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Subject: Increase Customers' Confidence With Processes

Author: Dennis S. Vogel

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 02:24:19 04/23/09 Thu In reply to: Doubter 's message, "I disagree with a universal concept of processes" on 18:57:44 04/22/09 Wed Thank you for responding. It seems you may be asking for clarification. I know we may not agree even after I clarify these points. I don’t know of any universal examples of processes. Without an in-depth study of an individual business & ability to test methods in that business, I can’t develop a definitive, tailored process. It wouldn’t be right to reveal proprietary, behind-the-scenes methods of businesses without owners’ permission. I could provide some guidelines. I think the main misunderstanding is about the length or size of processes. A process can be simple & still improve efficiency & effectiveness. Example: You can have pens & paper near your phones. If you don’t have a telephone headset & you’re right handed, you can determine when you take phone calls, you’ll pick up your hand set, then place it by your left ear. Then you can pick up a pen with your right hand & be ready to write on paper. A simple process like this may seem unusually & unnecessarily regimented until you consider the benefits. You’d be ready to hold a phone hand set between your left shoulder & head, then be able to write notes about what customers want when they call. Your notes could be passed to your staff to do what a customer wants. I’m not implying you waste time, but I’m using a “you” viewpoint to communicate this concept. This process would cut down on time being wasted if you look for a pen or paper during a call. You’d be less apt to drop your phone hand set because you wouldn’t have to transfer it between your hands while you talk & hold a pen. You’d probably reduce the necessity to ask customers to repeat things. This short process would be efficient with things & increase effectiveness & benefits for you & customers. This process could be almost universal, but cobblers & other craft-oriented people probably wouldn’t use it. Some service providers don’t accept calls because it slows their workflow. Note: Some cobblers either don’t publish their business phone numbers &/or list their home phone numbers. Reason: Customers call to ask if their shoes have been fixed, but if they didn’t call, cobblers could spend more time fixing because they’d spend less time handling phones & talking. I advise cobblers & others to use numbered work order receipts & answering machines. When a customer leaves shoes, boots, etc. to be fixed, they’d get a numbered receipt. When their footwear is ready, that number would be listed. They could call & listen to an outgoing message that includes the numbers from the receipts. The list numbers would indicate which footwear has been fixed. Their numbers would be listed for a few days or a week at the longest. If customers still didn’t pick up their completed footwear, it wouldn’t be listed any longer. I talked with a cobbler was frustrated because so many customers called & interrupted his work. He stopped publishing his business phone number. Then he was frustrated because people weren’t coming back to get their fixed footwear. Do you think the customers didn’t want to waste time going back to a cobbler shop unless they knew the work was completed? If they kept returning to the shop just to ask about their footwear before the work was done, they’d still unnecessarily interrupt a cobbler. Now with the Internet, a cobbler can have a simple web site & update the list of numbers of completed work orders. Why use numbers instead of names? Because some people would be concerned about their privacy being violated. {Oh! NO! Think of the embarrassment if town gossips found out the soles of people’s shoes are worn out.} A process could be developed to expedite posting the numbers &/or updating the list in the answering machine outgoing messages. {“& #4578 has been ready for 2 months, you hear that Ralph Smith?!”} Depending on the questions customers ask & the answers you provide, you may benefit from having a place for your books, magazines & notes, plus a quick way to find information in those sources. Processes can be used to create efficient results for people. For those who expect fast service—faster than big (giants) & medium (ogres) retailers offer—if you don’t serve them with at least the speed they expect, they may choose a different store. Consumers may feel if they end up waiting for service no matter which store they shop in, they might as well buy from giants & ogres who charge lower prices. Depending how efficiently & effectively, giants & ogres train workers; customers could be dissatisfied with the service no matter how low the prices are. Giants & ogres tend to focus on efficiency with things & skimp on effectiveness with people. Because of a lack of processes, small retailers may frustrate consumers too. With the right processes, small retailers can lower their expenses (because they’d be more efficient) & satisfy more customers (because they’d be more effective). Some processes will only solve a limited number of problems (maybe only 1). Each resulting solution may fit only specific people or situations, but hopefully those solutions would be satisfactory. Using a process would probably speed up the services. Then there’d be more time to solve less common problems. Selling more solutions resulting from processes could bring in more money because using processes would increase the speed & accuracy of actions. There’d be less wasted time & materials. Customers, business owners & workers would be less frustrated. It could also improve ego-strength because results could be consistently positive. Confident people are apt to inspire the confidence of others. Confident, reassured customers are more apt to return & refer others. Confident people are apt to try & succeed in solving less common & possibly more complex problems. Dennis S. Vogel thrivingbusiness@email.com Optimal marketing & customer service will increase customers’ confidence in you. Confident customers are more apt to buy from you. You can gain valuable insights to help you build their confidence by using my free information web site & discussion forum. http://www.lakefield.net/~thrivingbusiness/ http://www.voy.com/31049/ [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Subject	Author	Date
More Clarification Is In Order	GRand Master (To Be Announced)	16:50:12 04/23/09 Thu