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Time flies

7 Tips For Effective Time Management

Time management is the ability to use one’s time effectively or productively, especially at work. But this is easier said than done. There are a lot of things competing for our time and attention every minute as business owners and customer service professionals.

How do you determine what activity is worth your time? How do you make the best use of your time daily? Why is it important to manage time wisely?

Have a Priority List

A priority list is a list that contains your priority items — the measurable activities that brings you closer to achieving your personal and professional goals. Therefore, get a pen and paper or a Task Manager, write out all your daily or weekly activities and divide them into varying levels of importance.

  • Urgent and important: Do first!
  • Important, not urgent: Schedule
  • Urgent not important: Delegate
  • Not urgent not important: Don’t do!

Urgent: Urgent tasks require immediate attention. For example, customer service complaints, logistics, etc.

Important: These tasks contribute to your personal or professional long-term goals. You have to determine what is important to your business or career.

Why is it important to manage our time wisely?

  1. Prevents energy waste
  2. Relieves pressure
  3. More time for other things
  4. More opportunities
  5. Leaves time for rest
  6. Goals realization

How to Manage Time Effectively

  1. Set goals correctly. Make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.
  2. Prioritize wisely. Set tasks based on their importance and urgency.
  3. Set a time limit to complete a task. Decide what time to allot to different tasks and be disciplined to meet your time target.
  4. Take a break between tasks to regain strength and focus.
  5. Organize yourself. Keep a schedule of your activities.
  6. Remove non-essential tasks/activities based on your priority list above. Don’t perform tasks that can be conveniently outsourced.
  7. Plan ahead. Have a to-do list.

The implication of poor time management is waste of time, energy, and other valuable resources. What more, the pressure of constant customer complaints and never meeting deadlines might adversely affect your health and productivity. Save yourself all these woes and learn time management.

CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE – 5 Things Your Customers Deserve

Think about this: Amazon, Uber, Zoom, and Tesla Motors, what do these brands have in common? They were each, not the first to do what they do, but they did the consumers’ job better than their competitors. And, they consistently give their customers the best service experience they deserve.

They are all disruptors. Walmart disrupted local retail businesses when they came into a community. Uber disrupted the taxi-cab industry. Amazon disrupted the entire retail world, Zoom disrupted physical meetings and office space. And, Tesla disrupted the automobile industry.

So, are you starting in a career or business and it looks like there is nothing new to do? Like everything that could be done has already been done? There is yet a way to disrupt your market. Make an exceptional customer experience your brand identity. Customer service is often overlooked in companies, and, this could be a big opportunity to differentiate your business and attract and retain loyal customers.

For The Best Customer Service Experience, Do These:

  1. Know Your Customers – Who is your ideal customer? What does your customer need? How can you meet that need? Do your research and analyze your target audience. Beyond the service, you want to provide, know enough about them to become a part of their lives.
  2. Design a customer-centered service experience – Your customers are at the centre of all you do, not you. Alongside the product or service you are offering, deliberately put your customers at the centre of your activities by designing a customized service experience. Therefore, if you know them as explained above, this should not be difficult to do.
  3. Respond quickly to every customer inquiry or comment – Know when to read the script and when to use your humanity. Do not ever keep your customers waiting. Never!
  4. Stay in Touch – Adequate use of social media will give you top-of-the-mind awareness with your customers. Be conveniently accessible to your customers and stay in touch. Social media is an extension of brand marketing for you, therefore, use it sufficiently. Something as simple as a good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) program can help you keep track of your customers, what they have bought in the past and any issues they have had.
  5. Celebrate them – Give a human touch to your brand by interacting with your customers’ experiences and achievements. Celebrate their moments with them, and, thank them for patronizing you.

In conclusion, let them know that you are not just after their money, you sincerely want to make their lives easier. 93% of customers are liekly to make repeat purchases with companies who offer excellent customer service.

Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless

Proving that loyal customers are better than satisfied ones, we will be showing you how to get customer loyalty through a fresh approach to customer service and how to turn customers into salespeople.

No matter the size of the business, customer loyalty is incredibly important. Repeat customers spend up to 67 percent more than new customers.

Plus, it’s up to ten times more expensive to try to attract new customers than it is to keep the ones already doing business with you.

If you’re looking for real ways to create and keep up customer loyalty, consider implementing a few of these strategies.

1. Set up ways to communicate with your customers

Frequent communication with your customers keeps you fresh in their minds and lets you pass along important information. Take the time to set up a database with contact information such as email addresses, mailing addresses, or phone numbers.

Then you can send friendly reminders, birthday greetings, or a monthly newsletter. Social media is another great way to communicate with your customers on an almost daily basis.

Keep in mind that this works better if you limit how many of your communications are actually advertisements. Don’t forget to throw in messages that are either fun reminders or useful information.

2. Provide extra perks for your most loyal customers

One of the best—and perhaps one of the cheapest—ways to reward customer loyalty is to give extra perks to your most dependable customers.

Whether it’s the ability to skip the line, special meet-and-greets, or immediate seating, customers love getting a little something extra.

By setting up a reward system for the most loyal, you not only encourage them to stick around, you also give an incentive for other customers to strive to reach that status.

3. Consider different payment plans

There are some businesses out there that are very seasonal and run into cash flow issues during certain times of the year.

For instance, a wedding shop usually receives most of their sales during the summer months when weddings are in full swing, but during the winter they struggle.

One shop decided to offer a payment plan through which customers could start shopping in the winter, and pay a little throughout the months leading up to the wedding, rather than paying all at once.

This plan worked because it helped customers by giving them manageable monthly payments, and it helped the company by bringing in cash during an otherwise slow time of year. In fact, customers were so happy that they often referred the shop to others, and the business saw a nearly 400 percent increase in total sales.

4. Provide great customer service

While this seems like a given, it’s one tip that bears repeating because it’s so important. Customers remember when they’re treated well, and they remember when they’re treated poorly. In either case, they usually tell their friends and family, and that can either mean more business for you or lost business opportunities.

5. Don’t rely too much on technology

Even in our technologically advanced society filled with text messages and emails, we still want the ability to interact with other human beings.

Everyone can relate to the frustration of feeling stuck in an endless loop of automated prompts until we bang on the phone keys in hopes of reaching a real human.

This is why it’s important to keep in mind that while automated phone systems may save money, highly trained customer service representatives build loyalty.

6. Don’t forget to smile

This is another item that seems obvious, but it’s important enough to keep being reminded of. While it seems like a small detail, a friendly greeting obviously has important consequences.If this piece was helpful please share. 

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