Service

Service:
The most important tool in your marketing plan is service.

Begin by being more customer service oriented towards your employees—help them learn first by example and second by training, then apply this to your customer interactions. You will find that you lose yourself in this endeavor and your attitude will be more positive and contagious.

The result will be more sales from your current customers and more referrals from them too.



Taken from the guide: How to Get Your Employees to Work Harder and Love Doing It! by Daniel Felsted

Your Customers Have Questions…

Strategy 13: Your Customers Have Questions… Do You Answer Them In The Way They Want Them Answered?

Your customers have questions. A certain percentage of your customers don't like to ask you questions. They prefer to answer their own questions. You can take advantage of this with a better understanding co-production.

Guide customers to areas where they can have their questions answered. Co-production is getting customers to provide part of the workload. So whenever you can have them answer their own questions you save man-hours and can help more customers at any given time while letting some of your customers help themselves just like they want to.

Many catalogers do this with callouts throughout their catalog. You can apply this to cover a broad area of topics. Refer to articles, recommend books, maps, links to areas on and off your site or in and out of your town. The goal is to provide relevant materials to your customer base that helps them buy and use your products and services.

Examples of Have a Question
Amazon.com does a good job of recommending relevant materials. To do this in your shop create posters that say, “Visit our ‘how-to’ section at the end of the aisle.” or on your website, “Visit our recommended resources section—click here.” You can also use this information as an approach when a sales rep approaches a customer. “If you have any questions, my name is Dana, feel free to ask me or you can use our reference center found at the end of each aisle.”

For one client we created documents that answer the questions they are asked over and over again. The document is available to all customers. Many read it and find the answers they are looking for before they make a purchase.

For another client, we are making in-store materials that explain all of the services they offer. The plan is to have 6-8 different brochures that customers can read at their leisure to better educate themselves of the services our client offers. This is an inexpensive way to inform your customer, plant seeds, and strengthen relationships with them.

From the book Benchmarked: What the best of the best do to keep customers coming. Find out more about The Image Foundry at IFmarketing.com

Get Your Customers To Product For You!

Your customers have questions. A certain percentage of your customers don't like to ask you questions. They prefer to answer their own questions. You can take advantage of this by better understanding co-production.

Have a Question?
Guide customers to areas where they can have their questions answered. Co-production is getting customers to provide part of the workload. So whenever you can have them answer their own questions you save man-hours and can help more customers at any given time.

Many catalogers do this with callouts throughout their catalog. You can apply this to cover a broad area of topics. Refer to articles, recommend books, maps, links to areas on and off your site or in and out of your town. The goal is to provide relevant materials to your customer base that help them buy and use your products and services.

Examples of Have a Question
Amazon.com does a good job of recommending relevant materials. To do this in your shop create posters that say, “Visit our ‘how-to’ section at the end of the aisle.” or “Visit our recommended resources section—click here.” You can also use this information as an approach when a sales rep approaches a customer. “If you have any questions, my name is Dana, feel free to ask me or you can use our reference center found at the end of each aisle.”

Improve Dress Code
Require your employees look the part of the professional assistant that they are. Your image is very important to how your customer perceive you and your product. When you look top notch, you will act it and your customer will think of you as a resource.

Making Your Customers More Valuable

Add a Suggestion Box
Encourage your customers to use it. Inform them that they are valued customers, and their satisfaction is important to you. Invite them to tell you how you can serve them better.

Consider rewarding them for taking the time to share their experiences with you.

What Should You Ask In An Initial Interview?

Hiring – Key elements to discover
1. Initiative
2. Ingenuity
3. Allegiance
4. Integrity
5. Commitment
6. Passion
7. Impact 

Anyone with these skills will be able to make an impact on your business for the better. Those without will simply come to work more or less on time.

When you interview someone these are the initial and key points to learn — these are the skills that leaders have. And these are the key skills that our public school system methodically eliminates from our natural beings in an effort to socialize us to be obedient workers.

Ask question to discover answers to these points. They should be the basis of whether or not you should hire someone.Furthermore you should put content like this on your website to be the first screen in the hiring process. You will attract better qualified candidates when you make your intentions known.

To Succeed Teach Your Employees To Serve

Service
This is the second most important skill to teach your employees!

“The customer just wants to be treated as a person.”2 This applies to coworkers too. Service is the most powerful marketing tool you can learn. With service, you can win hearts, soften anger, create friendships, sell more, and most of all, you can learn about yourself and how much you can really do.

If you really want to take advantage of the great tool of service, begin by being more service-oriented toward your families, friends and acquaintances. You will find that when you lose yourself in this endeavor, your attitude will be more positive and contagious.

It is a fact that when we serve others, we forget about our problems and our outlook on life becomes more positive. Psychologists have long known and used service to help abused and addicted people forget their troubles. As they think about and work with others, their own problems are forgotten and they’re on their way to being healed.

By incorporating these principles into your daily life, you will be fostering a positive workplace and be primed in creating a learning and teaching environment. When you are in this type of environment you will be more receptive to the needs of your customers. And when you help your coworkers think of your customers, you create the perfect environment for customers to seek your expertise, your assistance, and most importantly, your products or services.

Your customers are your partners in business. Treat them as valued members of your family by serving them in the best way possible. The real secret of business success is customer retention. Developing lasting relationships is vital to your long-term success.

Consider This
One of the most valuable possessions you truly have to give is service.

One way to serve others is to volunteer in your community. There are many deserving organizations that desperately need your help. There are schools, hospitals, scouts, charitable organizations, churches and even neighbors that would welcome the service you can volunteer. Time, skills, knowledge, connections and money are ways you can help others.

Look for ways you can make a difference… by helping others.

“The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.” —Heda Bejar

Answer These Questions
What types of service do you receive in a given week?
What types of service do you give in a given week?

The answers to these questions will tell you what kind of response to expect from your marketing materials!