Engage – The Customer Service Experience

To truly add value to your customers there is need to constantly engage with them in conversation so that you fully understand how they want to be served.  The concept of customer experience management has gained momentum in recent years and calls for the need to develop close relationships with customers. In this article I am going to draw your attention on a concept that I term Engage. I will look at questions such as: what is to engage? How does one engage with customers? What are the benefits to be reaped from engaging with our customers? Please read on as I take a closer look at each of these questions to get an insight into the process of engage.

What is to Engage?

The word engages is derived from the Anglo – French word engager. According to http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/engage the English word engage means to occupy the attention or efforts of a person or persons. Used in a sentence you might say, “He engaged him in conversation.” It might also mean to attract and hold fast, to bind, as by pledge, promise, contract, or oath. Two lovebirds who have committed to get married are said to be engaged.

From the definition proffered above one has to occupy the customer’s attention and keep it focused on your products or services. They should not be distracted by your competitors’ products at all – never.

How Does One Engage With Customers?

There are various ways to engage with customers. I am just focussing on 5 simple ways that you can try today. 

1.       Learn customer’s name – when a customer walks into your premise make it a point to ask them their name. Engage in conversation with them and start addressing them by name. This makes the customer feel that they are important to you and the psychology of it is that there is no better sweet melody in anyone’s ear than their name being used in conversation. 

How to do it?

 

Introduce yourself by name first and ask them for their name. In this cold winter season you might use the weather as an ice breaker and carry on from there.

“When two Englishmen meet for the first time they talk about the weather.”

English Proverb

2.       Remember something about your customer – make it a point to remember something unique about each and every customer that walks into your business. If the same customer comes into the shop tomorrow and approach you, will you remember that you dealt with them yesterday? Customers whom you have given exceptional service want to come back and be served by the same person. Do not disappoint them by not recognising them! Everyone appreciates an employee with a good memory. This shows your customers that you value your relationship with them. No one wants to continuously be treated as a stranger in a place they are familiar with. 

How to do it?

 “Hi my name is Sharon and I remember you were here last week.............., it is a pleasure to have you back how can I be of assistance today?”

3.       Keep a record of the customers with unique needs – take down their details and make a follow up with them when the day ends. Everyone should make it their aim to call at least one customer that they served during the day and enquire on their experience using your products.

How to do it?

“Good evening Mr Tevez my name is Mike I served you in the afternoon when you bought an ipad from Finesse Electricals. I would like to know whether you got a chance to use it and how you finding it?”

NB: if you have any tips to provide kindly offer them at this point.

4.       Supervisor calls yesterday’s customers today – at the end of each day everyone submits details of at least 2 unique customers to their supervisor and made them unique as customers. They supply details of nature of transaction and what they observed. The next day the supervisor calls these customers and asks how their customer service experience was yesterday. The supervisor gets this vital feedback and shares with their team in morning briefings.

How to do it?

 “Good day Mrs Murray my name is Joyce and I am the supervisor for Finesse Electricals shop. Yesterday you visited our shop for a laptop and we value our customers and their feedback so that we can continuously serve you the way you like. I would like to enquire how you found the service that was provided by our consultant (ask them if they remember the consultant’s name). Do you have any areas that you feel we should improve on?”

 5.       Use customer feedback form – have customer feedback forms in a location easily accessible to your customers. Encourage them to give you feedback. Seek clarifications on areas that you did not understand on their feedback and adjust your service accordingly.

How to do it?

 “Good day Brian my name is Tom I am the supervisor for Finesse Electricals shop. Yesterday you visited our shop and you filled in a customer feedback form. I personally am interested in the feedback from our customers as it aids us to continuously improve our service and serve you the way you like. I truly appreciate your feedback and will use it to help us improve on our service. The next time you visit our shop again please feel free to provide us more feedback to help us get better each day.”

What Are The Benefits?

·         Delighted customers.

·         Timely feedback from customers.

·         Building relationships with customers.

·         Knowing how customers want to be served.

·         Continuous improvement process. 

These are just a few anecdotes that we can all work with to engage our customers and get better in our service.  Enjoy the ride and engage, engage and engage your customers.