The Customer?s Tastebuds Are Always?Right

Another Customer Service Training Article from Ron Kaufman

The Customer?s Tastebuds Are Always Right

When I tasted the Greenwich Pizza ?Garden Delight? in the Philippines, my tastebuds got a shock!

The pizza was covered with sweet tomato sauce and the cheese on top was cheddar.

I?ve been eating pizza all my life. Pizza is made with tangy tomato sauce and should be covered with mozzarella cheese, right? Sweet sauce and cheddar is no way to make a pizza.

Unless you want to sell a lot of pizza in the Philippines.

Greenwich Pizza doesn?t care what pizza is known for in Italy or New York or anywhere else for that matter. Greenwich wants to dominate the Philippine pizza market. As far as they?re concerned, when you are in the Philippines, Philippine tastebuds rule.

If the local market wants sweet, then sweet tomato sauce it is. If local customers prefer cheddar, spread on the cheddar cheese.

Global brands Pizza Hut, Shakeys and Dominos all sell pizza in the Philippines. But local Greenwich is the market leader.

Why? Because Pizza Hut, Shakeys and Dominos all make their pizza to global (not local) pizza standards. With plenty of tangy tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.

Key Learning Point

Question: Who knows best what customers really want? Local businesses or global corporations?

Answer: Neither. The people who know best what customers really want are the customers themselves!

Action Steps

Do you think you already know what?s best for your customers? Or do you really listen to learn what your customers prefer?

How to Be Customer?Unfriendly

Another Customer Service Training Article from Ron Kaufman

One of my favorite airlines committed a customer interface blunder. They changed the automated telephone menu system for reservations, removed the 24-hour fast-access option for frequent flyers, set up the menu so it changes at various times of the day, and put long recorded messages on the system to ?educate? passengers while they wait.

I?ve called this airline many times. My fingers know which buttons to push to get what I need without delay. Now my fingers are lost and my ears are listening to long messages. I am still trying to figure out which menu works at which time of day and which buttons I need to push.

A similar experience took place when WordPerfect introduced ?WordPerfect for Windows? and all the function keys were changed. Long ago, WordPerfect was the word-processing program of choice.

But overnight my loyalty to WordPerfect evaporated. As long as I had to re-learn a whole new set of keystrokes, I might as well learn Microsoft Word. And what happened to WordPerfect? Massive decline in market share. (We all know what?s happening with Microsoft Word, now dominating the word processing arena.)

Key Learning Point

Revolutionary transformation can have great power – but evolutionary change may keep your customers happier and profitably on board.

Action Steps

When you want to make a change or an `upgrade? to your systems, keep your customer?s experience foremost in your mind. Once your customers learn to love you, do all you can to keep them. Don?t throw that love away!

A corporate training strategy is both an objective-based training policy and an integrated practical operational policy. This approach to planning is synthesized from a strategically planned assessment of productivity and corporate needs. This is a critically important process for medium to large corporations. Each phase of corporate training is integrated into the strategic blueprint.

1. The strategic decision process

Strategic planning for corporate training practices is based on a range of measurable parameters. It may include quantified future requirements for productivity in terms of business goals. The decision process is systematic and creative, identifying areas and training needs, and creating an integrated picture of the organization’s needs.

Typical planning may need to include a gamut of types of training. Leadership training, team building, management training, customer service training and performance training are common strategic staff development areas.

Training requirements need to achieve measurable results. Many organizations prefer professional external training methods, because these can be measured at recognized industry standard levels. These types of training initiative are also very beneficial for staff, and act as positive reinforcement in terms of employment values. (Staff invariably respond very well to this type of training, which is valuable in its own right and acts as a true motivation and incentive.)

2. Creating the strategic training policy

A strategic training policy must have:

• Clearly defined goals: Productivity, skills upgrades, process efficiencies, time management, net costs relative to profit, etc. Goals must be defined as working concepts in relation to the corporation’s operations. Goals will set targets for improvements in operations, which is the basis of defining training needs.
• Clear structures: These are organizational contexts of training programs in terms of corporate goals. A business will typically run structured training programs in core operations as a basic strategic approach, and develop its strategies on this basis. Linked to this structure clear expectations also have to be formalised, so that trainees not only understand the goal but also the guidlines for achieving the goal.
• Clear methodologies: This is the phase of planning in which the required form(s) of training and use of budget and resources are decided. A strategic training policy like “All our sales people should receive formal sales training” naturally requires thorough costing, a clear set of priorities for types of training, and time frames for completion.

3. Implementing strategic corporate training

Implementation of corporate training policies involves:

• The selected training organization provides consultation regarding the actual training processes to ensure proper implementation of the training strategy and provision of facilities, scheduling, time frames and other basic requirements.
• A training plan is formulated in accordance with the organization’s goals.
• As part of the training implementation the client organisation’s senior management should be supportive of the entire training process to encourage the buy-in from the participants
• The training program’s progress is periodically reviewed by senior management, to monitor progress and to ensure they are providing the appropriate support.
• The training organization provides feedback to the client in terms of successful completion of goals.
• Final review and evaluation of measurable performance of the training initiative.

The strategic training process is now the preferred training methodology for the world’s major corporations. It ensures training quality, defines corporate goals accurately, and provides cost effective benefits to employers and employees alike. This is the major league standard of training, and it shows.

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A corporate training strategy is both an objective-based training policy and an integrated practical operational policy. This approach to planning is synthesized from a strategically planned assessment of productivity and corporate needs. This is a critically important process for medium to large corporations. Each phase of?corporate training is integrated into the strategic blueprint.

1. The strategic decision process

Strategic planning for corporate training practices is based on a range of measurable parameters. It may include quantified future requirements for productivity in terms of business goals. The decision process is systematic and creative, identifying areas and training needs, and creating an integrated picture of the organization’s needs.

Typical planning may need to include a gamut of types of training. Leadership training, team building, management training, customer service training and performance training are common strategic staff development areas.

Training requirements need to achieve measurable results. Many organizations prefer professional external training methods, because these can be measured at recognized industry standard levels. These types of training initiative are also very beneficial for staff, and act as positive reinforcement in terms of employment values. (Staff invariably respond very well to this type of training, which is valuable in its own right and acts as a true motivation and incentive.)

2. Creating the strategic training policy

A strategic training policy must have:

• Clearly defined goals: Productivity, skills upgrades, process efficiencies, time management, net costs relative to profit, etc. Goals must be defined as working concepts in relation to the corporation’s operations. Goals will set targets for improvements in operations, which is the basis of defining training needs.
• Clear structures: These are organizational contexts of training programs in terms of corporate goals. A business will typically run structured training programs in core operations as a basic strategic approach, and develop its strategies on this basis. Linked to this structure clear expectations also have to be formalised, so that trainees not only understand the goal but also the guidlines for achieving the goal.
• Clear methodologies: This is the phase of planning in which the required form(s) of training and use of budget and resources are decided. A strategic training policy like “All our sales people should receive formal?sales training” naturally requires thorough costing, a clear set of priorities for types of training, and time frames for completion.

3. Implementing strategic corporate training

Implementation of corporate training policies involves:

• The selected training organization provides consultation regarding the actual training processes to ensure proper implementation of the training strategy and provision of facilities, scheduling, time frames and other basic requirements.
• A training plan is formulated in accordance with the organization’s goals.
• As part of the training implementation the client organisation’s senior management should be supportive of the entire training process to encourage the buy-in from the participants
• The training program’s progress is periodically reviewed by senior management, to monitor progress and to ensure they are providing the appropriate support.
• The training organization provides feedback to the client in terms of successful completion of goals.
• Final review and evaluation of measurable performance of the training initiative.

The strategic training process is now the preferred training methodology for the world’s major corporations. It ensures training quality, defines corporate goals accurately, and provides cost effective benefits to employers and employees alike. This is the major league standard of training, and it shows.

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Connect to Your Customers Through Your?Customers

Another Customer Service Training Article from Ron Kaufman

Connect to Your Customers Through Your Customers

We all live and work in a constellation of relationships based on service. You can see this with the customers you serve and the suppliers who serve you. But this is also true with colleagues, employees, managers, family, friends, government agencies and community members.

When you improve service in every direction of your life, you?ll find new ways to connect to your customers, through your customers.

Paul in South Africa explains:

?Passing on supplier benefits to our customers? employees creates a deep-rooted loyalty that is hard to break. We supply fuel to a company with a large fleet of trucks on commercial contract. But we also give the truck drivers a special deal on fuel for their personal cars and on any purchases they make at our convenience stores. This creates brand familiarity and appreciation that are part of their daily lives.?

What a positive and productive idea. But how many suppliers are doing this? Are yours? Are you?

Here?s another example:

Sandy and Savvy enjoy vacations at The Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, Canada. The hotel knows they adore their friendly dog, Tess, and bring her along whenever they visit. Two weeks before a recent vacation, the dog received this letter:

Dear Tess,

It was good to learn you will be bringing your parents to the Wickaninnish Inn. Upon arrival at the Inn there will be some paperwork for one of your parents to complete regarding responsibility for you while at the Inn. Once that is complete and you are settled in your room, the 1.5 mile long Chesterman Beach awaits, and there are many sticks for you to choose from!

Do remember not to chase the birds, as many of them use the beach as a resting and feeding area on their migration route. There is a washing station and towel storage as you leave the beach, where you can rinse off salt water or sandy paws and dry off.

Please be aware that the District of Tofino requires all dogs to be on a leash at all times. This bylaw does include all public beaches including Chesterman Beach. Remind your parents to bring your leash!

A few final points to remember are that we ask you to wear your leash at all times in the common areas of the Inn, and that you never be left unattended in the room unless you have brought your portable house. We do have a couple of houses available at the Inn. Lastly, your parents are paying an additional $20.00 per night for your stay, so treat them kindly and do not make off with their slippers.

We look forward to seeing you at the Inn.

Sincerely,

Crystal @ The Wickaninnish Inn

What a smart letter!

The Wickaninnish Inn serves the ?paying? customer by writing to the ?pawing? customer with all the rules and regulations. Everything is clearly stated, but no one takes offense. In fact, I?ll bet Tess?s tail is wagging (Sandy?s and Savvy?s, too).

Here?s another powerful example: The Prisons Department in Singapore says: ?Our mission in life is to get criminals out of prison.

?To help prisoners rehab, renew, restart and not return, the department manages a holistic program of in-care and after-care service. The Prisons Department connects to each ex-offender by connecting through the police, courts, family members, friends, neighbors, volunteers, employers and society at large.

Question: Who is the customer?

Answer: Everyone.

Key Learning Point

Connecting with your customers can include much more than just direct contact. The people in your customers? lives could be people you serve, too.

Action Steps

Draw a bicycle wheel with your customers in the center. Put key people (and pets!) in your customers? lives on each of the connecting spokes.

Now find new ways to serve those ?connected people? better. Ask them what you might do to help, add value or simply make things easier. Check with your customers, too. Remember, each time you connect through your customers, you also connect to your customers.

Is the customer really