Your Fast Guide to Sharon Drew Morgen’s Customer Service tips 1 Never let any phone ring more than 3 times. That's standard. 2. Never leave anyone on hold more than 10 minutes. Forty five minutes is unconscionable, although often used in the technology sector. 3.When you hear that a customer is annoyed or angry, have your customer service rep apologize immediately: "I'm so sorry you are upset. Let's see if we can take care of this for you. You shouldn't have had to go through this." It's simple; the customer is annoyed because something happened that shouldn't have happened. And your rep is your brand ambassador. Ignoring that person's feelings, and going straight to task ("Um. Right. What is your service tag number?"), is a bad, bad choice. 4. When a company representative answers a call from a queue, and has no idea who she is speaking with, answering the phone with "Customer Service. What is your account number?" is NOT ok. It's just as easy to start with "Hi. My name is Ray. Who am I speaking with please? How can I help you today?" Simple. Two human being speaking to one another as if they each mattered. 5. Customers should be at the very center of your company, and decisions should flow through and around their care. Change your focus to one of customer support/retention/delight, rather than product. 6. Bring ideas and data in from your customers to other departments that can use the information to support your business and your other customers. Make sure you get the names of those people who have given you good ideas, and send them a simple 'thank you' note. Give each of your reps a format to deliver these tips over to other departments and managers. Your best ideas will come from your customers. 7. Pay your reps in relation to how long they keep customers - not just for acquiring them. 8. Make it easy for your reps to cross sell across departments and products. Otherwise they won't, and your competition will get the business you've left on the table. 9. Train your phone reps to be human beings, not automatons. Have them speak as if they were real people talking to other real people. 'Professional' does not mean wooden.

Source:  Sharon Drew Morgen is a consultant to global companies seeking to add 'people' to their technology implementations. She is also an entrepreneur, trainer and author of over 200 articles and three books. Her bestseller, Selling with Integrity, (Available through this website and any good bookshop) has been translated into five languages and is the seminal work on new-paradigm sales and decisioning. Sign up for more of Sharon Drew’s concepts through her The Buying Facilitation® Newsletter, available at the website below. Sharon's new e-book: Buying Facilitation: the new way to sell that influences and expands decisions is available through her website.

Links:  Sharon Drew can be reached at sdm@austin.rr.com . Her website is www.newsalesparadigm.com.

Your turn. In the spirit of raising performance thresholds in customer service, if you have a Fast Guide of your own to share with eCustomerServiceWorld's Best Practice community, email it to PhilDourado@eCustomerServiceWorld.com.