Procedures Help Build Employee Confidence Every team member needs to understand the role they play in Out-Of-This-World Customer Service. It is imperative that team members understand what is required of them and that they utilize the L.E.A.R. System (Listen, Empathize, Ask, & Resolve) to provide clients with the best care possible. What you expect of your team members should be very clear. We have written procedures for every job we do at Adept Business Solutions. There are procedures for greeting clients, answering phones, taking messages, fielding complaints, entering customer information into our recordkeeping system, processing payroll, preparation of income tax
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Who’s the Boss? It’s THE CLIENT! You have only one boss. Your boss might sweep floors and empty trash cans or be the CEO of the country’s largest corporation. It’s THE CLIENT! Your boss pays your salary and determines the success of your business. You may have been in business for years, but that doesn’t matter to your boss. If you start treating her badly or take her for granted, your business will fail. Your boss, THE CLIENT, has bought and paid for all that you have. She has clothed you and your family, paid your mortgage, covered your car
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Keep Your Happy Clients Coming Back – Losses Add Up It’s pretty incredible to think that one of the nation’s most successful grocery store chains has only four stores! Stew Leonard’s, a Connecticut-based grocer, serves more than 100,000 customers a week at EACH of its stores and has boasted of having the highest sales per square foot of any business in America. The retailer has had an amazing amount of media coverage and received numerous awards because of its success — all attributed to its Out-Of-This-World Customer Service! Stew Leonard’s continues to build on its success because of its ongoing
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Listening Key Factor in Business Success Being an excellent and effective listener is a key factor in a professional’s success in life and business. The ability to really, truly listen to another can strengthen relationships, aide in resolving conflicts and improve accuracy. Active listening is as simple as L-I-S-T-E-N.   L – LIKE First of all, you have to find something you sincerely like about the person you are talking to. I – INTEREST You have to have a sincere interest in the person OR in what they are saying. S – SEE Try to see things from the other’s
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When you put people first, success (and money) will naturally follow. Nobody goes into business to NOT make money. Why then, would I tell you that the best way to maximize your income is to NOT focus on making money? The truth is, when you put people first, success naturally follows. Our company values are pretty simple:   Take care of our team members. Take care of our clients. Be an honorable member of our community.   Are you surprised I listed taking care of our team members above taking care of clients? Notice, these items aren’t numbered. There isn’t
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Word-of-Mouth Advertising Can Be A Powerful Tool When a client is happy you can count on them telling others. On average, they will share the good news about your business with one to three other people. An unhappy client, on the other hand, will relate their experience to a far greater number of people. Researchers say dissatisfied clients will tell as many as 16 people about poor service. Word-of-mouth advertising is powerful and it’s important that all of your team members understand exactly how much power a happy or unhappy client can wield. The cumulative effect of word-of-mouth advertising can
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Honesty Is The Best Policy! Honesty is always the best policy when dealing with clients. You’ve heard it said that we weave a terrible web when we deceive. I have no idea how some people keep tabs on all of the lies they’ve told. One of the big things all liars have in common is that, eventually, they are found out. I just can’t emphasize enough that honesty is indeed the best policy where clients are concerned. It is the key to providing Out-Of-This-World Customer Service. When you make a mistake and are honest and acknowledge it, most clients will
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How to Conduct a Stay Interview One of the major challenges for the recruiters of today is talent scarcity, and one method to try to ensure that recruits stay with your company for the long term is the stay interview. A stay interview involves the organization being evaluated by an existing employee in an attempt to ensure that they will remain with the company and is essentially the opposite of an employee appraisal. It is a good interview tactic to first conduct stay interviews with your firm’s best performers, those whose exit would adversely affect your company’s productivity. Conduct one-on-one
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Focus on Employee Innovation The best way to motivate employees to become more creative and innovative is by liberating people from job descriptions that focus on what they can’t do instead of what they can. Then, on an ongoing basis, attend to these important psychological factors: Purpose. A mission statement is fine, but it’s only a first step. You should constantly reinforce what your organization wants to achieve, and why it’s a worthwhile goal. Belonging. Employees want to feel welcome and included. Pay attention to them as individuals. Find out what drives them to succeed, so you can use that
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