Welcome to Reservationless Plus Conferencing. Enter your conference code, followed by the pound or hash sign. Thank you. To unmute, press star now. You will now be placed into conference. To mute your line, press star 6. To unmute, press pound 6. To unmute, press... Barry, are you in? I'm here. Yep. Okay. Just one sec, please. Yeah. Why don't we get going? Just let me... Okay. All right. All right. Why don't we get going? Okay. Do you need an intro or? No. You can just start, and I'm going to hit mute, okay? Very good. We should have one person joining us. Or, yeah, you can wait. I just sent them the link. All right. It says this is recording, so is all this recording, too? Yeah, but they'll edit that. Oh, they will. Okay. Yep. All right, whenever you're ready, Barry. Welcome to our webinar today, What to Do When You're Busy. Thank you for your participation. And it's a great topic. Obviously, we're all busy and the perception of being busy is often a reality. So it's good to have a strategy when you are busy. And that's what we're going to go through in this webinar is to hopefully give you some good hints on easy-to-use adjustments to the interaction when you are busy. So let's get moving. My name is Barry Himmel, and you see I'm with Signature Worldwide. We have been working with AED for several years now, for 15 or so years, and we're excited to be a part of this, and we appreciate the opportunity. I've been with Signature for almost 20 years, and we are a little bit about us. We're a company located in Columbus, Ohio. We specialize in the customer experience training, so all aspects of the customer experience is what we do, and certainly what to do when you're busy is an important part of the customer experience. So as I mentioned, we're going to talk about different strategies today in terms of how do you make this a memorable experience. Just because someone's busy doesn't mean that they need to compromise the level of service they receive from you, and that's really an important criteria. Being busy is a good thing, and managing how busy you are is an important thing. So like I said, we're going to talk about that, and we're going to talk about fast service versus good service, and how do you keep customers loyal regardless of what's going on in the organization. This concept of speedy service, one of my favorite topics is advancement versus continuance, and those are big words for a strategy and what to do when you are busy. We're also going to talk about giving customers options, and then get into specific skills on that we like to term as a callback when you are busy as a viable option. So let's get busy here, speaking of busy, and jump into this. So a question here, and delivering faster service and great prices are two of the most important things to my customers. So this is an important question, and with an equipment dealership, this is not a fast food restaurant. So while fast service is important, and certainly competitive prices, for the long-term viability of your customers, I'm not sure it's foremost. Again, this isn't a fast food restaurant, so you're not being judged on how quickly you get someone in or out. They need your services, and they want a quality experience, and sometimes that experience will take time, and if they perceive that you don't have the time to spend with them, then you risk losing that customer's loyalty. So I'm guessing that some of the time it is important, and you're going to have customers that need it immediately, but the overriding factor in building your mentality of servicing your customers, it needs to be quality. So here's a quote, and American consumers are not the finicky, price-conscious bargain hunters they've been made out to be. Customers will pay for good service with both their cash and their time. I think their last statement is kind of interesting. Customers will pay for good service. We know that's true. They will pay a premium for good service. That's why we have high-end retailers, and that's why you position your company so that it's not the cheapest on the market. You want to make sure there's good quality involved, but they're also paying with your time, and you're still in a people business where customers call, or they walk in, or they email. They need that interaction because this isn't something that is just replicated with an online experience, and it's transparent to the customer. They need that human interaction, and when you have that human interaction, you can't control when they're going to call in or when they're going to visit. So there's going to be times that you're going to be busy, and you need to be able to manage that interaction. So customers will pay for good service in terms of both their cash and their time. Here's another compelling statistic for you. Eighty-one percent of companies with strong capabilities and competencies for delivering customer experience excellence are outperforming their competition. So let's leave that up there for a moment and let you take a look at it. Eighty-one percent, so obviously a vast majority, they're going to continue to do business with companies that deliver an exceptional level of service. So it's better versus faster. They're going to want better service, and better service doesn't mean to be rushed. So going back to the theme, what to do when you're busy, handling multiple priorities, that will be an important component of what they do. So what keeps customers loyal? Well, if you were in front of me right now and I would ask you this question, you would come up with 30 different things for your organization. It's really a good question to have, and it's a good discussion to have internally. So there's lots of things that keep customers loyal. And we measure it all the time. We have loyalty studies, and every time you go to a store or a restaurant, they're always asking you to take a survey because they want to see what makes you loyal to them. But here's a few things. One is to be a knowledgeable staff, friendly interactions, good value, convenience. It could be pricing. It could be the hours that you keep, the quality of your equipment. So there's lots of things that keep customers loyal. One of them is probably not rushed service or the perception that you cannot spend enough time with them. So if you're busy, congratulations, that's a great thing. And it could be a staffing issue. You don't have enough staff, and you're going to have to deal with that. There also is a strategy on how do you and your team manage the situation when there is this level of activity, and you do have multiple things going on at one time. So loyalty is an important component, and loyalty brings this customer satisfaction, customer delight, and there's lots of different factors that build into it. And the more you know about what keeps your customers loyal, then obviously the better you can plan for that and address their needs. So we'll often talk to customers about this perception of being busy, and I'm going to talk about two things here in terms of the perception. One is the perception of being busy, and the other one is the perception of indifference. They're very similar. Sometimes people feel, oh my gosh, I've been so busy, I don't have time to take care of that. And so you get in this mode of busyness, and that becomes your way of life. Even if you're not that busy, you tend to get into this habit of rushing. And when you have this habit of rushing, you also have this attitude of indifference, or it comes across as indifference. And indifference is not necessarily rude service, or it's just this attitude of I don't care. And it comes across. All of a sudden, you're not listening as closely. And really reading into that, when a customer, when you don't have time for a customer, that comes across loud and clear. And as I said, it's maybe in the way that you're listening, certainly in the way you're answering questions, maybe it's even the questions that you're answering. You know, I've had plenty of situations, one just recently where, you know, I sent an email sharing frustrations, and they never really addressed that. So they totally missed that, what the real issue was, because they weren't listening, they weren't asking the right questions. So there is this perception, and these are bad habits that you pick up when you are busy, and it becomes a crutch, and it's a crutch that ultimately you're not going to be busy at all, because customers are going to pick up on this attitude of indifference. And if I want indifference, then I can order online, or I can order from one of your competitors. So I think it's really worthy of the discussion of are we coming across that we care, because we do. We have a great business, and you need to demonstrate this care consistently. And the care comes from just good, solid, customer experience skills, and if you don't have the time, and it's implementing strategies in terms of getting back to the customers. But you can't compromise the quality of that interaction. So, make a point to help them feel like they are the customer of the day, that they're the most important, they're the center of your universe, and I know that you would feel that way, and because you're participating in this webinar, it's important to you. So the customer should be the center of your universe, and as it says on the screen, and as I mentioned before, when they feel that you're rushing them, and they don't, they get this perception that you don't value their business, and that's not the kind of perception that you want to be able to deliver. So, myth or fact? If I sound like I'm hurrying, the customer will recognize that I'm trying to respect their time and give me a break if I make mistakes or sound rushed. So if I sound like I'm hurrying, the customer will recognize that I'm trying to respect their time and give me a break if I make mistakes or sound rushed. And of course, that's a myth. Customers want great service. So you go to a restaurant, the restaurant's really busy, does that mean you lower your You don't expect the food to be as good, you don't expect the service to be good. Not at all. You still have high standards. As a matter of fact, your standards might even have increased because you're waiting longer and you're expecting better service. So when you get rushed, or it isn't the quality, then I pretty much guarantee you next time you drive by that restaurant, they're not going to be quite as busy. So every customer deserves your best. And we'll get to these strategies in terms of what do you do when you are busy, but we want to build with the fact that rushed and hurried service is not what customers buy into. So that obviously is a myth. They really don't care how busy you are, they're busy too. So it's great that you're busy, but that's not the customer's issue. They want great quality service. That's the message here. So the importance of the perception, and it's important that you're aware of how you look and sound and respond. The less rushed you feel, the more productive you become. So there is this body language that comes with being, the perception of being busy, this hurried look that you might have. So when you relax and you're minimizing your distractions, you are more focused and you become more efficient. And you are in the moment with that customer. And this efficiency means that you're making fewer mistakes, that you're better prepared for them. So ultimately, in the perfect world, you're going to gain time. Because you are on top of the situation, and you're not backtracking. And your desk doesn't look like my desk does, where you're constantly scrambling and finding out what you're doing, because you're so busy. So a lot of this comes across when you're working with a customer in terms of who do they want to be able to interact with. So my suggestion, and we're going to get to this in a moment, is that you take a deep breath. So three things to practice. Take a moment before you answer the next call, take a deep breath, take a break. Hopefully you have a manager that understands what it is that you need to be doing. Your tone of voice is really important, in person or over the phone, or even in an email. You can tell someone's hurry by their spelling errors and the proofreading of their message. So all of this is a reflection of what's happening within that interaction. Your pace. Is it appropriate for the interaction? It doesn't have to be painfully slow, but it should be appropriate to what the customer wants. So I think this is a good takeaway as you develop a strategy for what to do when you are busy, in terms of taking those moments. So practice using these skills in your greeting. One of the reasons that we're big at Signature on this greeting, and we like, you know, thank you for calling or thank you for choosing ABC Equipment, this is Barry, how can I help you? So a little longer, but that takes four seconds, a little longer greeting helps you slow down and helps you manage the pace. I remember years ago we had a client, AAA, the travel agency, and the person would answer the phone because they were so busy, AAA, and what inevitably would happen is that 50% of the callers would say, is this AAA, because the person was so rushed they could never understand it. So using a greeting like this helps you with your pace and helps the customer adjust to your pace, and helps the caller adjust to your pace. So thank you for choosing ABC Equipment, this is Barry, how can I help you? Or how can I direct your call, whatever it might be. So you have this nice little salutation of thank you for choosing, you have your company name, you have your name, and then an offer for assistance. Those are the components that we look for in a good greeting. And that helps you do the skills that we talk about here in terms of controlling your breathing, your tone, and your pace. So let's do this myth or fact again, my customer is always in a hurry and just wants to get information about price and move on with their day. And that's a myth. A customer may be in a hurry, but the reality is they want information and they want quality. At no point am I talking about making what's typically a three minute interaction an eight minute interaction, or any longer. They just want to make sure that time that they spend with you is quality, and that they're getting the information that they want. And you're doing it on your terms as well, so ultimately it can build a more loyal customer and a piece of business. Because the customer is in a hurry doesn't mean that we compromise our service standards. Because you're in a hurry as an employee, doesn't mean that you compromise your service standards. No one wins in that situation. And it impacts your reputation and it impacts the value of your job as well. Customer's perception of service, provider's courtesy, and their willingness to help were far more important than the speed of service in generating customer engagement. So according to Gallup Poll, speed versus service, this confirms what we've been talking about here in terms of their courtesy and their willingness to help were more important than the speed of service. And sometimes it's just that smile, or taking that breath, or your body language that removes that perception that I'm too busy to take care of you. More from that study. Speed is a factor, but it's less important than having providers who can deliver service in a friendly and competent manner. So when I list the agenda, maybe these terms were a little different, or I should say different, but you're not quite as aware of these. Advancement versus continuance. This is a philosophy, and it's important that, where am I at with this customer? So making the most of a busy time is critical to your product. So we like it when you're busy. That's a good thing. But you need to be able to manage that. And you need to be able to capture the business. So let's take a look at these two things here. And advancement is, and I'm going to read this, so we can really truly understand it. Advancement, when you're in control of the service interaction, and advance it to close, which is the next phase in the process of closed sales. Advancement contains specific information. So advancement means you're in control of the situation. And there's a specific next step. So that's an important distinction. As opposed to a continuance, when the customer is in control of it. And to me, this is my guiding principle in sales. If I advance this relationship, or are we at a continuance level? And we're at a continuance level, I as a salesperson, I as the employee, am at a distinct disadvantage. So here's a good example of this advancement versus continuance. And we often get into this continuance phase when you're busy. And the customer says, well, let me think about it. I'll call you back. So you spent six minutes explaining this piece of equipment, or this part, or whatever the situation might be. And the person says, well, all right, let me think about it. I'll call you back. That's a continuance. I've lost control of that situation. So this time that I've invested in it could be lost. As opposed to, hey, can we go ahead and set this up for you? Would you like me to ship you the part? So you maintain control of it. Even if the customer does work with you on this continuance, let me think about it. My comeback always is, that's fine. I understand you might need to think about it. How about if I call you back next Tuesday? So there's still some level of advancement. I still maintain some control over that sales situation. And when I call back next Tuesday, maybe things won't be quite as hectic. At the end of the day, you want to be able to maximize every opportunity. And that means adjusting your strategy throughout the day. What we want to be able to do is ultimately ask for the business and close the sale. The continuance, all it really does is add to the amount of work that you're going to have to do later or potentially lose that business. So advancement is good. Continuance, not quite as good. Advancement is going to secure us a sale, hopefully. Continuance, we don't know. So here's some examples of continuance, which, again, is good. I'll put this quote together and send it to you later today. So I'm maintaining control of that situation. I'll send you a quote and call us if you get the bid, recognizing that sometimes they might not be able to close that. They're just actually calling for information. But you still want to maintain control of that. The quote on that is $250. Let me know when you would like to reserve this. Can we go ahead and reserve this for you, whatever that would be. So these are examples of where you're maintaining control of the situation. More advancement examples. Can I confirm that for you today? So these are much stronger. I have all those examples. I'll put a quote together and call you next Monday. I'm maintaining control of that. I have it available. Can I reserve it? Stronger. The price is X number of hours. Would you like me to schedule a delivery? X number of hours. Would you like me to schedule a delivery? So we have those in terms of advancing that relationship. Let's talk about choices here. There could be situations where it isn't practical for you to advance the situation. And we understand that you just can't control when people are going to call, when they're going to come in, how busy you are. But how you handle that situation is absolutely critical to building that loyalty. So when you have to put someone on hold, you need to ask their permission. And what I like to do is at least give the customer choice. So let's talk about some real situations. You've got two people in your store, two customers in your store, and you're talking to someone on the phone and the phone rings again. So that situation, which happens quite often, you pick up the phone and you say, I'm currently servicing someone else, would it be all right if I put you on hold? Or call you back. Customers like to have that say in what happens to them. And we've all been on hold before. And even a, you know, I'm going to stop talking for, much to your relief, I'm going to stop talking for 10 seconds. And we can see how awkward that is once I get stopped talking. So I'm going to bring out my stopwatch on my phone right here. And I am going to stop talking for 15 seconds, we'll make it. And we can see how long that is, or the perception of time. We can see how long that is, or the perception of it being long. Alright so we're at 15 seconds and that's awkward so when you put a customer on hold they need to know that they're going to be on hold and I'm finishing up the customer could take a couple of minutes so just to set expectations on how to manage this business properly so you may ask them to hold or you may ask them to call back and you know my preference is that you call them back because you can call them back on your terms and we'll talk about that a little more in a moment here but giving the customer the option they would appreciate that if they say hold then you need to set expectations in terms of how long you think they'll be on hold. A good interaction and we'll get into that so someone calls in thank you for calling ABC equipment this is Barry how can I help you? The customer says I need a part for my XYZ there so I'd be happy to help you however I'm servicing someone on the phone on the other line right now may I ask you to hold okay so I'm asking permission or I'd be happy to give you a call within X number of minutes so you're using please you're setting expectations and then when you return to the call make sure you thank the customer for holding so thank you for holding I'd be happy to help you right now. You go through your greeting thank you for calling ABC equipment this is Barry how may I help you? They tell you what they're looking for you let them know that you're currently servicing someone else and you're in the process of finishing up would it be alright if I put you on hold it could take up to two minutes so you set expectations they say sure you say thank you you get back on the call and you thank them for their patience and then you do an exceptional job in the interaction. So what we like to do at Signature is we like to proceduralize things this is essentially what I did so step one was answer the phone quickly and promptly through a range of left step two you use that greeting offer to hold you should ensure that they're not on hold ideally for more than 30 seconds we just went through a 15 second exercise and that was pretty painful. When retrieving a call from hold make sure you thank the customer so it's as simple as that and then really step six should be do an exceptional job servicing them. I go back to just because you're busy it doesn't mean you have to compromise your service just because you're busy doesn't mean your customers are expecting anything less. We also have another strategy to what to do when you're busy and handing multiple opportunities at one time and we call it a callback. So callback is when we ask the customers permission to contact him or her at a later scheduled time and this is an important strategy. Ultimately if you're able to call them back within or before your promised time it does promote service excellence and if the customer knows that you're good for your word and if you say you're gonna call back in half hour and it's below a half hour then that's a good impression. They know that they'll get better service when you call them back and that you're not gonna compromise or rush through their call. So here's three things that are important in a callback. One is to be polite, use real language and get the two N's. So the two N's, the caller's name and the company name. Excuse me, their name and the phone number. So those would be the two N's. So here's an effective callback. Same step one, same step two. So answer the phone promptly, use the up-to-date greeting. Thank you for calling ABC Equipment. This is Barry, how may I help you? Your call is very important to me. I'm currently servicing a customer here at the location. Would it be all right if I gave you a callback within 15 minutes and then within 20 minutes, whatever you can exceed. If you say within the next 24 hours then you can be pretty much guaranteed they're gonna go on to the next customer or the next business. So it needs to be prompt and even if they have and you call them back, you're gonna leave them with a good impression and that you're true to your word. So the callback is really a great strategy. Let's consider the options if you don't do this callback. They sit at home for a while, so now they're not very happy. You rush them, so now they're not very happy. You're not feeling good about your job, they're not feeling good about doing business with you. So this is really a good option for creating this exceptional level of service. And then of course, return the call within that time frame. Hopefully you're in a situation where maybe there's a manager or someone else in your organization saying, hey, can you call this person back? They're looking for this. And in my perfect world, Jim asked me to give you a call. He's still with a customer. He indicated that you were looking for a, you know, gasket, whatever it might be. So think of the great impression that we'll have. Here's an example. Currently helping another customer and your call is very important to me, rather than rush your car, keep you on hold. May I please get your name and number and call you back within 15 minutes. Succinct, not very mushy, it's to the point. And what I like about this is it's phrased so that it's a benefit to the customer, rather than rush your call or keep you on hold. So this is to their benefit. May I please get your name and number and call you back. So those are two N's within 15 minutes. So in review, is stature service really better? I'm convinced it isn't. Again, we're not at a fast food restaurant. Our customers want high quality service. We need to keep our customers loyal. Study after study shows the value of a loyal customer and you know that in your own spending patterns. Loyalty trumps all and we're spending millions and millions of dollars measuring customer loyalty. Rushing customers isn't going to build loyalty. We want efficient service and efficient sometimes is quick, but quick is not rushed. We talked about advancement versus continuance. And you want to be able to advance the relationship. So even your strategy when you're busy should be, I'm still maintaining control of this situation here in a positive manner. And that we didn't leave it that the customer will call me back. So even if you use that call back and say, yeah, what? And the customer says, no, I'll call you back. You know, that's potentially in this opportunity. And I would push back. Sure, I'd be happy to give you a call back in 15 minutes. So my strategy would be to certainly keep that up. Customers like choices. We talked about choices in terms of may put you on hold or kind of call you back. So they can maintain some sort of control over that. The effect of call back, your call is important to me rather than rush you. Would it be all right if I gave you a call back within 15 minutes, within 30 minutes, and whatever you have to do, you have to exceed that. So the concept is simple, but the concept is important. What to do when you're busy is an important strategy for, and I hope you're very, very busy this summer and doing this, you know, for many equipment companies, summer is their busy season. And you want to be able to take advantage of as many of these opportunities as possible. I notice there's a little error there, and it's not barryathemo, it's just barryhemoisignatureworldwide.com. So I really appreciate your participating in this, either live or at a later time on demand. We'd love to help you. If you have any questions, as Signature, this is what we specialize in. And I thank you for your participation today. Bob, is there anything else we need here? I think we're good, Barry. I'll go ahead and take over the leader from you, and we're all set. Excellent. All right, sorry for all the technical difficulties. That's all right, it happens.

What to Do When You're Busy

strategies for providing quality service

not rushing customers

maintaining a high level of service

advancement and continuance in customer interactions

giving customers options

callbacks as a strategy

customer loyalty and satisfaction