• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Chart Your Course International

We help businesses transform themselves into exceptional places to work that attract, retain and motivate people to their full potential.

“Creating Great Places to Work”

Call 770-860-9464

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Gregory P. Smith
    • What We Do
    • Photo Gallery
    • Press Center
    • Client List
    • Testimonials | Speaking
    • Client Testimonials | Training
  • Keynotes
    • Watch Videos
    • Topics
    • Client Testimonials
    • For Meeting Planners
    • Request Speaking Engagement
  • Solutions
    • Take a 5-Minute Organizational Health Check
    • Consulting Projects
    • Suggestion Campaign (BIC)
    • Employee Retention
    • Executive Retreats
    • Team Building Workshops
  • Training
    • Custom Training
    • Online Training
    • Leadership Courses
    • DISC Workshops
    • Customer Service Programs
    • Healthcare Customer Service
  • Assessments
    • Why We Are the Best
    • FREE DISC Report
    • Sample DISC Assessments
    • DISC Reports
    • Sales
    • Emotional Intelligence Report
    • Organizational Surveys
  • Certification
    • DISC Certification Virtual – Live
    • DISC Master Certification
    • One-on-One Web Certification
    • Self-Study DISC Certification
    • Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
    • Certified DISC Trainers
    • Live Driving Forces Program
    • Driving Forces Self-Study
    • Client Testimonials
    • Members Only
  • Resources
    • Free DISC Report
    • Navigator Newsletter
    • Evaluate Your Business – Free Health Check
    • Articles
    • Free DISC E-Book
    • Teambuilding Exercises
  • Shop
  • BLOG
  • Login
  • Contact

July 27, 2012 by Greg

Create An E-Service Culture: It’s critical to the Survival-and the Success-of Your -Business “John Tschohl”

“E-service is the glue that holds the e-commerce process together.” So says John Tschohl, author of a new book titled e-Service and president of the Minneapolis-based Service Quality Institute. Tschohl predicts that those e-commerce companies that focus on technology and ignore service will fail. “E-service the critical factor,” he says. “Those companies that focus on e-service-speed, technology and price built around service-will succeed, while those that focus on technology will fall by the wayside.”

E-service is a web site that is easy to navigate. It is e-mail inquiries that are answered within hours, preferably minutes. It is offering consumers the opportunity to contact the company by telephone or fax as well as by e-mail. It is employees who make customer satisfaction a priority.

“E-service doesn’t just happen,” Tschohl says. “It has to be integrated into every facet of a company’s business, from the implementation of technology to the hiring and training of employees. At the core of an e-service culture is the belief that no transaction is complete unless the service that customers receive is sufficient enough to motivate them to return to you to purchase more products or services.”

Training, Tschohl says, is the key to creating a service culture. But, he adds, that training must be ongoing in order to create a service culture that will take root. Consider this: 65 percent of a company’s business comes from current customers. That means if a company wants to stay in business, it had better focus on winning the satisfaction of its current customers.

Tschohl offers the following Seven Secrets of Customer Service to help any company selling any product or service create a service culture.

Employ customer contact employees who do not feel that service is servile. Hire people who are people-oriented, who are naturally endowed with positive service attitudes and values. Then train them to meet your service standards.

Solicit complaints. For every customer who complains, 26 do not. Make it convenient for customers to complain-and treat them kindly when they do. Remember that, when customers complain, they are giving you the opportunity to keep their business. Surveys show that you can win back between 54 and 70 percent of those customers simply by resolving their complaints.

Commit the company to customer service-by word and by deed. Use day-to-day, how-to internal communications to remind employees of the value of good customer relations. Evaluate managers, too, on their ability to achieve customer service objectives that are part of their annual objectives.

Train and indoctrinate front-line employees. Expend most of your training resources on those employees whose knowledge and behavior influence clients and customers to return. Those people are your front-line employees. Also pay specific attention to your technical employees who, in most cases, are brilliant when it comes to technology but are sorely lacking in interpersonal skills. Everyone in your organization must be skilled at communicating with your customers, whether that communication is verbal or via e-mail.

“Training must be ongoing,” Tschohl says. “Just as a company wouldn’t run all of its advertising in one month and expect to draw customers throughout the entire year, training must be provided on an ongoing basis in order to reinforce the message a company wants to send to its employees and to change their behaviors. That training must focus on the basics. Even Tiger Woods, the most successful golfer in the world, practices the basics every day.”

Teach employees how to provide customer service. People are not born with the skills and dispositions required to do a good job for your company. “In fact,” says Tschohl, “if they are left alone to apply what they have learned from salespeople while they are customers, it is more likely that they will be oblivious, overbearing and unavailable than it is that they will be concerned and helpful.

Employ simple, inexpensive, entertaining training media to achieve maximum comprehension by front-line employees. Training should include video, which is the most effective means of communicating with the TV generation. Written materials should use simple, clear, concise language that everyone can understand. Not everyone can understand course materials written to the level at which managers and top executives are comfortable.

Treat employees like worthwhile, sensitive, deserving human beings. Treat your employees just as you expect them to treat your customers. “When you treat your employees like royalty, they will treat your customers like royalty,” Tschohl says. In the process, they will instill a loyalty that will keep your customers returning to you to purchase more products and services.

“In order to survive, you must make e-service the modus operandi at your company,” Tschohl says. “You must provide e-service that is so exceptional, so noticeable, that your customers wouldn’t even think of doing business with anyone else.”

John Tschohl is an international management consultant and speaker. Described by Time and Entrepreneur magazines as a “customer service guru,” he has written several books on customer service, including e-Service, Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service, The Customer is Boss, and Ca$hing In: Make More Money Get a Promotion, Love your Job. John also has developed more than 26 customer service training programs that have been distributed and presented throughout the world. His weekly strategic newsletter is available online at no charge.

Click Here for More customer Service Training Materials

Filed Under: Customer Service

Primary Sidebar

Search This Site

DISC Certification & Training

View Training Calender

Have Questions? 800-821-2487 or 770-860-9464

Preview Management Training Courses | Free Previews

Free Online Course Preview

Team Building Exercises

img

Complete 100% Money Back Guarantee

Our Newest and Latest Version!

icebreakersrotary

Best Icebreakers and Teambuilding Exercises Digital E-Book Pdf

Automatic Download of the E-book within seconds after you click on the “Buy Now” button on our store.. You can read it on your computer in PDF format if you like, or print it out on your printer. No shipping charges.

More information 

Icebreakers and Teambuilding ExercisesIcebreakers & Team Building Exercises – E-Book Version

  • Co-Operation
  • Crash in Piranha Valley
  • Golf Ball in the Bag
  • Space Mission to the Moon
  • Torpedo Weapons Loading Exercise
  • Scavenger Hunt
  • Terrorist Toxic Explosive Situation

 

More information

Bright Ideas Facilitator Kit

Order the Kit
Bright Ideas Employee Suggestion Campaign

Footer

IMPORTANT LINKS

  • Free Newsletter
  • Free Resources
  • DISC Certification Training
  • Executive Retreat Facilitators
  • Store
  • Blog
  • Management Training Programs
  • Privacy

RECENT POSTS

  • Getting Your Oil Changed the Ritz-Carlton Way March 21, 2023
  • How To Retain Employees in an Unstable Job Market December 15, 2022
  • 3 Tips for Training Leaders to Work With Remote Teams October 25, 2022
  • Why Hiring is Irrelevant if You Can’t Solve Retention August 24, 2022

LOCATION

Chart Your Course International
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

(770) 860-9464
CONTACT US

Free ebook

Online Training Courses

SPECIAL SAVINGS! GET 50% OFF ALL COURSES (770) 860-9464

©2002-2023 Chart Your Course International Inc