Characteristics of an excelent customer service representative

Today I experienced an unusually good customer service experience. In this case, it was in a retail store. However, as we all have customers, it could have been anywhere.
Four factors made it so good:
1. the salesperson had excellent verbal communication skills
2. she knew her products, their features and location well
3. she heard unspoken objections and offered a guarantee of satisfaction
4. she was clearly eager to please her customers by offering superb service
My congratulations to those who recruited, trained and supervise this salesperson!

What's the best customer service experience you have had recently? What made it so great?

What Does A Speech Coach Do and What Should I Look For In One?

Can you identify with any of these? All names and some details have been changed.

1. Li (not her real name) is a professional chemist with valued professional skills. However, despite speaking English, she has a lot of trouble being understood by her colleagues here. Her company hires a speech coach to teach her American English pronunciation.

2. Sue has a strong regional American accent. When she speaks to clients in another part of the country by telephone or in video-conferences, they focus on trying to understand her pronunciation and miss her message. Sue's boss calls for help for her.

3. Sara needs to improve her presentation skills to be able to keep her job. Her company course on presentation skills was very poor, and Sara wants one on one coaching.

4. Pablo is a leader, and he wants training in how to get more ideas from his team. He
also wants to be a more effective communicator with them. He wants executive communication coaching.

If one or more of those situations describes you, you want a speech coach who is a great communicator herself, who is experienced and is professionally trained. One example of such training is a master's in speech pathology with experience in the sub-specialty of corporate speech pathology. Such a coach has scientific background in anatomy and physiology of how we talk, as well as experience in applying this to the corporate environment. Ideally the person will have the initials CCC-SLP after his or her name.

Business Speech Improvement provides intensive, targeted coaching in verbal communication skills. Visit www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com for more details!

Shy at parties? Three tips to help

Many people feel hesitant to walk up to a stranger and start a conversation. Many years ago, people would be introduced by mutual friends, who might stay long enough to make sure the conversation was going well. Now, people start talking with others often without any help.

Here are three tips to make this easier. First, consider the goal of the conversation. Are you trying to make a new friend, determine if someone is a good business prospect, or
find out delicately how a new hire feels about a potential "hot topic"?

Plan a series of 3 -5 questions around this goal. If you want to make a new friend, ask how the person feels about living so close to the sports arena or university, for example.

Then, if you want to consider staying in touch, ask for the person's card. After the person is out of sight, write something on the back so you will remember this person, and follow up with him the next day by e-mail.

Many more tips on making small talk, including how to start and gracefully end a conversation, can be found in the e-book "Small Talk: Connecting with Others" (www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com).

Rate of speech and persuasiveess

Many people think of salespeople as "fast-talking". Does a faster rate of speech increase their (or your) persuasiveness? An interesting study by Caroline Jones, Lynn Berry and Catherine Stevens found that use of a normal rate of speech was more persuasive. They also found that talking fast reduces the ability of the listener to understand. This makes sense, because people who don't understand don't usually buy. Also, children and senior citizens process language more slowly than other people.

What do you do if you are a fast talker and want to reduce your rate of speech?
Business Speech Improvement (www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com) offers a one day class on Speak Slowly! Speech Rate Reduction Strategies to be held July 9, 2010. It also offers an e-book on Six Simple Steps to Speak Slower. More information is at www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com.

Give written instructions for your products or services?

If you produce a product or service and give written instructions to your customers or clients, do you TEST these instructions with a "naive" (new, ignorant) audience before assuming anyone can follow them? (This also applies to driving instructions to your office, which should be at the fingertips of employees answering the phone and on the website.) Testing these instructions with potential clients allows you to see how someone else interprets "easy" directions. If they misinterpret the directions, what do they do wrong, and how would they suggest it be worded better?

Doing this can save a company money, as fewer products will need to be returned by irritated customers, and the feedback on the company via Twitter, Facebook and other sources will be better.


Business Speech Improvement (www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com) provides intensive, customized training in communication skills. See our upcoming courses and e-books!

Connecting training in customer ervice to the bottom line

Three people were standing in a line at a discount store, and the store was about to close. The clerk suddenly announced that she had to take a "lunch break", and would only help the first two customers. The third customer announced firmly, "But I have been standing in line waiting for several minutes!" The second customer, not wanting to deal with the conflict and also furious with the store clerk, replied to the third customer, "I will go into another lane, and then you will get waited on." A few minutes later, the third customer had been waited on and saw the second customer still waiting at the end of another line. She mouthed the words, "Thank you!" and left the store. The second customer commented to someone nearby that she would not shop at the store again, and would tell others about the poor customer service.

Apparently the clerk had not had her break that shift, and, instead of notifying her supervisor, decided to close her check-out herself. If you were the manager, clerk or one of the customers, how would you have handled this situation?

Speak too fast?

One of the most common complaints about a speaker is that he or she speaks too fast, and can't be easily understood. Speech rate can be influenced by many factors, from the rate of the general culture (such as NYC) to a person's health status.

Speak slower! Speech Rate Reduction is an intensive one day workshop offered Friday, July 9th in Chattanooga, TN. It includes work-related speech simulations. This course is not suitable for people with such disorders as Parkinson's or other neurological issues. For more information, visit http://businessspeechimprovement.com/enabler/scripts/category.pl?Classes and scroll down to "speech rate and timing".