Appraisal is Too Late - Teri's Tip #48

The system most businesses use to check their work is after-the-fact, after the output has been completed or delivered.  That's too late!  When the customer finds the error and complains, it costs you 10 times more than if you had caught the error at the beginning of your process.

Prevention means taking the time upfront to look at your process and test to see if it is capable of delivering the promised output every time.  This could be a meal, a tooth cleaning, an answered customer phone call, a paint job, etc.  Prevention on a new process means brainstorming what are all the opportunities for error that could occur in the process and how could they be avoided.

Appraisal is just a fix and requires rework that costs time and money.  Prevention pays in the long-term!

www.retainloyalcustomers.com
Teri Yanovitch is a leading speaker, trainer and consultant on creating a culture of customer service within an organization. Her firm T.A.Yanovitch, Inc. provides a clear and proven process on how to create this culture of service and helps guide organizations to ensure their success. Through her presentations, workshops and training, Teri has assisted organizations from all industries to differentiate their business through the competitive edge of the customer experience.

Contact Teri at ty@retainloyalcustomers.com
Her highly acclaimed book Unleashing Excellence – The Complete Guide to " Ultimate Customer Service" has sold over 32,000 books and is recognized as a practical, hands-on approach to providing a seamless extraordinary service experience to retain customers and employees. Contact Teri at
ty@retainloyalcustomers.com for your next speaking engagement or for a copy of her book.

Deadline Dodgers - Teri's Tip #39

There are some people who consistently never complete their tasks on-time.  This holds everyone else up and creates discontent among those who are waiting for the work of this person in order to do their job.  Management's action must be to determine why the person is chronically missing the deadlines:  is it lack of urgency and giving it their all or are they overburdened and incapable of completing all their assigned work?

Quality is conformance to requirements and deadlines are a requirement.  Action:  Sit down with the deadline dodger, together set realistic requirements, get agreement to the requirements, make sure the process is capable of meeting the requirements, and then hold the individual accountable. 

Excellent customer service starts with Quality.

http://www.retainloyalcustomers.com/

Teri Yanovitch is a leading speaker, trainer and consultant on creating a culture of customer service within an organization. Her firm T.A.Yanovitch, Inc. provides a clear and proven process on how to create this culture of service and helps guide organizations to ensure their success. Through her presentations, workshops and training, Teri has assisted organizations from all industries to differentiate their business through the competitive edge of the customer experience.


Contact Teri at ty@retainloyalcustomers.com

Her highly acclaimed book Unleashing Excellence – The Complete Guide to “ Ultimate Customer Service” has sold over 32,000 books and is recognized as a practical, hands-on approach to providing a seamless extraordinary service experience to retain customers and employees. Contact Teri at ty@retainloyalcustomers.com for your next speaking engagement or for a copy of her book.

Blame Game - Teri's Tip #32

When things go wrong, what is the typical first question that is posed?  "Who screwed up?"  Pointing fingers is a big mistake.  It only causes people to become defensive, protect their territory and take you longer to get at the root cause of what is causing the problem.

Therefore, when things go wrong, ask the question "what went wrong in the process?"  80% of the time, the problem is within the process and only 20% of the time is it a person who is at fault.  What this creates is a culture of continuous improvement.

http://www.retainloyalcustomers.com/
Teri Yanovitch is a leading speaker, trainer and consultant on creating a culture of customer service within an organization. Her firm T.A.Yanovitch, Inc. provides a clear and proven process on how to create this culture of service and helps guide organizations to ensure their success. Through her presentations, workshops and training, Teri has assisted organizations from all industries to differentiate their business through the competitive edge of the customer experience.


Contact Teri at ty@retainloyalcustomers.com

Her highly acclaimed book Unleashing Excellence – The Complete Guide to “ Ultimate Customer Service” has sold over 32,000 books and is recognized as a practical, hands-on approach to providing a seamless extraordinary service experience to retain customers and employees. Contact Teri at ty@retainloyalcustomers.com for your next speaking engagement or for a copy of her book

Clear Definition of "Quality" Teri's Tip #24

A simple definition for Quality is "conformance to requirements".  When you tell employees to Do It Right the First Time.  The "It" is the requirement.  Therefore, you must be very clear in describing the requirements and verifying they are understood. 

Conformance to the requirements that have been agreed to and understood, must then be achieved 100% of the time.  Anything less, is not Quality.

http://www.retainloyalcustomers.com/
Teri Yanovitch is a leading speaker, trainer and consultant on creating a culture of customer service within an organization. Her firm T.A.Yanovitch, Inc. provides a clear and proven process on how to create this culture of service and helps guide organizations to ensure their success. Through her presentations, workshops and training, Teri has assisted organizations from all industries to differentiate their business through the competitive edge of the customer experience.


Contact Teri at ty@retainloyalcustomers.com

Her highly acclaimed book Unleashing Excellence – The Complete Guide to “ Ultimate Customer Service” has sold over 32,000 books and is recognized as a practical, hands-on approach to providing a seamless extraordinary service experience to retain customers and employees. Contact Teri at ty@retainloyalcustomers.com for your next speaking engagement or for a copy of her book.

Teri's Tip # 17

When things go wrong, the first question should not be "Who messed up?"  The question to be asked is:  "What went wrong in the process and how can we make sure it won't happen again?"  Quality and continuous improvement drives the organization to not repeat the same error over and over again.

Great customer service doesn't want to disappoint one customer.

http://www.retainloyalcustomers.com/

Teri's Tip #14

Raving customers are potential referrals for your business.  Three simple steps:

1.  Listen and make certain you both agree on what the customer really wants
2.  Deliver what was promised
3.  Create an experience in the delivery that makes the customer feel important and special.

Read more at http://teriyanovitch.blogspot.com/


http://www.retainloyalcustomers.com/

Teri's Tip #11

It's the little things you do that help to build customer loyalty.  Listen, observe and anticipate your customer's needs.

Becoming  truly customer focused, will build relationships that will keep your customers coming back time and time again. 

http://www.retainloyalcustomers.com/