Saturday, September 29, 2012

HOW'S YOUR CUSTOMER RELATIONS

www.consultantsincleaning.com


Have you ever stopped to think about all the things that go into your company's customer relations. Many people believe that if they hire a customer relations representative to visit the customers during the day everything will be fine. Well not so fast mopping man.

Let me give you my definition of customer relations---EVERYTHING WE DO, OR DON'T DO, THAT AFFECTS THE CUSTOMERS IMPRESSION OF OUR COMPANY.  Think about it, that includes a lot of "stuff". To demonstrate what I mean let me suggest you do a quick activity--

Think of a situation where you have had bad service. Maybe a restaurant, cleaners, service station, grocery store etc. Stop and think about it for a few minutes. 

Now let me ask you a couple of questions about that experience,

1. How did you feel?
2. Was the problem resolved?
3. Did you go back to that place of business?
4. Did you tell others about your experience?

Do you see how one experience can affect an organization especially if you tell someone else?

So let's list some of the things that we BSC's do or don't do that affect the customers impression of our company,

1. Our personal appearance--clean uniforms, bath every day, hair neat and trimmed etc.
2. Our cleaning equipment/closet appearance
3. Our company vehicle appearance
4. Complaining about the company in front of the customer
5. Arguing/fighting on the job when the customer is present
6. Sitting down on the job
7. Complaining to the customer about equipment you are using 
8. Complaining to the customer about "not enough time" to get the job done 
9. Complaining about other employees
10. Knowing what to do in case of emergency
11. Being honest in all of our dealings, i.e. reporting all breakages etc. 
12. Knowing how to handle special requests
13. Knowing the cleaning specifications of the building you are cleaning
14. Knowing how to clean to company guidelines
15. Always being polite around and to the customer
16. The appearance of your facilities inside and out

These are just a few I think of as I write this blog. How about gathering your staff and doing this exercise and see how many you can come up with. More importantly, how many do you come up with that you are doing well for everyone concerned. In fact, let me suggest you also do the first exercise that I started with. This will show the relationship to what customer relations is and how it can affect your organization. 

You can see that a lot goes into assuring the customers impression of your company is a positive impression. Always do your part. Good customer relations also must include the following,

1. Thorough technical training
2. A good attitude by the cleaning techs and supervision toward their work
3. A good attitude toward the customer--what are we without customers
4. Being neat and clean on the job (repeated here on purpose)
5. Knowing how to handle complaints (Be sure that your company has trained everyone on this)

I sincerely hope you understand that good customer relations is not hiring someone to visit customers and smiling. It entails EVERYONE IN THE COMPANY. In fact, you may recall I have mentioned in other sessions one of my favorite sayings by Tom Peters--If you have to have a customer relations representative in your company, what are the rest of your people doing? I agree whole heartedly. I did not employ a customer representative in any of our branches because I really believed, and still do, that it is everyone's responsibility and I should not have to hire someone to visit my customers to tell them so. 

In the spirit of good salesmanship I should mention I have a DVD available on my web site--www.consultantsincleaning.com entitled "Customer Relations Training For Supervisors and Cleaning Techs". So much for selling. 

Don't forget to listen to our FREE pod casts at www.tripodcast.com. We are nearing the end of our special daily pre-convention pod casts. I hope you have been listening and noting the sessions you are wanting to attend. Remember also that if you are a tripodcast subscriber you are able to get a 30% discount on your registration fee just by entering the code SMD30 in the promo code box on the registration blank at www.bscai.org. 

MAKE IT A GREAT DAY. Till next time.
 
 

 

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