Customer Relations: Foster positive relationships with customers to enhance company image.

Explain the nature of positive customer relations

A positive customer relations mindset means believing that your customers: deserve the very best, are your employers, deserve your focused attention, have the right to expect things of me, and have important problems and complaints. Positive customer relations yield benefits to the business, the employees, and the customer. Businesses benefit by being more competitive, obtaining repeat business, and greater profits. Employees may receive customer compliments and perhaps a raise or promotion for good customer service skills. Customers benefit by having a more pleasant, satisfactory buying experience. This creates an atmosphere of goodwill. Positive customer relations need to be demonstrated when speaking to customers in person, over the phone, or online. It should also be evident while handling complaints, inquiries, and requests. Demonstrate good customer relations by doing the following: considering and attempting to meet their needs, concentrating on them without distractions, following up with them, following through on what you say you are going to do, and being efficient in handling issues.

Demonstrate a customer-service mindset

A service mindset is an outlook that focuses on creating customer value, loyalty and trust. A business with this outlook wants to go beyond simply providing a product or service. It wants to create a positive and indelible imprint in the customer's, or even in the prospect's, mind. To do this, a business has to care about the customer or prospect experience and work continuously at enhancing it. • Listen carefully to the customer's complaint and acknowledge that you are there to help—in this case that the business meeting has been disrupted • You know you have a customer-service mindset if you: o talk about positive customer interactions more than negative o you view negative customer interactions as opportunities to learn even more about the customers' needs and expectations o you create opportunities for customer contact

Build and maintain relationships with customers

Employees should communicate with customers and have a positive attitude to keep bringing them back.

Reinforce service orientation through communication

Service orientation=listening to and understanding the customers, satisfaction is of utmost importance Demonstrated through: prompt greetings, full attention, relevant question, empathy with concerns, knowledge, verbal and non verbal encouragement, thanking individual, courteous, try to go above and beyond, follow through

Develop rapport with costumers

Trust builds rapport. Your customers will learn to trust you if you do what you say. Keep your commitments, call when you say you will, and always follow through.

Interpret business policies to customers/clients

o Define the term business policy: A general rule that personnel should follow in order to avoid misunderstandings and apply fair and consistent treatment to all situations. o Describe reasons for having business policies: The policies create a business image and help you to consistently maintain that image. o Explain types of business policies that affect customers: purchase policies & return and exchange policies o Discuss the role of employees in interpreting business policies. Employees are the ones dealing with customer inquiries and must learn how to apply business policies to each situation Clear policies must be communicated to employees so they will understand how to implement. o Explain when business policies should be interpreted: Every situation is unique and different & Policies must sometimes be adjusted to fit the occasion while maintaining their initial integrity. o Explain guidelines for interpreting business policies to customers. State the policy and explain how it applies to the situation. Stress the desire to maintain fairness through the use of the policy Remain calm. Answer any questions on store policy

Respond to customer inquiries

o Explain the nature of customer inquiries: Inquiries can be sincere or hidden (Sometimes price is the hidden problem and the customer will complain about color) o Identify the types of customer inquiries. merchandise (defective, wrong size or color, damaged, improper labeling, not meeting customer needs, customer purchased the wrong product) store personnel (high pressure sales, rudeness, providing insufficient product information, being inaccurate) business (unhappy with the number and types of services offered, unhappy with business policies) o Discuss the importance of possessing knowledge of the company (e.g., policies, history, capabilities, etc.). You must understand how to apply company policies to each situation in order to remain fair. You must know the company capabilities in order to handle the customer inquiry rapidly and satisfactorily o Discuss the importance of possessing adequate product knowledge. Product knowledge is a necessity in order to respond to the customer situation in the best manner. Product knowledge is needed to understand the customer's problem with a product Understanding of the product makes it easier to understand the company policy in respect to the product o Describe guidelines for handling customer inquiries. Listen to determine reason for complaint (shows a concerned attitude) Restate the complaint (show your understanding of the problem) Investigate the problem (determine how to handle) Explain the store policy (desire to maintain fairness by following store policy) Take action (quick action makes the customer feel important) o Demonstrate use of proper procedure for solving a customer inquiry in a marketing situation.

Adapt communication to the cultural and social differences among clients (CS)

o Purpose: To avoid offending clients with your lack of sensitivity to their needs & To better assist clients to make the right purchase for their needs. Our market is very global and therefore impacts many different cultures socially and geographically. The success of all companies depends on their abilities to understand cultural differences and work with them to keep all customers happy and well-informed to make the best buying decisions. It is impossible to achieve customer satisfaction without clearly communicating product features and benefits. Clients could be offended by your lack of understanding of their culture's typical use of a product. o Ways to adapt Language Material culture (understand the way a country makes products and you will understand how they value the products) Aesthetics (what a culture considers valuable or beautiful) Social organization (what is acceptable in a culture) Religious beliefs, attitudes, values, space and time o Skills: (e.g., empathy, risk taking, problem solving, etc.). patient, flexible, and empathetic are key personality traits when dealing with communication barriers.