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Customer Satisfaction Consulting .com
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How to Increase Sales
Yes, you have to have marketing and advertising. Yes, you have to have a sales
force. However, the one item that is more important than any of these is good customer
service. Customer service is everything. While shopping last weekend, I noticed a surprising
occurrence. Several customers placed the items they had carefully chosen down,
and left the store. There were several reasons for their actions, first there were
only three registers opened, second, each register had more than five people standing
in line, and third two managers were standing with their hands clasped behind their
backs as if nothing was wrong with this picture. What truly surprised me was that none of these customers took one of the customer
surveys located at the register. When after fifteen minutes of waiting in line,
it was my turn; I paid for the items I had, and took a survey. The first question
on the survey was, "How long did I have to wait in line"? Retailers who demonstrate good customer service will utilize other staff members
when registers back up during heavy periods. This reduced the amount of time their
customers have to wait in line as well as the cost of having extra cashiers with
nothing to do during slow periods. The bottom line is that you don't want to lose
a customer simply because they grew tired of waiting to pay for their merchandise. Another example of poor customer service occurred when I decided to purchase a plasma
HDTV. After shopping around for the best price of the brand that I wanted, I contacted
the store. They were sold out of the brand and model that I wanted, however if
I would come in and complete some paperwork they would be more than happy to order
one for me at no extra cost. This sounded like a good deal, however when I finally
arrived at the store that day, I was told that the person who I had spoken with
had gone home and that they were the only one who could help me. I would have to
come back tomorrow. The next day I returned to the store, spoke with the salesperson
and filled out the paperwork, which consisted of my name, address, and phone number.
Why this information could not have been collected over the phone, I do not know.
After three weeks of not hearing from the store, I called them, only to be informed
that they had lost my paper work and I would have to return to the store to fill
it out again. At this point, I decided that the store did not appreciate me as
a customer, and therefore, I would shop elsewhere. This brought up the question of how difficult is it to demonstrate good customer
service.
As if by magic, my question was answered. Good customer service is very easy to
demonstrate when you have employees as well as management who believe in the corporate
brand. This point was made clear to me as I again attempted to purchase a plasma
HDTV. One of the initial stores I had contacted had taken my name and phone number
and had called me back. This particular brand of store is a national brand that
was new to our area. Even though I had seen their commercials, I had not shopped
with them. The salesperson asked if I had purchased the television I had inquired,
when I said no, the salesperson then processed to inform me that their store had
several brands and models that I might be interested in seeing. During the course of our conversation, the salesperson was polite, taking the time
to answer all of my questions. At the end of our conversation, the salesperson
asked if I would mind being placed on hold for a few seconds, approximately a minute
later another voice came over the phone and identified themselves as the store manager.
Though they could not offer me the same price as I was originally going to pay at
the other store, the manager was willing to offer me free delivery and set-up of
the television along with a free three-year maintenance agreement. It is important
for you to realize that I did not ask for these perks, nor had I said at any time,
that I would not make my purchase from them. However, because this national store
took it upon themselves to demonstrated good customer service, and were willing
to do a little extra to acquire me as their customer, I did purchased my television
from them, simple because they demonstrated good customer service. In order to increase sales, companies must think outside the box. They must start
putting their customers first and stop doing things simply because that's how it's
been done in the past. When business, companies, and organizations start demonstrating
good customer service, customers will start doing more business with those companies,
businesses, and organizations. Good customer service will increase your sales -
Guaranteed.
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