...“I refuse to dignify this attack with a response,” said Henry Guillart, the CEO, after Hughes gave his negative presentation at an investor conference in New York. That decision turned out to have serious consequences. Terranola’s stock began tanking that afternoon, precipitating a slide that took the Seattle-based company’s reputation, employee morale, and ability to raise capital along with it. A month later, when Hughes spoke again about the company, everyone expected Terranola to counter. But behind closed doors, its leaders were torn: They realized that responding this time might lead to even more trouble. The Power of the Power Bar First some background. Terranola is the company behind those granola bar machines you see on every kitchen counter nowadays. It’s hard to believe that little more than a decade ago people didn’t even think of making...
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...learned when listening. As listeners, we cannot have an "I know everything" attitude. There is always a different opinion, or a new piece of information that can come to light. Listening is never a waste of time. We must pay attention and be active and total listeners when communicating with our peers, supervisors, employees and customers It is important to understand both how we listen as well as who is communicating to us in order to become more effective listeners. Listening Types There are many listening types and we need to understand how we are listening in order to improve and become more effective listeners. We need to be engaged when we listen to hear and understand what is being said. We need to listen to verbal and non-verbal communication to get the full effect of what is being communicated to us. Common listening types are active, inactive, total and partial. Of these, active and total are the most successful. Active listening “Listening in a way that demonstrates interest and encourages continued speaking. (Many types of listening, 2012). Listening from the point of view of the speaker is active listening. This means we listen, interpret and rephrase to ensure that we understand what is being said. As noted by Liz Bryant (2009), the goal of a good listener is “to be present, to be interested, to have time, to have respect" (Bryant, 2009). Active listening includes good body language such as...
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...difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is merely a physiological process; whereas, listening is an interpretive process (Schnell, Jim 1995).We can always learn something from listening to someone. Humans are special in that way, and as listeners, we cannot have that attitude like we know everything. Someone will always have a difference of opinion, it just matters how you will use the information. Some people may think that listening is a waste of time, but in actuality, listening is never a waste of time. The more we pay attention and push ourselves to be active listeners, the better the communication will be with our peers, leaders, employees and customers. It is very important that we understand both how we listen, as well as who is speaking to us in order to become more efficient listeners. There are many different types of listening skills these days. We have to understand how listening works, in order to improve our listening skills and to be a more effective listener. We must be actively engaged when listening, so that we can understand what is being said. We have to make sure that we listen to verbal and non-verbal communication, in order to get the full spectrum of what is being communicated to us. Here are some common listening types: active, inactive, total and partial. Of these four, active and total are the most used and successful. Listening is not easy for some people, but is a skill that people can learn. There is specific self-observation practices people...
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...years ago by Dave Kahle a renown sales management trainer and One of the not-so-surprising conclusions was this: The best sales people “listen more constructively” than their more average counterparts. I just came across some research that confirmed what many of us in the profession of educating salespeople have known for years: That purchasers would be “much more likely” to buy from a salesperson if that salesperson would just “listen” to the customer. The survey found that some of the worst offenders were experienced salespeople. Listening is one of the four fundamental competencies of a professional salesperson, and yet, the profession is, in general, so poor at it that most customers remark on our inability to do it well. a look at vacancy ad in dailies you will see more and more companies put emphasis on other sales competencies and leaving out listening. A good talker with outgoing personality fitted very well in the conventional description of a sales person. Many sales people in most companies today are oriented to talk and talk to customer until the customer/ prospects drops dead or buys! Moreover, salespeople today are so much driven by targets and with a lot of whipping from the sales managers to hit the quotas that listening to customers has become secondly. Why is listening such a powerful sales competency? 1. Customers ‘pain’ can only be identified by digging beneath the surface of a customer’s needs and uncovering deeper and more powerful needs and motivations...
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...others will decide whether you are a good boss or bad. It will depends on how one looks at it, are you an employee or a boss. Bosses will come and go, however the good ones will always stand out from the bad ones. At the same time, ironically, it’s easy to spot both extremes, good and bad. Everyone has a difference of opinion on what makes a good boss. I have worked for several bosses and the good ones outweigh the bad. When treated with respect and understanding an employee feels good about the job they are doing, and the boss. Communication and respect are important keys to any relationship, and the relationship between a boss and an employee is no exception. Because employees are the backbone of any business, a bad employee can negatively impact a business. Good bosses teach, train, and listen to their employees when they make suggestions, as they come from personal experience with customers or with a work situation that they have found that needs attention. Communication is key in a manager and employee relationship, understanding each other is key, questions need to be asked if needed to make sure everyone is on the same page. An employee’s perspective differs from the perspective of a boss, therefore meaningful discussion between both parties can bring positive changes and this will promote on a dialog of both parties about expectations and working procedures together. On the other hand, a bad boss refuses to listen to employee viewpoints says...
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...mobile phone. This service allows you to browse through thousands of artists and songs. For each artist we have we supply the listener with every album that artist has made along with every song that the artist has came out with, this allows you to find the exact song you may have been looking for and can not find it anywhere else. You can look up an artist of your choice and choose to listen to streams from them and other artists or you can choose to stream through all of their albums and the bright side of that is R@DIO gives you free unlimited skips. Another feature that R@DIO offers is if you like a song you have the choice to buy it straight from the app itself, instead of searching the internet for that song. You can listen to your favorite artist anywhere you go because R@DIO also haves an app that you can download on your phone, you can either listen to it on your computer, your cellphone or a portable music player such as an iPod. R@DIO will operate through its online web site where many of its customers can go and login and access their playlists and their favorite artists. R@DIO focuses its marketing activities on reaching the people who listen to music, children, teens, young adults, adults, and the elderly, basically anyone who has a general interest in any kind of music. Market research shows that these are the customer groups that are most likely to be interested in the service. R@DIO will stream to customers who want to relax and listen to their favorite music, or maybe...
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...and practices that promote the sincere desire to pay attention to what customer say? In my opinion, I think that practice being an active listener would promote the desire to pay attention to what customer are saying. By practicing active listening skills a consumer would sense that the CSR cares for their business as well as gain knowledge about the service situation. Ways to improve your active listening skills are be ready to listen, take notes, show you are listening, ask question and restate the customer’s problem in your own words. An individual should always be ready to listen physically and mentally; body language and facial expression play a big part in my opinion. Learn how to block out any distraction they may side track you from what you are being told. Be ready to take note; carry around a little notebook and pen. During the conversation write down the key points or whatever you believe will help you come up with a solution. Let the speaker know that you are taking note so they can speak clearly and slowly enough so that you understand. Show the speaker you are listening to them using body language (but nodding your head etc.) or keeping eye contact the whole time. You can even ask question to determine what the cause of the problem was. Even if you have to ask a lot of question the speaker will know you are putting forth your best effort to understand what is being said. After you hear the speaker out recite their problem back to them in your own. By...
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...Michael Tran Marketing 305 11/12/2012 Should You Listen to the Customer? It has become somewhat a trend to ignore what customers are asking for and instead give them something innovative that they need. Although it may seem obvious that the company should solicit feedback from their customers, build what they ask for, and then provide it to them. I believe that the right answer is a combination of actively soliciting customer input and acting on that input, while also focusing on giving customers something innovative. Two strategies, one that satisfies the present, while the other looks into the future. Finding that balance between serving the customer’s needs now while also looking to the future and providing them something innovative is a good strategic approach that Natlia Georgio and Elizabeth Gardos tried to persuade Henry Delacroix (the company’s founder and artistic director of Delacroix). Henry Delacroix does not believe in customer-centric approach. “Why do we want to ask what our audience thinks?” Henry said. “We don’t care what they think.” “Of course, I know our audience is important. But our business depends on the creative expertise of our artists. When people come to our shows, they expect to have an unbelievable, unique experience-one that they’ll never forget. How can people tell you what they want if they haven’t ever seen it before?” (Harvard Business Review 130). Henry looks at customer feedback as a threat to the artistic part of the business...
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...The purpose of this survey is to measure customer satisfaction it to see where company stand in this regard in the eyes of its customers. Customer satisfaction is the state of mind that customer has about a company, and its products or service when their expectations have been met or exceed. This state reflects the life time of the product or service experience. The customer satisfaction surveys are developed to provide understanding of customer’s expectations and satisfaction’s. When we talk about customer service and or satisfaction, we talk about creativity. Creativity allows us to handle or diffuse problems at hand or later on in the process of conducting the everyday business. We talk about how, or rather what, does the organization have to do to gain not only the sale but also the loyalty of the customer. We want to know the payoff of the transaction both in the short and long term. We want to know what our customers want. We want to know if our customers are satisfied. Satisfaction, of course, means that what we delivered to a customer met the customer’s approval. We want to know if customers are delighted and willing to comeback, and so on. I used to work for hospitality industry for myself, and one of the most important things you know to make sure to meet your all customer’s requirement. By looking at the problem in this case is same thing that management needs to step, and come up with plan to solve that problem, or it may hurt their business so badly. They need...
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...Make Customers Come Back - Winning Customer Retention Strategies Customer Retention marketing is a tactically-driven strategy to keep relationships with customers going and increase customer interest. This strategy relies on the study of customer behavior. Here are the basic tenets of a marketer that seeks to increase customer retention: 1. Past and Current customer behavior This is the best predictor of how customers will behave in the future. They are the characteristics marketers should most often look at. Analyzing customer tendencies and trends allows the marketer to anticipate, if not predict, the customers reaction to different situations. The marketer must take note that behavior is action oriented, not a description. For example, being a 35-yearold woman is not a behavior; it’s a demographic characteristic. For example if you know from history that customer A is likely to make a purchase if presented with a discount promotion, then you might want to change your marketing tactics to include promotional selling when approaching this customer. A great deal of observation is needed if you desire to predict your customers’ behavior. This involves a great deal of notetaking as well as watching what reaction the customer has to different situations. 2. Active customers are happy customers Happy customers are retained customers. If your keep your customers involved, they develop a sense of contentment from the fact that they are in control. Marketers will take advantage of this...
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...Questions 1. Select an industry that you are familiar with, either from work experience or as a customer. Identify as many touchpoints as you can that a company in that industry has with its customers. • Website • E-mail • On-line Chat • Phone call • Direct Mail • Meeting, Discussing • Sales People • Payment terms ( T. T.; OA ; Down payment) • Invoice (PI) • Documentation • Factory Auditing • After Service • Customer Service • Warranty Cards • Third party distributor • Print Advertising • Computex Exhibition • Product Demo, Product Sample • Product • Product Packaging • Product Shipping (FOB/ FOC) 2. Select 5 of these touchpoints and: a) Explain in detail how you have seen a company damage its customer relationships by mismanaging these touchpoints. 1. Product – Not user friendly. Use an inside-out strategy to make the product and do marketing campaign 2. Website – Unclear information, False and vague information on the website. 3. Customer Service ¬– Slowly feedback. Not proactive. The service people are not professional. Make customer felt disrespectful and negative image of the company. 4. Sales People – Sales people did not ask questions, service is not active. And also insincere attitude. Never keep their words. On a exhibition, for example, sales people did not listen to what clients say and instead showed frivolous attitude this might cause a client refuse to buy the products and might damage company’s reputation. 5. Product Demo...
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...Introduce Yourself, Then Shut-Up and Listen The sales experience is not about the sales associate, it is about the customer. It is a courtship ritual to determine if the customer values the goods or services enough to invest in them by making a purchase. There is only one way to find out what the customer values, wants or needs and that is to listen intensely. If you are thinking about the next thing that you are going to promote then you can not concentrate on what the customer is telling you. Rather, think about how you can repeat what the customer is saying in your own words and you will be forced to listen intently to what they tell you. A successful sales professional can reflect the emotion as well as the content of a customer conversation. 2. Why the Offer is Important to the Individual Customer As new sales representatives learn about the company, products or services that they represent it is a natural inclination to initiate conversations by spewing facts and features like a walking commercial. Don't assume that the customer cares how you do something, how long you have done it or what you have been told makes you unique. The customer has a life with priorities, deadlines and responsibilities of his or her own. Show the customer what aspects of your offer are important from the customer perspective and resist the urge to talk about any other things that are not relevant. Of course, you will only know this if you have listened to your customer. 3. Get Confirmation, Then Explain...
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...COMMUNICATION ANALYSIS ON CUSTOMER COMPLAINS Submitted to: Sir Johnny Perlas By: Stephanie Luber Christina Leong January 19, 2012 There isn’t a fast food restaurant or retail store that hasn’t come across an angry customer. It can become very stressful working with an unhappy customer. The resentment of the customer prevents us from resolving the initial problem. This is a serious issue for businesses that want healthy relationships with their customers. Although you may resent it, customer complaints are healthy for the growth and survival of the business and it's possible to handle them in a productive way. Handling complaints is never an easy or enjoyable challenge. That said, if management can promote a pro-active approach to dealing with dissatisfied customers then there is every chance such negative situations can be turned into satisfying and memorable encounters for the customer. That’s the same customer that will tell all of their friends about you if you don’t handle their complaint appropriately. A complaining customer is your most important customer, they may be complaining because service levels are deteriorating, because the product no longer performs to their expectations, or even because they have heard that one of your competitors are doing things better than you. So, what happens when a complaint is not handled well, or even worse, the customer doesn’t even bother complaining in the first place? Customers go elsewhere: Even the best...
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...all of your customers, that would be extremely helpful. Unfortunately this is not the case, we all have to sacrifice in order to get through the work day. With all the ruckus goes on in a restaurant, employees must keep focus on their job to do it well. Workers should try to keep personal problems from affecting them during shift hours. To make the job easier an employee must know how to communicate with people; while having knowledge of the food, but at the same time being able to multitask. A lot of people today do not have good people skills, and need to work on it. Although Expediters do not deal with customers face to face, but there is always chance to make customers unhappy. If a worker is in this situation, they must keep calm and listen to what the customer has to say. Usually workers only half listen because of their frustration towards the guest. But one should listen to the customer’s needs and perspective to better understand the problem. In the process workers should try to meet all of the guests needs, and do not let emotions get in the way. It is never out of style to have courtesy towards people who might be ruining your day. One should try to be professional and be the better person. Other than having good people skills workers also need to have knowledge of the food menu. It is often embarrassing if a guest asks a worker what the dish calamari contains, and the worker is not able to answer the question. As Expo you must know...
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...are or where they came. Respect is very important in the military for several reasons. It is one of the Army Values. Treat people as they should be treated. This is the same as do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Respect shows a sense of professionalism. The instant obedience to orders is a must. Whether you are in the military or in the civilian sector, respect is a key trait that will make or break you. There are different aspects of respect in the world. I look at two being in the military. One is when you respect a person’s rank, position, or appointment over you. The other is when 1. Recap and Analyze the Relevant Facts - In the last twenty years there has been a disconnect between Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty. For this reason Campbell-Ewald studied one aspect of the disconnection: Respect. This research resulted in the identification of Five People Principles: Appreciate me: Customers should feel appreciated. Intentions do not matter, but actions do: What a firm actually does is more important than what it says. Listen, then you will know what I said: Companies that truly listen to their customers have the ability to adjust their plans. It is about me, not about you: What the customer needs is more important that what firms needs. Admit it, you goofed!: The customer deserves an apology when the firm fails; even the failure is not the firm's fault.you respect the person behind...
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