Today’s customer service lesson is all about knowledge. Knowledge is one of the key essential characteristics of outstanding customer service. I present to you a few cases in which knowledge can make or break a sale... Case #1
We have so many choices nowadays. When you walk into a store to purchase something, there are usually a few products that can fulfill your needs. But which one to choose? A knowledgeable customer service rep will usually be the one to guide you in making the right choice. However, these days it’s a challenge to find anybody to help you, much less anybody who is knowledgeable. People are sold on the benefits that a product has, so if you don’t know those benefits, well, it’s most likely that you’ll lose the sale.
Case #2
Do you have a company where each rep has their own opinion as to what to do in a given situation? For instance, a customer comes into your watch store with a problem - they need a new part for their watch. One person doesn‘t know if they carry parts and when they go to ask someone else, that other person says no. Well, come to find out, they don’t even do watch repairs anymore. All this asking around has wasted 10 minutes of the customer’s time. Why weren’t these people on the same page?
Of course, case #2 very simple example, but imagine if it was a customer who was given the run-around on the phone? Oh, I don’t know, let me ask somebody....The customer is put on hold for ten minutes...then gets passed on to somebody else...who then gives the customer a wrong answer.
Part of having knowledgeable customer service reps is taking the time to train them thoroughly on company products and procedures. This may also mean retraining your reps who have been around for awhile to make sure that they’re up-to-date with information. For some managers, this may seem like a waste of time, but you’d be surprised how many customers you lose because someone in your company doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
For a great blog on sales, check out SalesMotivation.net
» The Single, Most Effective Way to Increase Customer Satisfaction from CustomersAreAlways
Remember yesterday when I talked about how knowledge is important when you work in customer service? Well, today I came across this article over at Knowledge at Wharton…A 17 month study was conducted in a large retail store where it... [Read More]
Tracked on: April 5, 2007 12:49 PM | Permalink to Trackback