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5 Tips for Providing Great Customer Service in 2017

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Great customer service is the lifeblood of any business. The goal of great customer service is all about providing a trusted and positive customer experience and ensuring they are happy and confident in their choice.  They say a good salesperson has the ability to sell anything to anyone at least once. However, the customer service provided CAN be that significant differentiator and determine if they continue to be a client.  By delivering a positive and trusted customer experience, you can not only increase the likelihood of up-selling opportunities, but also ensure your client will recommend you to others.  The essence of great customer service is forming a solid and trusted relationship with your clients.

#1 – First Impression

Ensure that every one of your customer facing associates are capable of making a good first impression. First opinions are formed within the first 10 seconds of meeting someone new. Being on time, prepared, being yourself and presenting yourself appropriately are all important traits that will affect that first impression.  You never have a second opportunity to make a warm and welcoming first impression.

#2 – Provide Timely Responses

Customer support response times can dictate how a client perceives your company and can affect the overall customer experience.  Keeping your clients informed in a timely manner by answering your phone and responding to emails within a reasonable time-frame are essential to great customer service.

#3 – Listen to Your Clients

There is nothing more exasperating for a customer than to communicate and explain things multiple times because you truly aren’t listening.  This can definitely have a negative effect on the overall customer experience.  It is imperative to always pay attention and REALLY hear what your customer is saying.  Let your client talk and show them that you are listening by reiterating what they’ve said and suggesting how to solve their specific problem.

#4 – Deliver a WOW Experience

A WOW experience is delivered by combining empathy and a true understanding of what your client is facing — and then identifying and resolving that challenge.  The best way to understand your customer is to look through the “lens of the customer”.  But be careful to not promise anything unless you are able to follow through with that promise. Being prompt and taking the extra steps goes a long way in showing your clients you care.

#5 – Show appreciation to your customers.

Thanking customers in a meaningful and thoughtful manner on every customer encounter shows clients you care and appreciate their business.  Showing our appreciation via a thank you note after a meeting, a “thank you” gift at Christmas, birthday greetings, taking a client to lunch or inviting them as your guest to a special function, etc.  The key to customer loyalty can be embodied in two simple words: “Thank you”.

Providing great customer service is integral to any successful business. It is about doing the right thing to the best of your ability and being that trusted adviser.  Taking care of your customers creates a trusted positive customer experience and helps encourage them to continue buying from your business through good times and bad.

Mitch Gipp is an experienced Client Engagement Manager who has worked in the telecom industry for over 22 years. For more information on Mitch’s tips, or if you have any comments or questions related to this post, please contact him at mgipp@renodis.com.

 

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3 Strategic Reasons Why You Should Use Managed Services for Communications

Communications (historically referred to as telecommunications) is a term that has taken a new spin as it now refers to converged voice and data networks as well as mobility. For IT leaders, it is a layer of IT that is critical to the business, much like keeping the lights on, but very difficult and time consuming to manage. Not to mention, expensive.

Many IT leaders are using a managed services approach for different areas of IT. Strategic IT leaders use third party providers for various commodity-based work including help desk support, collocation/hosting, data center, and network support. Communications is another area of IT that is considered commodity-based. Why should you use a managed services approach to communications? Here are three strategic reasons why.

Strategic Reason #1: Don’t be an empire builder!

Yes, you need internal resources to manage certain aspects of IT. But building an IT team to focus on commodity based, tactical areas of the business is a waste of talent and money. Many leaders redeploy highly skilled network staff on critical competencies (engaging with business leaders, learning about solving business challenges, business architecture, security, and customers).

Managed services for communications eliminates the need to use highly skilled and expensive staff to manage a tactical layer of IT. And the best managed service firms leverage built-for-purpose systems to manage their cost of services, systems that a normal IT shop can’t hope to fund. That means those firms can run your environment with a solid ROI back to you.

Strategic Reason #2: Managing communications is not strategic

Communications is a necessary aspect of your business, critical to daily function. However, the daily management of voice networks, data networks, and mobility is not a core part of your business. Do you really want highly skilled network engineers and administrators negotiating with carriers, handling repair issues and network outages, managing vendor relationships, handling basic Move / Add / Change / Disconnect work, procuring voice and data network services, taking mobility repair calls, and looking at invoices every month? The answer should be NO.

Strategic Reason #3: So many other great things to focus on…cloud, security, app dev

The truth is — IT organizations are ridiculously busy and have far too many important initiatives to focus on. Today’s top CIOs focus on identifying how enterprise technology can enhance the business from a strategic perspective. Technology brings exciting changes to the IT world. The emergence of cloud, IoT, mobility, applications, and security challenges far outweigh managing tactical and commodity based work like communications.

By working with business leaders and customers to identify their challenges and provide technology solutions, CIOs are now taking an active part in moving their business forward – often in ways they have never have been able to do before!

Ryan Carter specializes in working with thought-leading, strategically-targeted IT executives to help them achieve an increased focus on business-impacting technology, business transformation, reduced operating costs, and IT productivity. Ryan provides thought leadership and various areas of expertise for Communications Managed Services including telecommunications expense management, mobility managed services, technology road-mapping, network design, business continuity, vendor management, and user support.

For more information on driving IT performance and improving business outcomes, or if you have any comments or questions related to this post, please contact him at rcarter@renodis.com.

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