The Guest Model: Greet

Our favorite workflow acronym at The Brandt Group is GUEST. While this model has existed as a sales flowchart for quite a while now, we’ve tweaked it to amplify customer service over pure sales, which we believe will not only help win long-term loyalty from your customers but also ensure…
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Mastering the Phone Conversation

As we’ve discussed in an earlier blog, the art of phone conversation seems to be dying. More and more, people have moved their personal lives into social media and text messaging with humorous memes and zany emoji. But while many people now have underdeveloped interpersonal conversation skills in their personal…
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Make Your Staff the Difference

Chris Peterson published an article last year titled 7 Reasons Why Traditional Retailers Are Struggling, which covers some of the mistakes retailers are making in the face of online competition.  Number seven on that list, “Associates are treated as an expense … not as a strategic differentiator” is something we’ll expound…
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5 Signs Your Customer Service is Failing

Failing customer service is a death knell for any business — there’s no surer guarantee of decline.  Spotting those early signs is critical, and it’s not always as obvious as seeing bad reviews on Facebook or Yelp. Employee Satisfaction If your employees are unhappy, your customers will be too.  Employee…
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When Customers Complain

Customer complaints are an unavoidable challenge for any business to confront, but knowing how to deal with them can do more than save sales—they also build customer loyalty.  In that vein, 7 Steps for Dealing with Angry Customers (Forbes, 2013) has some key customer service tips, including the core tenets like, “Actively…
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Monitor Your Employee Customer Service

Customer service is the lifeblood of every business and is something that will make or break any company long term.  But putting signs in the break room that emphasize how important the customer is can only accomplish so much.  Even a rigorous initial training program for your employees can break down…
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