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\nOne of the most frequent challenges frontline employees face is when they find themselves dealing with one customer in front of them, another on the phone, while a third arrives with just a quick question. While there are no absolute rules for juggling customers here are five tips that work well in reducing stress and boosting customer loyalty.<\/p>\n
Tip #1 Remember, this is good<\/strong><\/p>\n Having lots of customers wanting to do business with you is wonderful. It means you and your organization are in demand. The obvious solution to juggling multiple customers is just to hire more people. Of course that\u2019s oversimplified, and may make no economic sense \u2013 especially when there may be only one or two rush periods during the day or week.\u00a0When you see more customers arrive, don\u2019t let them see you sweat. Take the professional approach and broaden your smile \u2013 even though it may be slightly forced. Keep in mind the adage of LL Bean who said, \u201cCustomers are not interruptions to your work, they are the purpose of your work.\u201d<\/p>\n Tip #2 Don\u2019t make things worse<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the most frequent gaffs in frontline service is when a customer needs to ask a question but the employees are preoccupied \u2013 talking with each other. Even more aggravating is when the staff congregates to socialize while customers are left to fend for themselves. The place for employees to chat and hold meetings is in the staff area; not in front of customers. When you\u2019re on the floor, make yourself visible and available to customers.\u00a0Of course, that also means not interrupting your co-workers who are talking to customers. If you need to talk to a coworker who\u2019s taking care of a customer, give your colleague a quick nod, then let him\/her come to you when they\u2019ve finished with the customer. If you absolutely must interrupt, then excuse yourself and apologize to the customer for the interruption, and as you leave, thank the customer for their patience.<\/p>\n Tip #3 Walk-ins take priority over phone-ins<\/strong><\/p>\n If you already have a visitor in front of you when the phone rings, the visitor gets priority. The visitor took the time\/spent the gas money to arrive in person. Unless you have callers with genuine emergencies, don\u2019t interrupt a visitor to pick up the phone. That\u2019s what voice mail is for. If you must take the phone call, ask the visitor\u2019s permission, explain that you want to focus on them, so you\u2019ll quickly take a message and get back to your conversation. Then tell the caller that you are with another customer but will look into their request and call them back. That way, even if the caller insists on immediate service, the visitor sees that you are at least trying to make them the priority.<\/p>\n Tip #4 Acknowledge walk-ins right away<\/strong><\/p>\n If you are on the phone or face-to-face with a customer when a visitor walks-in, acknowledge the visitor immediately with eye-contact, a smile and a quick, \u201cI\u2019ll be with you in just a few minutes (or however long it will be).\u201d By acknowledging the visitor, you are conveying that you are aware of them and that you are working quickly. And it tells the person in front of you that you have other people waiting. Usually, they\u2019ll get the hint that you need to wrap-up.<\/p>\n A common challenge is how to politely interrupt a phone caller to acknowledge a walk-in visitor. Here\u2019s a quick tip \u2013 say the person\u2019s name. \u201cJohn, excuse me. I just had someone walk into my office, may I put you on hold for a moment? Thanks.\u201d Beginning with the person\u2019s name gets their attention immediately without being rude.<\/p>\n For new arrivals who have just a quick question\u2026 If it is indeed quick, that\u2019s great; give them the ten seconds they need and then get back your first person. If it\u2019s going to take more than ten seconds then tell the person, \u201cThat\u2019s going to take a few minutes to go over, so I\u2019ll finish taking care of this person which will take me about x minutes, then I\u2019ll be happy to help you. Meanwhile, if you\u2019d like to sit, grab a coffee\u2026 Thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n Tip #5 Address chronic staffing\/line management issues<\/strong><\/p>\n In tip #1 I pointed out that hiring more staff may not make economic sense. However, when customers constantly get the impression the organization is disorganized, understaffed or uncaring about customers\u2019 time, that\u2019s a problem that requires more than just having staff work faster. Managers need to either hire more staff, consider moving phone calls to a call centre, or implement line management practices.<\/p>\n About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n Jeff Mowatt is a customer service strategist, Hall of Fame speaker, and bestselling author. This article is based on Jeff\u2019s bestselling book, Influence with Ease. You can obtain your own copy of his book or to inquire about engaging Jeff for your team at www.jeffmowatt.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While there are no absolute rules for juggling customers here are five tips that work well in reducing stress and boosting customer loyalty..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16661"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16688,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16661\/revisions\/16688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}