In any sales or customer service situation, smiles and positive body language go a long, long way. Showing you’re friendly, approachable and willing to help gets any customer interaction off on the right foot … but what happens next? What if you aren’t even speaking face-to-face and the phone is your only method of communication?
We all know a smile is not enough. It’s only when you learn to master words and understand that there is a good deal of potency in how you express yourself that your customer interactions become powerful, memorable and – here’s the interesting part – profitable!
Here are just a handful of all-too-common examples we’ve heard in businesses just like yours. These over-used phrases can have such powerful connotations that can potentially drive customers, and business, away from you. Can you afford to continue letting that happen?
“I/we can’t …”
It’s never good to tell a customer you can’t do something and leave it at that!! Instead, think positive. Think solution. Think customer. If you don’t have an answer at that very moment, then let them know you will find someone who does and/or reassure them with your proposed next steps.
“I don’t know …” or “I’m not sure …”
Saying this to a customer is likely to reduce their confidence in you/your product/your service/your organisation. At best, they’ll be thinking “Let me talk to someone who knows what is going on.” At worst, they’ll be thinking “Let me speak to a different company!” Either way, you could risk losing business.
“It’s on the website …”
Mindlessly redirecting people to your website may feel to them like you are “fobbing them off” or you are shuffling responsibility. With almost 90% of the British population having access to the internet (and your website), your customers aren’t calling for a brush-off. Their needs have prompted them to seek you out and they need your assistance … so help them!
So what turns a negative interaction into a positive one? Our best clients have learnt, through our tried and tested process, that when they ‘flip’ their language to focus on the positive and follow through to a successful outcome for the customer, amazing things happen!
If your team has fallen into the habit of using negative language, and you’re looking for a positive and invigorating way to speak to customers that wins them over each and every time, Sewells has the answer!
We’ve worked wonders with our methods that get impressive results – some in record time. For one household name, we took them from the bottom 10% in customer retention to the top three in their class in six months – SIX MONTHS! This stuff works.
We’d love to talk more about kick-starting your team’s language skills and performance right now. Call us on 01244 681 068. What are you waiting for?!
