UNIT 203 GIVE CUSTOMERS A POSITIVE IMPRESSION OF YOURSELF

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Unit 203: Give customers a positive impression of yourself and your organisation (A4)

Unit 203: Give customers a positive impression of yourself and your organisation (A4)

Handout 2: Communicate with and respond to customers

When dealing with customers you should always think ‘How would I like to be treated?’ You are a customer at times and know yourself what you expect from an organisation and the representative(s) of the organisation, be it in a shop, on the telephone or from colleagues. Above all, the customer expects professionalism.

One of the key skills in dealing with customers is that of communication. It is necessary to be aware that your organisation may have its own guidelines governing which method of communication to use and how it should be used (eg when to use emails or letters, what situations must always be dealt with face to face, when/how to use customer names). It is important to adapt methods of communication to meet the individual needs of a range of customers. For example, you will need to adapt how you communicate according to a customer’s age group or culture.

In all cases, it is best to avoid the use of jargon. Although you may use technical abbreviations between colleagues, it is likely to confuse customers and make them feel inadequate.

It is also necessary to adapt your communication to accommodate any language difficulties, health issues, and for those with learning difficulties.

Remember to look directly at customers with a hearing impairment as they may be reading your lips; do not resort to shouting. If the information is complicated or technical, it is probably best to provide it in written form.
When dealing with disabled customers, it is important to deal with them directly: do not be tempted to direct your communication at their carer! If you can, sit down when dealing with wheelchair users, in order to maintain a level eye contact.
Where there are language difficulties it may require that the service deliverer talks more slowly, clearly and without the use of jargon.

The service deliverer should communicate in a clear, polite and confident way, treating the customer with respect at all times and working with them to meet their needs.

In dealing with customers face-to-face, you should also be aware of the messages you communicate via your body language. The way we stand, the gestures we make, and our facial expressions all convey a message. Body language can signal pleasure, anger, frustration or aggression without the service deliverer realising it and can affect the behaviour of the customer who reacts to what they perceive the message to be and vice versa. This non verbal communication should not be considered in isolation but should be considered along with the words being used. Both a service deliverer and customer convey messages through their body language which can impact dramatically on the outcome of the interaction.

Our posture is important as certain stances convey negative messages, for example:

Standing straight makes us feel and appear confident; drooping our shoulders or looking at the ground conveys nervousness.
Crossed arms indicate that you are on the defensive and convey the message of being unapproachable.
Putting your hands on your hips makes you look stern and confrontational.
Standing very close to a customer can be intrusive and forceful.

Gestures are also a method of communication. We make gestures with our arms, hands and our head, for example:

Drumming our fingers on a table communicates impatience, while pointing with our fingers can look aggressive and threatening.
Talking with our arms is something we all tend to do and in many cultures this is normal.

It is important, however, not to overuse hands, arms and head: nodding constantly or waving an arm about can be gestures we make without realising we are using them and can detract from the message we are trying to communicate.

Recognising when a customer is becoming agitated or angry is important in order to resolve or diffuse a situation and observation of body language can be helpful in this. Customers usually become angry when they feel they have not been given the service they deserve or have been treated badly. Some customers present obvious signs of anger – shouting or raising their voice, aggressive body language such as pointing/jabbing – whilst others may be more difficult to spot. Again, close observation of a customer will give you clues – do they look tense? are they muttering or sighing? When you become aware that a customer is angry, you should approach them to find out what the problem is, using calming techniques if necessary. Don’t be tempted to argue or react, as this will only inflame the situation. Listen carefully to what they have to say, empathise and apologise as appropriate, and then try to take action to solve the cause of their anger.

Customers react differently to the type of customer service they receive. Some customers want fast efficient service while others want some time spent on them. Understanding and recognising the service required is a skill that must be acquired by the staff and should be considered in line with organisational demands. In order to establish what customer needs are you need to develop good questioning techniques. Questions can be open, closed or probing.

Open questions begin with who, what, where, when, why and encourage a response giving a lot of information.
Closed questions are likely to get the response of yes or no.
Probing questions are used when you need specific information.

The use of closed questioning is unlikely to elicit much in the way of a response so it is important to learn to use open and probing questions to establish needs and confirm these needs with closed questions.

Your organisation may have guidelines for questioning customers to find out what they want, or a series of questions or a script you are expected to follow, particularly if your work is telephone based.

The second part of questioning is listening. Careful listening means you are focused on what the customer is saying and not what you want to say next – if you listen carefully you will learn more in a shorter timescale as you are likely to get the information you need and be able to respond to their needs more quickly. Being a good or active listener ensures the exchange of information between the speaker and the listener is correctly understood. To actively listen:

make eye contact
pay attention to the words, expressions, and body language of the speaker
use positive body language to express your continued concentration
use encouraging phrases such as ‘I see’ or ‘Go on’
do not interrupt – allow the speaker to finish
give the person your complete attention
summarise the discussion to bring the conversation to a close.

You should also ask brief questions and paraphrase the speaker's statements to test for understanding. This means that you restate the message in your own words, eg ‘If I understand correctly, you mean…’

Make sure your understanding is correct by checking for understanding, eg ‘Do you mean…? Is this correct?’ and asking for clarity when necessary, eg ‘What do you mean by…?’ Finally, summarise briefly, stating the key points of the discussion, at its close.

As well as dealing with customers face to face, you may also have to communicate with customers over the telephone. Whether the majority of your work is dealing with customers by telephone, eg in a call centre, or just occasionally, good telephone communication skills are important in presenting a good impression of your organisation. Your organisation is likely to have guidelines for dealing with customers on the telephone, but as a general guide:

Answer promptly with a greeting and identify yourself.
Speak clearly and slower than you would when face to face.
Avoid using jargon and slang; be polite at all times. Using the caller’s name has a more personal feel.
Prepare for any calls you make by finding out all the information you need beforehand. Similarly, be prepared for incoming calls by having pen and paper to hand and knowing how to operate the equipment correctly, eg to transfer a call.
Be prepared with some calm responses in the event of the caller becoming abusive; do not respond with aggression.
If you smile, it will come across in your voice. (Obviously, it is not always appropriate to smile – if the customer is expressing a grievance, you would need to respond with concern.)
Keep the customer informed of your actions – if you need to get further information from a colleague, let them know this and how long it may take. If it is likely to take some time, it is polite to offer to call the customer back.

With written communications, as they form a permanent record, the rules and procedures are likely to be more strict; it is likely that there will be a house style. This means that any documents produced by that company will project the same image, eg they show the logo, are of same colour of paper, same font, set document layout.

A house style means any documents from the organisation are instantly recognisable as being from that organisation and means that everyone in the organisation knows what any letter, invoice, internal report etc should look like and presents a unified, professional image.

As well as house styles, your organisation may use templates. A template is a basic outline of a document; in the case of a menu, the template would be a basic design that would show the restaurant name, address and other details that do not change and then there would be a space for the actual menu content that would be the only information that would need to be changed on a regular basis. Along with templates, your organisation may have standard texts that need to be incorporated into certain communications, perhaps for legal reasons, and these may or may not be included in the template.

In customer service you will be frequently asked for information. Any information your customers are likely to want should be up to date and readily available. You will be expected to know why it is important to have reliable and fast information for both your customer and your organisation and to know what the implications are of not having it. As a customer service deliverer, you will be more effective if you are knowledgeable about your products and services and can convey this knowledge to customers no matter whether it is in a sales or complaints situation. If you don’t have the required knowledge or information to hand you shouldn’t bluff – you should admit you don’t know but say you will find out the detail for the customer. Possible sources of information available to you may be:

your line manager or supervisor
catalogues, brochures and price lists
colleagues
the organisation’s product database or intranet
staff newsletters
training sessions.

Remember that your customers will not know as much about your organisation’s products or services as you do: what may seem fairly straightforward to you may be very confusing to a customer. When dealing with customers face to face, you need to keep an eye on their body language: if they are frowning, they may be confused. Try not to overload the customer with complex information – better to outline the product or service and back up the information with a written leaflet. Check with the customer to ensure that they have understood what you have said, and be prepared to explain again in a different way.

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