It always motivates the employees when you give them fun incentives to giving better customer service. It doesn t have to be something that is going to be overly expensive for the company.Example: Maybe have a little bbq or party quarterly/monthly for the people that have good customer service reviews. Or even give away silly prizes like $5 to Starbucks.Little, silly incentives can go a long way for people. It makes it more like a competition for the employee and is more likely to motivate them.
Simple:Staff that seem down to earth always seem to be the best with customers. So not only knowing the products and being able to help customers, but also not being false and robot-like (we can tell they are just doing their job in a robot like-way). It s nice when a staff chats in a normal down to earth way, as he s helping you or walking across the store with you to something etc. This can t be trained - it is only be hiring people that are naturally like this with people; People -skills.
I can t bear it when the staff say hello to me. What I want is for someone to be available to serve me and to have good product knowledge. I get very cross when I see staff standing talking to each other and often overhear them talking about personal matters. It doesn t matter whether it s sales assistants or shelf stockers, it s inappropriate.
Tie their raises into customer satisfaction. Saying hello won t do it. Making sure there are enough properly trained people will. Have comment cards printed up and give bonuses or paid days off when employees are praised.
Saying hello to customers is not customer service, it s just being polite - it s also really irritating.Customer service is about meeting the needs of the customers, so make sure that staff are easily recognizable and always around to answer questions or queries - there s nothing worse than having to wander round a store looking for an assistant.Make sure that all your staff know the layout of the store and what products you sell, so that they can always answer questions. If a customer wants to know where a certain item is, get the staff member to take them to it rather than just pointing in the vague general direction. If a customer wants a product but can t find it in your store they will go and buy it elsewhere.Tell your staff that if a customer asks a question that they can t answer, then the reply should be I m sorry, I don t know the answer, but I shall go and find someone who does . Never say sorry I don t know and leave it at that - that isn t an answer. Always deal with it.If a customer has a problem or complaint, make sure that they are passed to someone who can and will deal with it - they should not have to relate the same story over and over to a string of different people who keep passing them on to someone else.Make sure that checkouts are well-manned at busy periods.Never allow your staff to chit-chat to each other whilst on the checkout: the customer is entitled to have the full attention of the staff member they are dealing with, and really isn t interested in where their boyfriend took them last night!It s all just common sense and making a customer feel valued.
