Solutions BD - Identifying and Servicing Customer Needs

Where are you Now

Customer service is a journey not an event. Along the way the business environment will change and you will need to learn how to monitor your performance in order to improve.

Rate yourself on the following audit. Mark the scale with a number between 1 & 10 to denote where you are now and a score for where you want to be in six months. Be careful when setting your target, to high a goal will mean applying of large resources including time. Is that realistic? You can always reset beyond the do by date and improve again.

Where are the gaps? Which areas need immediate attention? How will you approach it? Who will help? Who will be responsible for the outcome?

Use the following table to list your top areas for improvement and the actions for moving forward.

Top Issues	Actions
1.
2.
3.

Customer Needs

As a Customer Service provider you should ensure that these needs are addressed for all your customers.

Customers needs may be immediate or in the future. They may not even know what they need or want. There are a certain number of needs universal to all customers and some needs relevant to individual customers.

What are some individual needs you can think of?

The best way to find out what your customer needs is to simply actively listen to what your customer is telling you and to ask effective questions.

Active listening

When you are actively listening to your customers you:

Concentrate on the customer’s words, consciously and deliberately. Keeping your thoughts on them not on what you are going to say next.
Avoid interrupting. Let them talk first then have your turn.
Don’t anticipate what the client is going to say.
Don’t ignore negative comments even if they seem minor compared to any positive comments being made.
Look for real meaning behind what the customer is saying. Listen for what the customer is feeling, wanting and thinking. Note their non verbal communication as well as what they are saying.
Provide feedback to the customer by restating or paraphrasing what they have said in your own words.
Clarify with questions if you don’t understand or need more information.

The most effective questioning technique when trying to identify a client’s needs is to ask open questions. Open questions cannot be answered by ‘yes’ or ‘no’. They encourage the customer to give an answer enabling you to develop the conversation to gain more information about the customer’s needs. Open questions usually begin with how, what, when, where and why. For example:

What would you like us to do?
What can I do for you?
What else should I know so that I can help you?
What sort of things are you looking for?
Why do you need this pre-paid?

Hints …..

Don’t rush the customer into answering and don’t put words into their mouth. This way you are helping the customer to work out for themselves what it is that they want. In turn this will help them to feel in control of the situation and will build their trust and loyalty.
Don’t accept answers that are vague or misleading. Keep asking questions until you have the specifics you need.
If you cannot meet the customer’s needs say so. You may be able to suggest alternatives or possibly a more suitable supplier.
Clarify and confirm with the customer that you have understood all their needs.

By using the skills covered above you can make sure that you understand the client’s needs right from the start. This makes the identification and provision of services or products much easier and will help you evaluate how well you met the customer’s needs. Never jump to the conclusion that you know what it is the customer wants. Always confirm with the customer what their needs are.

If you need assistance with developing your customer service strategy, contact us. We also provide professional and accredited training services on a range of topics including customer service. click here for more information.