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Effective Customer Service Staying in business is all about understanding buyers' needs and wants, keeping them happy, and then developing a loyal client base ("Raving fans"). This is possible if you're customer-focused and concentrate on quality products and services ,great communication, promotion and think strategically, monitor and anticipate client needs and issues, and service them. The key to a successful business is good customer service management. How you deal with your customers can make all the difference to your bottom line. How to attract and keep customers. Often the business's lowest-paid people are the ones who actually meet the customers - they are the business in the eyes of the customer. Make sure they are well trained. Success in business is ultimately determined by the ability to win and then keep customers. Keeping customers means keeping them happy. To do this you must become knowledgeable about the product or service you sell. Initially, your presentation must "delight" them with the product or service range. Once potential customers decide they need what you're selling, you will make a sale. Winning customers and keeping them. It costs between six and ten times as much to gain a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. In order to keep them as customers, you must turn your attention to customer service. Service is often the prime way to keep the customer happy and coming back. But it also means you must learn how to deal with unhappy customers and complaints. Handling these situations well can keep a customer loyal and even turn an unhappy customer around. On average one dissatisfied customer will tell 11 others who on average will tell five others. That's 55 pieces of negative advertising from one disgruntled customer. Sales strategies such as warranties, extreme advertising claims, loss-leading, bait items, incentives and refunds can work to attract more customers. Yet all these strategies need to be handled carefully so as not to disappoint customers, misrepresent your product or make promises that are too hard to keep. Attracting customers One certainty of owning your own business is that, at least in the beginning, you will be the chief salesperson. And why not? Who else knows the product or service as well as you? Who else has such a strong belief in what you're doing? Cast aside any negative notions you might hold about "sales reps" and tackle the job with professional commitment and enthusiasm. Before you actually speak with or visit a potential customer, do your homework. Now is the time to use the mission statement you've prepared. You believe in it, just as you believe your product or service really will make life better for those who use it. These beliefs will enable you to speak honestly and from the heart about your business. They will also help cushion the inevitable rejection that will come from time to time. Take time to review your mission statement and business plan, and to reflect on your goals. Believing in what your business can offer customers is vital, but you must also know your product or service inside out. Think of situations where a customer could use what you're selling and try to imagine the kinds of questions, applications and problems they might encounter. Then work out the answers, both theoretically and by "road testing". If a potential customer asks how the software you've designed for small archives can help them catalogue their collection of early 20th century glass negatives, be able to sit in front of the computer and show them, step-by-step. You should have already completed research to determine your target market. Now is the time to use that information about the marketplace, market trends and your competitors to formulate a comprehensive list of people and organisations to contact. Caring for customers Do you adopt the CARE - Customers Are Really Everything - approach to satisfying customers? A customer is not an unwanted interruption in your day: a customer is someone who wants to put their money in your cash register. CARE is an attitude - you CARE and they can tell. If you do approach business with real CARE, you will start by knowing your product and making sure that your staff do too. This will impress your customers and allow you to respond to queries about products or services with relevant information. Knowing your product will enable you and your staff to educate the customer, and to offer more interesting sales talk without an empty hard sell. The result will be more sales and also more accurate quotes and prices to sell what the customer really wants and needs. To register for our Excellent Customer Service course click info@enterprise.co.ug
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"People love to buy but don't like to be sold to. They're there to buy your product or service - they don't want to keep looking unnecessarily. Sales not only make you happy but can make the customer happy too."
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