By F Kamaruddin

I was reading one of my fav blogs, Naomi’s Blog and a post in January caught my attention and interest. She had been on a family vacation in Italy, and she shared with her readers her experience in a tarverna and at the Ducati Caffe, where the mood of the evenings were set by how the people in the two cafes greeted their patrons.
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We like to highlight personal experiences of customer service, brilliant or otherwise, here on our blog. This is what we found on one of our favorite radio stations, BFM 89.9.

Malek Ali wrote about the service from Bloomberg when their terminal keyboard had a problem. Pay attention to what he said about how long it took from “Hi, I have a problem with your keyboard” to resolution.
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By M Nair

Before we dive in to answer this question, let me just ask you one first: If you are a soccer coach in the final match that will determine the winner of the league cup, would you rely on your star goalkeeper to make the saves or would you send in a fresh new player to do the job? Likewise, the same can be said for the telephone – would you have a professional record the voice prompts or leave the task to an employee with a ‘sexy voice’? I can guarantee you that your message will not be delivered in the way that your brand should sound.
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By F Kamaruddin

Unless you have been living the life of a hermit in a cave deep in the forest for the last few years, the amount of time you’ve spent in telephone calls would be more than five minutes a day, according to Wikianswers. Regardless of what your company does, people will call your office every day. When people deal with your organization over the telephone, what’s their experience? Is everyone managing every phone call successfully? Or do you have some people with the great knack of handling telephone calls well while the rest can’t even be trusted to answer a ringing telephone? There is a way to improve this picture. We have three rules of effective listening to help you get started now in creating a memorable positive experience for your callers.

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By F Kamaruddin

How many times have you experienced the following when you make a telephone call?

Andy* : Hello?
Annie : Yes?
Andy : Is William there?
Annie : William? Not here. He’s in the bathroom.
Andy : Oh. Can I leave a …
Annie : < Hangs up >
Andy : ??
* fictional characters

For many of us, the telephone is the first contact we have with an organization. As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. And that first impression can either leave customers calling elsewhere, or have them excited about learning more about your products or services.
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By Vincent Bouw MSM, CPC

In today’s business world we now can compete with each other in a virtual market space where time and space get a whole different meaning. However, amongst all these changes, some things remain the same. Business is essentially still about making money or saving money and therefore about managing the performance of the organisation and perhaps more accurately managing the human capital performance.
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By F Kamaruddin

Do you want:
• Employees who will serve customers better?
• Your company to market more effectively?
• Your people to find the working environment more meaningful?

You can have them, if you have:
• Employees who understand what is expected of them,
• A company that has organizational focus, AND
• Internal and external strategies that fit well.

How close are you to get what you want, right now?
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