Coach’s Challenge for August 29, 2004

Hi Team,

The coach’s challenge for the week is to try to create an extraordinary experience for your customers. I don’t just mean your external customers; I mean anyone you serve at any time during the day. If you’re a manager, it may be one of your supervisors; if you’re a supervisor, it might be your lead, or one of your team members. Maybe it’s someone else within your organization that you’re on a conference call with, or an outside vendor. From one angle, we’re all in the sales and service business and everyone external to us is a customer sooner or later. The ultimate goal is to surpass the customer’s expectations so that they feel that they are your most important customer of the day. Here are some tips for creating an extraordinary experience:

Know your customer. Take the time to know who they are and what’s important to them by actively listening, engaging and responding.

Be convenient to do business with. You can have the best service in the world but if your customer isn’t getting what they need, it doesn’t mean anything. Make sure you’re accessible.

Reinforce everyone in your organization who is customer focused. It’s a lot more fun to do this together as a team.

Train and perform with an emphasis on quality.

Here are some quality tips:

* Set the right tone

* Be alert to behavioral style tendencies

* Demonstrate necessary empathy

* Act like a consultant not an order taker

* Demonstrate genuine courtesy and friendliness

* Utilize proper problem resolution practices to find win/win solutions

* Be efficient in delivering on promises

* Always close on a positive note. Remember, it’s the sizzle, not the steak that sells. Enthusiasm is everything.

Have a great week,

Kathleen