We’ve been doing our ‘Tip of the Week’ feature for a few months now, and we thought it would be helpful to compile our tips into one post. So if you missed a tip, no fear! We’ve got all the goodness for you in one place.
Keep the Gratitude Going!
During the week of Thanksgiving, we get constant reminders to be grateful, so it’s easy to recognize people for their impact, dedication, hard work, etc. Imagine if every week were like Thanksgiving and you were constantly affirming your employees’ positive contributions to your company!
TIP: Add an alarm to your phone during what tends to be the slowest part of your day. Every time the alarm goes off, recognize someone in your office: send an email, write a card, walk to their desk and thank them in person. Make gratitude your daily attitude!
‘Tis the Season for Seasonal Employees
It can be difficult starting a new job especially when you are a seasonal or temporary employee. So how do you make your seasonal employees feel welcomed and an integral part of your team? Assign a mentor to each new employee! That way, newbies will always have someone to go to with questions and concerns, and the mentor will be sure that new people have all the information and guidance they need. It’s always easier doing new things when you have a buddy helping you out!
What to Say Instead of “I don’t know.”
Your customers want to know that YOU are the experts in your product or service. When you tell them “I don’t know” in response to a question it may cause them to lose confidence in your expertise. Here are 3 things you could say instead:
- That’s a great question! Let me find out for you.
- I know exactly the right person to answer that question. Let me get her!
- Great question! Let me do a little research and I’ll get right back to you!
Share Stories of Service Success
One of the best ways to touch hearts and inspire your team to continually deliver red carpet experiences to customers is to notice, collect and share stories of service excellence in action! Stories give us compelling examples of service in action and show us what it looks like. Share stories of team members making moments that matter for customers or co-workers at stand-up meetings, in employee newsletters, and on social media.
Personalize, Surprise & Delight!
When our new Director of Success Julie Read got signed up with our answering service Ruby Receptionists, they sent her some welcome-to-the-team gifts! My favorite is the personalized nameplate with her Red Carpet Title (plus a little extra) on it! Personalization adds a little punch to any surprise and delight!
Consider Your Environment
Beth, our incredibly talented Director of Delight, recently volunteered to paint the bathroom doors at her children’s school. The bathrooms are now transformed with colorful, positive messages! The environment you create for your team and your customers is important. What does your employee break room look like? How can you brighten spaces and make people feel valued? Do you have someone on your team – like Beth! – who could help freshen up a space with their artistic talent? Get your team involved! Simple fixes can go a long way.
Respond to Online Reviews
Respond to all of your online reviews, both positive and negative. It’s always nice – and a good way to deepen your relationship with a client – to say thank you to a positive review. In the case of negative reviews, it’s an opportunity to connect with an unhappy customer and offer a way to resolve the problem offline. Readers are watching to see how you respond to negative reviews and if you don’t respond at all it can seem uncaring. But if you do respond in a professional way it will diminish the impact of the negative review. Of course, NEVER get into an argument with your customer online.
Tip of the Week: Love ‘Em Up!
You know what feels great? When you love someone and you show it. Our coaches at Boldheart.com taught us a practice called ‘Love ‘Em Up’. We put our own spin on it, and now we ‘love up’ our clients every chance we get. One of the ways we do this is by sending personalized notes in the mail.
It feels so great to acknowledge our clients and to surprise them with kind words. And, if we’re having a rough day in the office, nothing gives us a pick-me-up like writing and sending a ‘Love ‘Em Up’ note.
Who can you love up in the coming week? Pick a few customers and send them a note to show you care!
Speak to EVERYONE in the party.
Sometimes people tend to speak to only one person and ignore their “entourage.” Make sure you acknowledge elders, children, spouses, etc. And don’t make any assumptions about who the decision-maker is! Making connections with everyone is good manners, and good for business.
Donna Cutting is the Founder & CEO of Red-Carpet Learning Systems, Inc., a consulting firm which provides tools and training to help organizations build cultures of engaged employees delivering consistently excellent customer service. She’s the author of two books on the topic, including 501 Ways to Roll Out the Red Carpet for Your Customers, and is working on her third as of January 2019. To learn more about how we can help you improve employee engagement and customer happiness, email us at STARS@redcarpetlearning.comand ask for a complimentary consultation.
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