Posts Tagged ‘customer service training’

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Business development seminar for owner managers – fully funded in the East Midlands

Friday, May 15th, 2009

A one day business development seminar is about to be run for owner managers fully funded in the East Midlands.

If you’re a director or owner manager of a small to medium sized business in Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire or Derbyshire your place at this £500 one day business development seminar may qualify for full funding. So to you – not a bean ! Not one penny ! 

It is being funded by the government through Train to Gain. The seminar will be based on

How to win and keep more business

So it will cover elements of sales, customer service and how to motivate your team  to build better customer relationships. And of course you will pick up ideas from other people like you (who run their own businesses) so good opportunities to network too with like-minded people.

If you think you may qualify, and you’d like more details on how to improve the sales and customer service functions within your company just let us know via e-mail. You can e-mail me directly and I’ll write to you personally with more details. If you have any questions in the meantime – pick up the phone and give us a call.

This seminar is ideal for business owners, and directors within companies in Leicester, Northampton, Kettering, Corby, Loughborough, Coalville, Oakham, Rutland, Market Harborough, Wellingborough, Nottingham, Mansfield, Sutton in Ashfield, Derby, Lincoln, Newark, as well as wider parts of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire 

 

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Posted in Customer service management, Field sales training, Free training, Funded training, Personal development, Selling advice, Train to Gain funding, business development, business growth, customer handling, customer services, owner managers directors, sales development training, seminar | No Comments »

Telesales training for plastic packaging companies

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Recently To Market was commissioned to run in-house training for a plastic packaging company. We’ve worked with them over many years and the customer service course went well.

We’ve carried out both customer service and telesales training for companies who specialise in the manufacture of plastic packaging.

This training can be based around whatever your business challenges are, but we’ve worked on new sales development, identifying needs, lead qualification, overcoming objections, advice on getting past gatekeepers plus questioning skills. That’s on the telesales, telemarketing and internal sales courses.

On customer service training we work on handling conflict, dealing with complaints, complaint handling in other words, exceptional customer service training and how to delight the customer.

Packaging is one of the industrial market sectors we specialise in so if that’s your bag so to speak give us a call on 01858 461148 or e-mail us info@tomarket.co.uk

 

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Posted in Customer service management, Getting past gatekeepers, Overcoming objections, Uncategorized, communication skills, customer handling, customer services, telemarketing, telesales | No Comments »

Customer Service masterclass – 28th & 29th September – Leicester,Northampton,Kettering,Coventry,Corby

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

Customer Service masterclass being run on 28th & 29th September in Market Harborough, Leicestershire so ideal for anyone interested in improved customer service skills in Leicester, Northampton, Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Coventry, Milton Keynes as well as wider parts of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. We’ve even got bookings from Lichfield and Birmingham.

Customer service skills training is suitable for anyone interested in contact centre, call centre or customer care training and during this 2 day masterclass we will cover telephone techniques covering dealing with conflict, negotiation skills, questioning skills and calming customers. We will also work on communication skills to include listening skills, controlling the conversation, customer service professionalism, and vocal tone and expression. Everything you need in fact for improving customer service skills.

To register interest in this course, just e-mail us info@tomarket.co.uk and we’ll send you details back to include the training programme plus fees. Then if you’re interested we can reserve you a place while you make your decision.

2 days of customer service telephone skills training in Market Harborough aimed at customer service agents or people in contact centre or customer care in Leicester, Northampton, Kettering, Corby, Milton Keynes, Wellingborough, Coventry as well as wider parts of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.

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Posted in Customer service management, Forthcoming courses, Personal development, communication skills, customer handling, customer services, telephone techniques | No Comments »

I’ve noticed – retailers giving added value – top sales tip

Monday, February 9th, 2009

While walking around the shops last weekend, I noticed something about the way they offered their services to me that was impressive. We can all apply these principles.

In one shop I have a loyalty card which they stamp when you use it. It is fairly straightforward it rewards you with 10% discount and you pay a fixed amount for the card. It then expires after 12 months.

However over the 12 month period the hand written expiry date has sort of worn off. It has a busy life in the wallet of a male, and I’m sure the inadvertent capsizing of a canoe in a French river last summer which soaked everything in my pockets was the final straw.

Anyway the shop (unable to clearly see the expiry date) made a quick decision to put 2 months extra on it. This worked well ! I, the customer came away feeling like I’d got a special deal (because I had) and yet it cost them little.

Furthermore I was impressed at this keeness to go the extra mile and to offer some added value to my customer service experience and would it make me more likely to shop there again – you bet !

So the retailer has built a little more loyalty to it’s brand. Job done !

In another store in the same day, it seems they were offering a free gift if you spent over £30. I went to the till twice and made a number of small purchases. The manageress served me the second time and although I hadn’t spent the ‘qualifying amount’ she gave me the free gift anyway. Again it made me feel special. I got a deal that supposedly wasn’t available to everyone. That shopkeeper was offering added value in customer service.

Quite simply make your customer feel special, and offering them added value or going the extra mile will often be enough to turn them into a loyal customer. Offer exceptional customer service and it’s the little things that add up.

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Posted in Selling advice, communication skills, customer services, retail sales | No Comments »

Get positive

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

Apparently there’s a bit of a recession on at the moment ! Only last week (mid January) the figures came out to confirm it ! Well that’s come as a bit of a bolt out of the blue hasn’t it ?!

It has been said by many wise people that “you can’t change what has happened to you, but you can decide how you will deal with it.”

So let’s get a positive attitude and get over it shall we ?!

Apparently this has been one of the longest bear markets for a while – 16 years. There is normally a market correction or recession every 10 years or so. Our job then is to come up with strategies and ways of dealing with it.

Now is the time to review the products and services you offer your customers. You have got time to try new ideas, now is the time to review your communication strategy with all of your customers - both those who are still with you, and those who used to buy your products and have stopped for whatever reason.  

Now is the time to look at getting some ideas from your front line troops on ways your organisation could improve, and now is the time to look for some additional training and development ideas for them. They may well need help and motivation to help you win the business that is out there at the moment.

Even if you haven’t got any more than £100 to spend, you can still have access to the training CDs available through www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk They’re currently only £16.99 delivered and ordering is easy through PayPal. They cover customer service training, telesales tips, telemarketing techniques and ideas on self-development.

Remember one of Churchill’s lesser known quotes  “I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.” How true.   

 

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Posted in Selling advice, communication skills, customer services, telemarketing, telesales | No Comments »

Benchmarking customer service teams for training – Auditing customer service team performance

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

Benchmarking a customer service team for training is a powerful way of getting the most out of any development programme. It can be used as part of your appraisal or training needs analysis process. To Market will carry out an onsite team audit to help benchmark your customer service, contact centre or call centre telephone team at your offices wherever they are : Leicester, Northampton, Coventry, Derby, Nottingham, Coventry, Kettering, Corby, plus wider parts of Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. We’ve also recently audited teams in Bedford, Hemel Hempstead, Stratford on Avon and Sudbuy Suffolk so we cover the UK.  

By appraising your telephone team on site at your offices helps you identify training needs before taking the plunge. Getting an independent view of your team can be helpful in the effective management your customer service or contact centre team.

The To Market customer service team appraisal takes place at your offices and so is completely tailored to your team and the feedback is specific. You can even download a copy of a real team audit report from the To Market website by clicking on http://www.tomarket.co.uk/sample-audits.php. There is a customer service team audit report and one for a telesales team. They have been cleaned up to protect client confidentiality.

Book a benchmark appraisal on your team today and you may be amazed at how much it helps demonstrate to help with the effective running of your customer service team for just a few hundred pounds. Our senior trainer Andrew Seaward – To Market will carry out the audit on your team.

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Posted in Customer service management, Independent audit of customer service, benchmarking customer service teams, customer service team assessment, customer services | No Comments »

Explore the wonders of Britain – why your country needs you !

Friday, January 9th, 2009

A slightly offbeat subject for today’s blog. And not even related to training ! But then if Clarkson can get away with rambling about all sorts of different subjects in his books, I’m sure you’ll forgive me this once.

It’s that time of year when you may be starting to think about your summer holiday.

And as we all know this year may be very different for many people. With uncertain conditions ahead, reduced hours, job losses and pay cuts, the choice for many this year may be very different to normal.

So here’s a thought – by taking your holiday in Britain you will ultimately be taking steps to protect your own job ! If we all spent the £29 billion that we traditionally spend in Britain this summer, that will be money going into food, leisure, entertainment and then from that into packaging, financial services – and so on and so on – you get the picture.

And after all, you can forego that constant sunshine for just one summer can’t you ?!   

Wherever you end up, write in and let us know what sort of customer service standards you get.

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Posted in communication skills, customer handling, customer services, retail sales | No Comments »

Customer service training issues – the first point of contact is vitally important

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

On a recent trip to the States I was keen to find out about their level of customer service across as many areas as I could observe. Overall the standards were excellent. I will post more of my observations over the coming weeks, but lesson number one was unfortunately a negative one.

It is extremely important that whoever represents your business at the front line is ‘on message’ and diplays a positive, enthusiastic and professional approach. The very first person we met representing the United States was at immigration control (the extra bit you have to go through with your visa, where they take a picture of you and take your fingerprints.) The guy there clearly had some issues, he was surly, didn’t make eye contact at all, and didn’t smile at all – or even offer any positive phrasing such as “have a nice stay” or whatever.

Now you could argue that this matters less in his role, but if this was a commercial organisation, you could quite understand why someone wouldn’t want to go back. It doesn’t matter how good the quality of your products or services is, and how clever your marketing and sales activity is if the person interacting with your customers doesn’t present a positive, cheerful attitude.

So regularly check by calling into your own company or asking your customers what they think to ensure you offer exceptional customer service. It doesn’t matter whether you are in Birmingham, Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Leicester, Northampton, Solihull, Lichfield or Peterborough – you are dealing with human beings and they like a bit of personal contact. 

Our customer service training covers this http://www.tomarket.co.uk/customer-service-training.php and a host of other top tips on communication with customers. 

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Posted in communication skills, customer handling, customer services, telephone techniques | 1 Comment »

Spelling is important – really !

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

As you may notice from the To Market website, we carry out team audits for clients, where we will sit and observe their team for a couple of hours while they make live calls. http://www.tomarket.co.uk/teamaudits.php

One thing that comes up frequently is the quality of spelling. Now you could argue that it makes no real difference when the information stays in your in-house database. However information such as company names, and addresses will normally be used for mail merging and so any input error will be transferred on to the front of your highly expensive brochure, exotic flyer or simple letter. And just consider the impact if you’ve spelt their name wrong ! 

One client we worked with recently on telesales training in Birmingham couldn’t understand why whenever they did geographic searches on town name the numbers of available records that came up were small. But we have 10,000 live records they cried ! On closer inspection they were horrified to discover that the problem was their team’s awful spelling. Towns like Gloucester, Norwich, Leicester, and even Milton Keynes seemed to pose challenges.  

So spend a little time checking the quality of the infomation in your database. It is well worth it in the long run. Remember the old computing adage “garbage in, garbage out.”   

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Posted in communication skills, customer handling, customer services, telemarketing, telephone techniques, telesales | No Comments »

Good customer service is easy – use your eyes and ears !

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

The easy thing about ‘teaching’ exceptional customer service standards is that all of us are customers in our every day lives when we’re not trying to deliver exceptional customer service.

So whenever you interact with a business, take a few seconds out afterwards to stop and consider how the experience made you feel and what the key things were that made you feel like that. Identifying these things will help you work out the key parts of good and bad customer service.

Then simply “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Easy really !! 

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Posted in communication skills, customer handling, customer services, telephone techniques | No Comments »

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