Do you ever wonder what’s missing in your business?  Do you ever wonder what your customers are looking for but are not able to find?  Do you ever wonder how your customers are being treated by your employees?  Do you ever wonder how satisfied your clients are with your product or service?  Do you ever wonder if your client wished you had another or different product or service?  Do you ever wonder why your customers no longer do business with you?  Have you ever wondered why you lost a key employee?  If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, I have a very simple answer for you.  Ask!  Yes, Ask!  You will never get information if you don’t directly ask for it.

Knowing the answers to the questions like stated above is so critical to your business.  You may be working in a vacuum thinking you know what’s going on in your business.  But truly, your perception may be completely out of whack in comparison to what your employees and clients think about the same issues. And truly the only perception that matters is that of your customer – the one paying for your products &/or services.  Without customers, you have no business.  So it is extremely important to be in contact and stay in tune with your clients!

So how do you ask these simple, but profound questions?  Here are some options for your consideration:

• Train employees to ask if the customer found everything they were looking for, if they had a pleasant experience today, etc.  Get your employees into the groove of looking and asking for customer satisfaction and suggestions.
• When you lose an employee (especially a key employee), do an exit interview.  Be sure to be willing to be open and create the space for hearing the good, the bad and the ugly.  Ask them why they are leaving.  What was missing from the job with you?  What suggestions would they have for you with new or other existing employees?  What was the best thing about working for your company?  What was the worst? What could you do as a business to attract more employees like this one leaving?
• Be courageous and ask the same questions above to existing employees NOW!
• Send out surveys in the mail to clients to ask about their recent experience.  Offer an incentive for completing and returning the survey.
• Pick up the phone and call clients after they’ve done business with you.  Thank them for the order.  Ask them if everything was handled to their satisfaction.  Could you have done anything better?  Ask clients if they were able to find everything they needed.  Or did they have to go elsewhere to find other products/services that were not available with you.  They will be impressed with the personal touch of the phone call and your concern for their satisfaction.
• Have an employee or hire an outside firm to conduct phone surveys asking the questions above with your clients.
• Survey clients that shopped you but didn’t purchase from you.  Why did they choose to purchase elsewhere?  You may find out you have a pricing problem, an employee problem, a missing product from your line-up, a customer service issue, or something entirely different.  Now that you have the information, you can do something about losing the business next time.
• Ask a customer to be a mystery shopper for you.  You can see how well your employees are working your system.  Offer an incentive for your client to participate.
• Provide a link on your invoice/ticket/receipt for clients to go onto your website and give you input about their buying experience with your business.  Give them an incentive to participate.  You will be able to manipulate the information and use it collectively and analyze it.  You will also be able to easily identify over-arching or developing theme.

These are just a few options to gain knowledge about your business that you might otherwise not know.  It’s important to collect this information.  But it is even more important for you to analyze the information and make the appropriate changes with this new knowledge.  Make sure this is a continuous process and not just a one-time shot!

Kay Kotan is a Coach, Author & Speaker serving the Promotional Products Industry.  Are you having trouble honing in on your target market?  Claim your FR*EE gift – a free special report detailing the hottest niches in the promotional products industry, go to her site at www.kaykotan.com/niches.html! Ask Kay a Promotional Product Distributor business question at kay@kaykotan.com.

It’s one of those standing pet peeves of most.  We call a company to either give them business or are an existing customer and we can’t talk to a live human being.  You are forced to trample through a series of button pushing prompts only to be dumped into voice mail. Or, you find yourself on eternal hold never having your question answered or your problem resolved.

But, we as promotional product distributors can do so much better!  How refreshing would it be for your customer’s phone call to be answered by the second ring by, yes, a LIVE person?  And better yet, this LIVE person would be friendly and helpful, too!  What a dream come true for both you and the customer!

If you are a small distributorship, you may think there is no way you can justify this type of service.  But, I am here to tell you . . . no . . . emphatically insist you can’t afford not to provide this type of service.  New customers may be going down the phone book looking for a distributor.  I can’t tell you the numbers of times customers commented that I was the first one to answer the phone.  (Yes, this was during normal business hours Monday through Friday.)  If new customers don’t have their calls answered, they move on to the next distributor.

If a client has a quick question, they want it answered now so they can move onto their next project.  People don’t like things hanging over them.  They want to mark it off of their “To Do List.”  If you don’t answer the phone, you will leave that customer hanging and create undue stress and frustration.

Clients also don’t want to waste their time talking to someone who can’t help them.  Don’t just put somebody on the phones because they can steam up a mirror when they breathe.  Train this person to answer the phone promptly, saying, “Thanks for calling Acme Specialties.  This is Kay.  How may I help you?”  Let them know upfront what company they called, who they are speaking to and that you desire to help them!

The tone of the employee answering the phone is critical, too.  The tone should not imply that the caller interrupted you or is an annoyance in any way.  The speed of the conversation should reflect calmness and not giving the caller the feeling that you are rushing them.  The caller should feel a smile in the voice of the employee answering the phone.  The voice should also be friendly and sincere.  Callers also like hearing their name repeated showing both respect and acknowledgment.

If you need to check on something for the customer, give them the choice of whether they would like to hold while you check or if they would prefer that you call them back.  If they do choose to wait, make sure to place the customer on hold.  Don’t just lay the phone down on your desk.  You have no way of knowing what background noise or conversations might occur while you are away that the caller should not hear or the client might find annoying.  If you by chance need to call the client back after checking on something, do so promptly.  Always under promise and over deliver! If you believe it will take thirty minutes to find the answer, tell the customer you will get back with them within the hour.  They will be very pleased when you call back in twenty minutes!

Answering the phone promptly and correctly is like the welcome mat at your front door.  Make sure yours truly is welcoming!

Kay Kotan is a Coach, Author & Speaker serving the Promotional Products Industry.  Are you having trouble honing in on your target market?  Claim your FR*EE gift – a free special report detailing the hottest niches in the promotional products industry, go to her site at www.kaykotan.com/niches.html! Ask Kay a Promotional Product Distributor business question at kay@kaykotan.com.