in the next 10 minutes, the representatives will select a card from the container on the supervisor’s desk.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

Sales Calls – Use Your Time Wisely

by Joshua Feinberg

Sales calls are an art form. Many new IT Consultants have never had to sell anything before. For the uninitiated, sales calls are intimidating. By gaining the right perspective about a sales call and understanding the possible outcomes, you are on your way to becoming a sales call expert.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

7 Ways to Cut Loose from Old Sales Thinking

By: Ari Galper

Sooner or later, we all backslide into old ways of thinking about selling that lead us down the wrong path with potential clients.

A few weeks ago, I had a phone conversation with Julie, who has been struggling with the old-style selling methods that her manager insists are the only way to sell their company’s technology solution.

Regardless of what product or service you’re selling, you should be able to relate to her dilemma.

Outdated sales skills fail to address the core issue of how we think about selling and unless we get to that core and change it once and for all, we’ll go on struggling with the same counterproductive sales behaviors.

And we’ll continue believing that we’re always just one new sales technique away from the breakthrough we’re looking for.

New Thinking = New Results

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

Customer Retention Team Development

By Diana Liffick

Handling account cancellation calls goes by many names.  Whether you call it simply “Cancellations” or “Customer Saves” or “Membership Retention”, it’s all the same thing:  bad news.

Here are some pointers to give your team to help turn bad news into good news more often every day.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

Asking for the Sale!

By Mike Dandridge

DID I ASK YOU?

The world belongs to the askers. – Brian Tracy

“I’M going to read aloud the names on your customer account list and then I’m going to ask you some questions about each one. I’ll probably be stepping on your toes a little bit. Are you ready?”

“Sure,” I said. I was in the office of my manager, Bill Smith. He’d hired me from a competitor, given me an outside sales position and expected immediate results. I’d been with the company three months without much to show for it and Bill was getting a little impatient for me to perform. Hence, the heart-to-heart talk we were having to shed some light on my lackluster performance.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

Really WINNING Over Customers

By Diana Liffick

Three qualities are needed to sell anything in life.  They are:

1.   STRENGTH.

2.   EMOTION.

3.   CONFIDENCE.

If you are in sales or taking customer cancellation calls, exercising these three qualities well can help you be more successful.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

Sales Techniques- Turning Sales Techniques Into Sales Success!

By Virden Thornton

The goal of all sales training is not just to teach solid selling principles and techniques, but to actually help participants increase the number of new accounts (products and/or services) they sell and improve their multiple sales ratios. Unfortunately, many sales and service industry professionals gain an intellectual awareness of the methods of selling from the sales training they receive, yet fail to improve their bottom line sales results by systematically using the concepts in their daily transactions. See my article, The Processionary Caterpillar Syndrome Costs You Sales?

There are a number of methods you can use to move beyond an intellectual awareness of sound sales techniques. By applying some of these ideas, you can begin to see a steady improvement in the number and scope of your sales transactions. These concepts can help any sales professional drill-for-skill the vital selling principles needed to become a sales leader. Really all it takes to be successful in sales is just a little practice and perseverance.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

Difficult Customers

Difficult Customers – There’s No Such Thing

By Alan Fairweather

A couple of years ago I had a call from a Customer Service Manager working in the paper industry. He wanted me to run a seminar for his team, on “How to Deal with Difficult Customers”.

I had several telephone conversations with this manager organizing dates, times and getting to understand his business. If I was to describe his style on the telephone I would use words like, businesslike, cold, curt and somewhat impatient. I started to realize that if I was one of his customers then I might have been a bit “difficult”. He certainly knew his business and I don’t think he was a bad person but warm and friendly – forget it.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

Do You Train’em or Brain’em? (The article continued)

Training Case Study – Training with a Twist of Humor

At RMH Teleservices one of the distinguishing differentiators of our call center company from the very start was the training we provided to our call center representatives. Back in the 70’s and 80’s it was fairly common for call center managers to train new personnel by simply handing out a script and pointing to a desk with a phone.

In addition to a conversation guide/script reps may have received training on the products and the companies they represented so they could answer common questions that were anticipated. Contrary to this approach and based on our experience managing various corporate training functions, my partner and I created a soft skills training program that included skills like listening, questioning, and presenting features and benefits.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

Next Page »