Powerpoint Presentation on Managing CUSTOMER SERVICE

If the true face of any organization is its customer service people, then nothing is more important than the training of these crucial employees. These powerpoint slides offer a comprehensive approach for busy managers and trainers seeking to motivate their people and equip them with the tools they need to excel in this essential role.

These great powerpoint slides can be downloaded at http://www.studyMarketing.org

Management must recognize the risk/reward relationship and find organizational mechanisms for handling it. And it must communicate a clear understanding that reasonable risks are acceptable, since they are the handmaidens of progress. On the innovative front, two methods are available for dealing with risk: diversification and cheap failures. They can and should be used in concert.

Knowing how customers are different allows a company (1) to focus its resources on those customers who will bring in the most value for the enterprise, and (2) to devise and implement customer-specific strategies designed to satisfy individually different customer needs. Customers represent different levels of value to the enterprise and they have different needs from the enterprise. Although not a new concept, customer grouping—the process by which customers are clustered into categories based on a specified variable—is a critical step in understanding and profitably serving customers.

The customer differentiation task will involve an enterprise in categorizing its customers by both their value to the firm and by what needs they have. Some call centers constantly change the order-to-serve of the customers on hold based on the different values of the waiting customers. Although it would be ideal to answer every call on the second ring, when that's not possible, it would be better to vault the customers keeping you in business ahead of the customers of dubious value. In many call centers, this reshuffling is not at all apparent to customers.

Developing a Brand Asset Management Strategy
The purpose in this phase is to determine the right brand-based strategies for achieving the goals and objectives stated in the Brand Vision and in the market-based perceptions and perspectives from the Brand Picture. This phase addresses the following questions:

1) What brand-based strategies should we use to meet the growth goals outlined in our Brand Vision?
2) What is the right positioning for our brand? Is the positioning unique, credible, valued, sustainable, and aligned with internal and external perceptions?
3) How extendible is our brand? What are its boundaries? What screens should we leverage to make smart extendibility decisions? What new product opportunities exist for our brand?
4) What channel strategy will support our goals and objectives for the brand? What is the best way to influence the channel with our brand?
5) Can we price our brand at a premium based on its strengths compared to the competition's? How much of a premium? How else can we use our brand to improve our profits?
6) What communication tactics will strengthen our brand and maximize its asset value? Where is the power in the selling process?
7) Once that power is gained, how can we maintain and further take advantage of it?
How can we maximize our power base through branding efforts?

What work-related variables determine job satisfaction? An extensive review of the literature indicates that the more important factors conducive to job satisfaction are mentally challenging work, equitable rewards, supportive working conditions, and supportive colleagues.

Gifting is often seen as the main event of mentoring. Mentors give advice; they give feedback; they give focus and direction, they give proper balance between intervening and letting proteges test their wings, and they give their passion for learn¬ing. However, just as we all recoil at the sound of 'Let me give you some advice,' proteges must be ready for the mentor's gifts. Surrendering and accepting are important initial steps in creating a readiness in the protege. Gifts are wasted when they are not valued—when they are discounted and discarded.

A marketing strategy is composed of several interrelated elements. The first and most important is market selection: choosing the markets to be served. Product planning includes the specific products the company sells, the makeup of the product line, and the design of individual offerings in the line. Another element is the distribution system: the wholesale and retail channels through which the product moves to the people who ultimately buy it and use it.

Individual assessment of abilities, interests, career needs, and goals is basically a process of self-exploration and analysis. Individuals are frequently guided by self-assessment exercises.

The self-assessment process is basically viewed as an individual responsibility; however, organizations can aid in this process by providing the employee with materials and opportunities for self-exploration and analysis. A variety of self-assessment materials are available commercially, but a number of organizations, including IBM, Xerox, General Motors, and General Electric, have developed tailor-made workbooks for employee career planning purposes. Individual career planning exercises can be done independently by employees or in workshops sponsored by the organization. Workshops have the advantage of combining a number of career planning elements including self-assessment, communication of organizational career and development opportunities, and one-on-one counseling to ensure that career goals are realistic.

Benchmarking. Know how effective your talent efforts are today and continue to measure these efforts using the metrics outlined next to gauge your efforts over time. Are they working? Also, continuously benchmark internal and external talent. The grass is hardly as green on the other side as you want to believe. Still, knowing who is out there, what they are doing, and how your internal talent stacks up is an essential element of strategic talent planning.

Results indexes are often used for appraisal purposes if an employee's job has measurable results. Examples of job results indexes are dollar volume of sales, amount of scrap, and quantity and quality of work produced. When such quantitative results are not available, evaluators tend to use appraisal forms based on employee behaviors and/or personal characteristics. In some cases, appraisals may of necessity focus on results rather than behaviors. This is especially true where job content is highly variable, as in many managerial positions, thus making it difficult to specify appropriate behaviors for evaluative purposes. Results indexes such as turnover, absenteeism, grievances, profitability, and production rates can be used to evaluate the performance of organization units.

Organizations must provide employees with relevant training if they are to acquire decision-making responsibilities, have di¬rect customer contact, or work effectively in a team-based environment. For employees and the company to benefit from training sessions, the employee must immediately and consistently put these newly acquired skills to use. Merely having a training budget that sends the employees through the motions of learning something without real consequences is wasting the employee's time as well as the company's money.