Customer experience is an essential approach to the proper functioning of any organizational process.

Building a lasting relationship with customers and with existing staff is the goal of every leader. The customer experience starts with the internal collaboration of all employees and their involvement, depending on the dealership’s culture.

All efforts must collectively go in the same direction to succeed in offering a service worthy of customer expectations.

When hiring staff, it is important to have a code of ethics explaining the philosophy, culture, regulations and code of conduct towards colleagues and especially towards customers.

The involvement and solidarity of the staff stem from the professional involvement of senior management.

What are we doing to develop ultimate customer satisfaction?

We must be concerned with increasing loyalty, improving reception and thus the retention rate, strengthening customer relations, limiting dissatisfaction and building trust.

Any technological tools, like software, allow us to improve customer experiences and, above all, to better follow them, always according to individual preferences.

All employees who deal with customers are required to have customer service training to represent the company properly.

This training can be offered by management, the human resources department or an external firm. In the coming decades, customer service will become more and more demanding and you have to know how to talk to customers.

Calls and issues

According to a 2016 study by Protégez-vous magazine, in more than 80% of the conversations analyzed by researchers, customers were cutting off the employee or using aggressive language.

In addition, the researchers found that 1.5% of the words used in the conversations were aggressive. That’s a pretty high percentage, considering that we speak about 130 words per minute!

Therefore, we can conclude that an employee must be prepared for any eventuality and to offer quality service while remaining calm.

According to the same study, many customers complain about very irritating phrases they sometimes hear:

• Your call is important to us, please hold the line
• Please give me high marks on all the questions in the satisfaction survey
• Can you give me back the information related to your account
• This is our internal policy
• We are currently busy with other customers, please hold the line to keep your call priority

You really need to listen very carefully to the customer and not interrupt them when they explain their needs. Also, avoid dictating a suggested phone approach.

We must use explanatory and unfamiliar vocabulary so that the client feels secure while being confident in our field of expertise.

Information remains the key to success, along with listening carefully so as not to deviate. Answering the phone is an art and the staff must be qualified to do so and have all the assets to answer any question.

You have to be professional, put a call on hold gracefully, thank the customer for waiting in the line, avoid excuses, control the conversation thoroughly, make a positive impression, thank the customer for their time… Be a PRO!

Communication

What exactly does it take to be a good customer experience candidate?

• A good communicator, whether with managers or customers
• An open mind
• Proactive
• A welcoming and reassuring tone
• A sharp and confident mind
• The most important thing: love customers!

This is a more than important position and we underestimate it too often. Every self-respecting organization has a customer service department, a corner for the customer…

A department strictly for them; whether it is computerized or personalized.

We will have to get our customers back, follow them, offer them a service different from the competition, a service without grey spots.

In business, things move so fast that in some cases, we don’t know where to turn. So we will have to align ourselves towards the customer experience if we don’t want to sink.

“There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire the entire staff, from the director to the employee, simply by spending his money elsewhere.”

– Sam Walton (1928–1992) (Entrepreneur, Founder of Walmart)

 

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Yanick Jomphe is a training consultant and a specialist in the implementation of CRM reminder systems. She holds a B.A.A., M.B.A. and Ph.D. on the impact of stakeholder involvement in the implementation of management tools on organizational performance. Online training available at [email protected]