Lesson three, influencing your team to welcome customers. So go just take these one by one, and look at the sorts of things you can do to influence your team to do each one of these. And hopefully at the end of that, you'll see the method. And you can start applying the same thing to the extra ways that you thought through the exercises we did earlier. So what we're going to do now is we're going to look at each area, step by step as to how you might influence team members to properly greet your customer. So let's look at the subjects first.

The first one is clear expectations about greeting. Second is training and communication in how to do it. Thirdly, positive consequences for doing it, including feeding back when you observe them doing it properly, and reinforcing when you don't see it. So let's have a look at each one of these in more detail. So one of the things that is seemingly really obvious is that if you want your team to do something, you need to be absolutely clear about that. So in other words, tell them everyone to greet our customers with a welcoming smile, if that's what you want.

If you want to welcome your customers with a irritated grimace, then tell them that as well. So just tell them what you want them to do. I'm assuming, given the course content, that we want them to greet the customers with a smile, and perhaps say something nice. Now obviously, you don't necessarily want it to become a patter that they have to say, but expecting that you greet your customers with a smile, I think is something that you should be able to say and you should be able to expect. So state it now If this links to some of your company values, so if you're a team in an organization that has some values around customer care and all those sorts of things, and of course, why not link what you're asking them to do with those corporate values. So if your values are we care about the customer, then of course, you need to link it to that.

As we mentioned, in the base module, often companies say they care about certain things, but when it gets down to the team level, it doesn't really show. So this is your opportunity to close that gap. And actually have your team demonstrating the company values which are advertised so link them to those values. Okay, so let's have a look at the next one. So we've already talked about clear expectations about your team giving a greeting, tell them about it. Okay, next training and communication in how to do it.

Now, it might sound A bit obvious about how to greet people, but it's not always the case. So people don't always know how to greet a customer when they come into the shop or into the workplace, or make a phone call. So you need to be clear about how that's done. And you might need to give some training. So this might be in the form of a greeting or communication workshop. And the purpose of doing that is to perhaps explain why it's so important.

So you can get that first message across that these are your expectations. The benefits of doing it, what your expectations are, identifying specific behaviors you're looking for, and maybe to actually learn those communication skills. Now, as I've said, you might want a few things that they always say particularly if it's a telephone greeting, but be careful that you don't create a patter which means that people don't really say it with any sincerity. So you want them to know what to say. But do so from a place that is actually I want to greet my customer. And it's important because of the way that makes my customer feel.

So workshop about that will be really, really useful. Doesn't have to be a long workshop, you might decide to bring some external trainer in to help you do that. Or you might do it yourself. Either way, make sure you're clear about those elements. Why so important? What are the benefits?

What are your expectations as the manager? What are the specific behaviors you're looking for? And the specific communication skills you might need to train. Okay, so we're still thinking about training and communication in how to do that greeting. So one of the things that I would bring out to your team is the way that they say a greeting, even if they're saying the official patter You know, welcome to our store, or how can I help you, sir? that the way that it said and the way that the person looks as they say it can be sending a different message.

So sometimes when I go into a store, or I have interaction with a service, actually what it feels like is that the person, although they might be saying, How can I help you? It kind of feels like they're saying, I'd like to help but I'm busy talking to my colleague. And it's almost as if they might have a T shirt with that on. Another one was, I was just about to do something more important. So do your team members say that by their expression or the way they say, their greeting? So again, it would be worth bringing that to your team's attention.

What is it you're saying with your voice? What is it you're saying with your body language, regardless of the words that are coming out of your mouth? Are you saying this to them? I was just about To do something more important. The most important thing for me is to finish work, you know. And you do see that sometimes you hear conversations about, you know, only got 10 minutes to go, but I've only got half an hour to go.

And I'm thinking, well, as a customer, should I be overhearing that conversation? What does that say to me? It says to me that they don't really want to be there. The least hassle and effort, the better. So I don't want my team to be wearing that T shirt. So again, you might raise that during that training session.

I hate my job. and by extension, you too. Now, that doesn't happen that often. But in some places, you kind of feel like you're a nuisance. Actually, they're trying to do something else and they really don't want to be there. You know, they're too good for this place.

And actually, they hate the job and they resent you for being the customer in this job that they hate. So again, worth thinking about how your team can avoid sending that message. What about the choices you make in terms of what you're going to do right now. So again, this might be something to include in your training workshop for your team members. And again, sometimes it feels like the choices the staff are making could be sending the wrong message to the customer. So it will be easier for me not to have to stop what I'm doing right now, is something that you can easily send that message to a customer, you know, the person is in the middle of doing something and instead of them coming and stopping what they're doing and coming helping you, perhaps put the onus on the customer, well, we need to go over there and speak to such and such.

What about the choices that your team are making, about whether they carry on what they're doing right now, or attend to the customer. And so those choices, it's worth discussing that with your team members. Now, of course, they will have other things that they need to do but you need to To emphasize to them what their priorities are, and then they'll understand what they should be leaving and what they should be doing right now. Another element that's worth including on your customer service training, and this part of it, which is all about how to do your greeting is the words that you choose to use. So can I help is a common greeting for a customer service person. Can I help?

And that's, there's nothing wrong in that, really. But if you compare that with how can I help you today? That's better. So can I help is a kind of Yes, no closed question. How can I help you today is an open question, I'm more likely to to get an interaction going with the customer. So there's an assumption there that you can help the customer so that generally gets a better result.

So the other thing that's worth mentioning on this training is the way that it says So I think we've all been into a customer service situation where the tone has been terrible, you know, how can I help you? As opposed to? How can I help you. So just the tone, the way that it said is important. So again, this should be included in your training. And yes, the way you greet a customer is so important.

So it needs to be part of that training. So looking at some of the positive consequences for doing it, very simple, really, we need to positively feedback when we see our members of staff doing it properly. So if we see our team, giving a really positive, friendly greeting, and we see them do that over and over again, there's nothing wrong and every now and again, just saying, I really liked the way you do that. So I always like the way you give a greeting, it's great. Or you can include that in reviews, monthly reviews, yearly reviews, and so on. So give people the feedback to show That you appreciate what they're doing, and you'll reinforce it, eventually, it'll become a habit.

And the other side of the coin is when you don't see it. So of course, there are times when you don't see the greeting that you need. So when that happens, of course, you need to do something about it. So you need to have a conversation with the individual if you're not seeing the greeting that you need in order to demonstrate a culture of customer care. So how might you do that? Well, a simple conversation.

Hi there. I'd like to give you some feedback. And then of course, you can say, the way that you greet our customers, I'd like you to adjust the way you do that a little bit, or can you think a little bit differently about how you greet our customers? Now obviously, if you've done the training already, then you can refer back to that. So remember the training we did about greeting our customers. How did you think that greeting went?

So you can ask feed that back at the time. And then the person knows what it is that they've done and what they need to adjust and how they need to change. But obviously do it assertively and nicely. We're not shouting at people or bullying people, but we do want them to do it the way that creates a culture of customer care. Alright, so we're still talking about this first element in as some of these will be interchangeable with some of the other elements we're talking about. But we're still talking about how you can influence your team to give a welcoming greeting.

Now, this is a kind of well known, saying, I mean, it's been adjusted and changed over the years but the secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you've got it made. So obviously, that's the kind of funny line but it does prompt an important question can you force people to fake it? Hopefully till I make it So can you force people to have a cheerful greeting with the customer if they don't feel cheerful? Or if it's just not them? So that's a really good question.

And I think, worth a little bit of a discussion. So I look at it this way, on the one end, there's the bad. And that's the team member who's customer facing and doesn't care and shows it. And it could be just their personality or just they're very unhappy or they just don't care. Well, obviously, that's bad. That's going to really reduce the culture of customer care within your team.

Clearly. Better than that, or people who may not care all that much, you know that at the end of the day, they just see it as a job and they don't really feel it, but they'll try to hide That feeling of don't really care. And they'll do their best to, to say the right things and, and they'll listen to what you're saying about the way they say it, and so on. So they, they don't really care that much, but they try to hide it. And then of course, the best customer service is when the person sincerely does care, and then it comes naturally, then any training really lands straight away, and you don't need to be there all of the time. And it just feels natural.

So that's, of course the best way to go. So if you can get a team full of people like that, then that's brilliant. Obviously, you sometimes have a team already and you have what you have in terms of your team. So I would say that think about who you've got, think about when you're recruiting, we'll look at that in a moment. But also work with the people that you have to at least start to improve and get a bit further over to that best side. Even if they You know, they start perhaps on there, they don't care that much.

And that's where your influencing comes in, when you can really start to encourage them to understand the importance of it, what difference it makes to the company, to their jobs, to the image of the business, to their team, to any bonuses and all of that sort of stuff. Do you start to encourage people to see the benefits for themselves? So one question to ask is, who are you recruiting? So recruitment is another big subject really, but I just want you to think about what are you recruiting for? So often, what people generally look for are things like experience. So have you worked in retail before if it's a retail outlet, or have you worked in this industry before, if it's another sort of service sector, and so you'll be looking for experience and you might be looking for qualifications, you know, have you got a degree in such and such Have you got some vocational qualifications and you're looking at those qualifications, but Really important part when you're thinking about customer service is personality.

So make sure that is being recruited for as well. So people's attitude towards customer service and the way that they demonstrate their attitude towards that should be part of your criteria for recruitment. If you want a team that is a team that demonstrates a culture of customer care, then the easiest way to do that is to recruit for people who naturally do that anyway.