. Cheryl Crumb & Associates .

Customers for Keeps

Background Situation

Employees in the Customer Service area were new to the company and the role. There were also individuals from Pricing, Materials, Purchasing, and Engineering who were critical to the success of the customer experience. Business challenges included a shrinking customer base as business eroded to Asia. Customer scorecard results showed the organization to have the lowest score in years. In this era where customers were saying, “free/perfect/now” in response to price/quality/delivery questions, the entire organization needed the skills and practices associated with service excellence. The voice of the customer was saying: “You’re slow to react; You’re big and hard to deal with; you’re not clear on what you make; you don’t look like a team; you’re not communicating with us; you’re not looking for what you can do but telling us what you can’t do; and, we have to talk to a big title to get service.”

The Goal

Be seen as a business partner that provides powerful offers to customers
Provide a consistently high level of service for every customer
Leverage service and a delighting customer experience as a way to increase business
Tackle the illusion of employees waiting for the “Magic of Economic Recovery” and address the reality of “The World as It Is”
Increase employee partnering together for the sake of customer
Shift from reactive to proactive responses
View every service interaction as an opportunity to build customer loyalty

Learning Objectives

Through discussions, exercises, role-plays, case studies and analysis of real-life customers, participants improved their understanding and skills in the following areas:

Becoming “easy to do business with”
Building trust
Utilizing the four stages of the Customer Relationship Diamond (hosting, understanding, assisting and keeping customers)
Managing commitments made to customers
Conducting exceptional conversations through skilled verbal, vocal and non-verbal communication usage
Improving questioning and listening skills to better understand what was important to customers
Proactively creating powerful offers
Managing mood to positively influence customer contact
Managing customer complaints and confrontations

Learning Process

Prior to training, Cheryl conducted extensive interviews with this organization’s customers to get the “voice of the customer” into the training program. An anonymous report of the customer’s comments was provided to trainees. Five half-day sessions allowed participants to attend training and still be available to service customers. In daily “homework assignments” participants tracked observations and behaviours and noted growth and challenges.

Length

5 half day sessions




		Customers for Keeps Background Situation Employees in the Customer Service area were new to the company and the role. There were also individuals from Pricing, Materials, Purchasing, and Engineering who were critical to the success of the customer experience. Business challenges included a shrinking customer base as business eroded to Asia. Customer scorecard results showed the organization to have the lowest score in years. In this era where customers were saying, “free/perfect/now” in response to price/quality/delivery questions, the entire organization needed the skills and practices associated with service excellence. The voice of the customer was saying: “You’re slow to react; You’re big and hard to deal with; you’re not clear on what you make; you don’t look like a team; you’re not communicating with us; you’re not looking for what you can do but telling us what you can’t do; and, we have to talk to a big title to get service.” The Goal Be seen as a business partner that provides powerful offers to customers Provide a consistently high level of service for every customer Leverage service and a delighting customer experience as a way to increase business Tackle the illusion of employees waiting for the “Magic of Economic Recovery” and address the reality of “The World as It Is” Increase employee partnering together for the sake of customer Shift from reactive to proactive responses View every service interaction as an opportunity to build customer loyalty Learning Objectives Through discussions, exercises, role-plays, case studies and analysis of real-life customers, participants improved their understanding and skills in the following areas: Becoming “easy to do business with” Building trust Utilizing the four stages of the Customer Relationship Diamond (hosting, understanding, assisting and keeping customers) Managing commitments made to customers Conducting exceptional conversations through skilled verbal, vocal and non-verbal communication usage Improving questioning and listening skills to better understand what was important to customers Proactively creating powerful offers Managing mood to positively influence customer contact Managing customer complaints and confrontations Learning Process Prior to training, Cheryl conducted extensive interviews with this organization’s customers to get the “voice of the customer” into the training program. An anonymous report of the customer’s comments was provided to trainees. Five half-day sessions allowed participants to attend training and still be available to service customers. In daily “homework assignments” participants tracked observations and behaviours and noted growth and challenges. Length 5 half day sessions