Subscribers receive as a free gift an Audio workshop entitled Service Essentials Action Groups
Banks, Building Societies and other Financial Institutions - Are you being Roasted in Customer Satisfaction Surveys?
Many organisations ARE getting the very Customer Satisfaction results that you dream of – proving that it IS possible!
- Do you frequently observe friction between staff and lack of co-operation between departments?
- Is there a trend of negative mindsets and high staff turnover?
- Are your staff repeating the same mistakes, leading to customer complaints?
- Are you losing customers?
Don’t despair, hope is at hand. Read on!
Service Essentials™ Action Groups
Our Service Essentials™ Action Groups are intended just for you. Specifically all your staff that have dealings with customers whether face to face, over the telephone, or by email. It combines group work with one-on-one consulting over a period of three months. It is ideal for busy staff that cannot afford to be away from the branch for lengthy periods of time, as they attend only one 90 minute session every fortnight in-house. If you already have training time built in to your business hours we can even tailor this programme to run during that allocated time. Groups are limited to a maximum of 16 participants to ensure maximum interaction and personal attention.
The programme is structured in such a way as to maximise the application and retention of skills learned, and an HR component is built-in at the end to ensure that the process continues long after the formal programme has ended. Unsurprisingly, the Service Essentials™ Action Groups are our most popular Customer Service offering.
Structure of the Service Essentials™ Action Group
This is a three month programme consisting of one 90 minute group session on-site every fortnight, where we cover one of the Six Essential Practices for Great Customer Service in depth. We can also add additional modules on Service Essentials for the Telephone and Email for those staff members who regularly use those media for customer contact. Each of these includes case-studies which are tailored to you. At the end of each session, participants rate themselves on the specifics covered and complete an action plan for that module to implement immediately.
On in-between weeks we hold a group tele-class to discuss progress against the action plans and provide a forum to share ideas, feedback and support.
Action Group sessions are highly interactive, ensuring that information and knowledge is absorbed and retained. Strong focus is directed to ensuring that the knowledge gained can be implemented in a practical manner by participants. Each session includes information, discussion, case-studies, team interaction and smaller-group exercises.
Because of the structure of this programme participants have the greatest retention of what they learn, and the results are longer lasting.
At the end of the programme participants complete a consolidated action plan which is then reviewed by their supervisor or manager after 30, 60 and 90 days.
So, What Are These Six Essential Practices?
- Maintain an Attitude of Service Excellence. This includes your attitude to the organisation and how you speak of it to others; responding quickly and cheerfully to all customers; and reprioritising work when customer needs arise.
- Identify Customer Needs. Asking customers probing questions; recognising all customer needs and responding with respect; and identifying customer needs expressed verbally or non-verbally.
- Use Customer-Friendly Body Language and Words. Greeting all customers with a smile; using a cheerful and enthusiastic tone of voice; and practicing open and friendly body language and eye contact.
- Practice Excellent Service at Every Customer Contact Point. Keeping all customer areas clean and tidy; and addressing problems on the spot before customers become dissatisfied.
- Handle Difficult Customers with Care. Allowing angry customers to vent by listening carefully; using problem-solving skills to resolve issues before they escalate; and not taking a customer’s anger personally.
- Exceed Customer Expectations. Anticipating needs and special requests; acting quickly to delight customers; and shocking your customers with great service that they do not expect.
How do you Know Whether Service Essentials is for You?
If you ever receive customer complaints then Service Essentials is made for you. But what about the complaints you don’t receive - the ones from customers that would rather just leave and take their business elsewhere? Did you know that a recent Harvard Business Study determined that 64% of customers leave an organisation because of bad service or discourtesy from an employee.
64%!!!
Your customers are not some random people doing one-off transactions, never to be seen again. Typically the average customer can bank at the same institution anywhere between 10 years and for life. They may have their current account with you, their life savings and investments, loans, credit cards, car finance and the mortgage on their home. They may open their children’s accounts with you; buy insurance and pensions from you. So what value do you put on an individual customer?
More importantly: How would you quantify the cost of losing just one customer?
Many of our clients regard the Service Essentials Programme as a pre-investment in their clients.
Benefits from the Programme
Increased commitment from staff who take pride in their work and have better job satisfaction, leading to friendlier, faster, more efficient service and reduced staff turnover. Satisfied customers who remain loyal and evangelise about how great your service is, to others.
Clients who have benefited from the Service Essentials programme have typically found an average improvement of over 20% in their Customer Satisfaction Polls. They have seen average increases of 15.5% in the number of customers marking them ‘Excellent’ rather than ‘Good’, and an average decrease of 54.6% in respondents selecting ‘Poor’ levels of service!
Here’s what some of them have had to say:
- 'Service Essentials is a powerful empowerment programme that changed attitudes and increased productivity and customer satisfaction. The measured results demonstrate significant positive change that has remained stable over time.'
- 'They focused on our real needs, identified our problems, and developed a solution that worked for us. The customised approach hit the nail on the head for our critical service development needs.'
- 'The Service Essentials customer service system has touched all levels of employees from senior executives and middle managers to frontline staff.'
- 'We now provide a better service to our community.'
About Your Group Leader
Vanessa Deakin, your Service Essentials™ facilitator, is a Service Professional and ex Bank Manager with close to 15 years experience of working with and for some of the most respected Banks and Financial Service Providers in the World. She has managed and trained staff in a variety of roles from cashiers and other frontline staff, to backoffice administrators, and from lending and mortgage advisors, to the people making credit decisions. Vanessa also spent some time lecturing students of the Institute of Bankers in South Africa.
During her career she has witnessed, been directly involved in and experienced from both sides, both the right and the wrong way to interact with clients. She is committed to helping organisations like yours to learn the necessary skills to get it right every time. Please read Vanessa’s full bio here.
Contact us if You're Interested
If you would like to explore working with us as your Customer Service partner, we would be happy to speak with you on the phone – (0208) 144 9590 - to discuss your current situation and goals and see if there is a fit. The best way to set up an appointment is to fill out the form below. We'll get back to you within two business days to confirm the meeting.
We look forward to the opportunity to speak with you,
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