The world is facing a communication explosion on different communication channels
Introduction
The world is facing a communication explosion on different communication channels. Technology has come to improve and change the face of the current traditional systems. Every day organizations need to change their strategies and techniques to attend to the customer’s consistency. Customer Communication can be defined as the channel of relaying information to the customer from the initial steps of customer engagement through billing, procurement, and after-sale services. In recent times, financial institutions such as banks have tried to improve customer communication through the use of e-marketing strategies (Ruesch,2017). In every organization, there are the Internal customers, this is the fellow employees who work in the organization (for example a procurement employee who needs to have a fix on his laptop will be the internal customer of IT engineer working in the same organization), and there are the external customers this is the clients that the organization deals with externally for the purchase of their goods and services (Ruesch,2017). The similarities in both customers are that they both need services that the organization provides and have to be approached collectively.
From our scenario, the customer purchased a phone a few months ago but the phone malfunctioned. When the customer returned it to the cell phone provider for service, the provider states that they would not replace it for free. The scenario portrays the typical day to day customer complaints that customer agents and store managers have to solve. As the store manager, the first objective to achieve from the interaction is to ensure that you carefully listen to the customer, each sentence he speaks. This is important because you will be able to pick the problem, the frustrations and emotions of the customer. Second, while talking to the customer, ensure you employ empathetic speaking and listening. A proactive approach will help in understanding the customer clearly and helping the customer to a mutual agreement.
Effective Communication between the Customer and store Manager
The store manager will call the customer to his office. Politely offer a chair to the customer and allow the customer to speak about the spoilt cell phone. Patience is key at this stage; the store manager has to patiently hear what the customer laments from the scenario. You need to acquire the right information to agree. While the customer is explaining his problem, avoid interrupting, and be attentive to the finer details. Once the customer has finalized, the store manager should have a look at the cell phone battery and with his deep knowledge of their products, he will try to explain the problem of the cell phone battery (Neumann,2016 pp.13-14). The store manager will carefully and honestly explain to the customer the reason as to why the battery was spoilt. He can give a simple illustration of how we handle our phones. One of the key items the store manager has to explain is the organization policy on warranty duration. They can go through the warranty and be able to identify the issues that the company can replace the cell phone (Neumann,2016 pp.13-14). The customer will be angry with the response but the store manager has to carefully negotiate with the customer on the charges of the replacement. The store manager can offer a 30% discount and state this is an offer they can give to the customer for being a loyal client and for the time he spent requesting a solution for the cell phone battery. One of the biggest barriers to communication is filtering (Neumann,2016 pp.13-14). This is where information is withholding or distorted and can result in problems in the interaction. Emotion perception is another barrier that affects sales management, sales personnel may already judge the customer basing on the way the customer speaks or narrates his problem.
Transactional analysis theory that will guide the store manager
Under this scenario, we can use the Berne Transactional theory. The theory was developed by Eric Berne and states that it all about our personality and communication. The core of the model is the face to face communication. The spike is transferred to the receiver and sender of the communication and there is the logic that guides every salesperson. The theory states that every human being has three egos namely the “child”,” Parent” and “adult” (Tangolo,2018). In any conversation, the customer responds to the sales personnel in these three states. For effective communication, the conversation has gone through the receiver to the sender and back to the receiver. From “parent to child” and “Child to Parent” (Tangolo,2018). The salesperson has to use a technique to be able to recognize the customer’s state. Just before the conversation, the sales manager can plan which ego will he use to influence the customer (Liu,2017, pp.146-162). From our store manager scenario, such a theory will guide him to be able to understand the customer. The store manager can invite the customer into the adult ego by allowing the customer to state his opinion on the cell phone problem.
The role of Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence on the scenario
Intelligence is the basic ability to acquire knowledge and use them to better your skills. In communication, there is emotional intelligence (EQ) which is the ability of the human individual to identify our inner feelings and of others able to motivate our selves and manage them for us and others. EQ comprises four elements that are; relationship management, self-awareness, social awareness, and self-management (Serrat,2017. pp.329-339). To be able to measure the EQ of a person, one needs the ability to read social clues, overcome stress, and understand our emotions. EQ helps in strengthening one’s communication skills. From our scenario, the store manager requires emotional intelligence when responding to the customer (Serrat,2017. pp.329-339).The responses that he states to the customer may jeopardize the customer’s emotions and attitude toward the company.EQ will guide the store manager to handle the customer strategically, by the use of the knowledge that he has acquired through his work. Through training the emotional reactions an intelligence can be controlled.
According to Salovey and Mayer, EQ can understand better by the use of an EQ model. The researchers name their model “The Ability Model of Emotional Intelligence”. The model has four abilities (Serrat,2017. pp.329-339). The first ability is the perceive emotions where an individual can understand both non-verbal clues and also verbal clues. The next ability is the Reasoning ability with emotions, one has to think cognitively and promote the cognitive activity of the person. One needs to use emotions in solving the situations that present. Using emotions helps us to recognize the attention and react process (Serrat,2017. pp.329-339). Understanding Emotions will help the store manager to be able to help the customer. This is the third attribute that enables us to interact with the situations we face. The last model is the managing of emotions (Serrat,2017. pp.329-339). An individual must first under his or the other emotions to be able to convey the intended emotions in any environment. The authors also state that the human person can block overwhelming emotions that are too painful. There is the use of the “Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence” Test.
Controlling of the communication using Psychological techniques
From the time customer arrives at the store manager’s presence, the store manager needs to check on the customer’s facial expressions. I will make sure when shaking hands my hands are warm and have very close eye contact with the customer .This will help me under the emotional that the customer has towards the scenario. Allow the customer to speak and I listen attentively.To ensure that the customer knows that am listening, I will throw a question and say “if I heard correctly did you say that …” .This motivates the customer that I am listening to him. Need to look out for the customer posture, if they hold their head high, this will mean they are confident in what they are saying, the dress code also matters because it will help me know what type of person dealing with.The customer may be dressed in a suit or smart unofficial attire.This will need a different approach from a customer who has won a t-shirt and rugged jeans with studs on the nose and ears(Gladkova,2017. p.45). After the body language observes technique, I will need to implement the intuition technique, where I will need to trust my gut feelings about the customer. lastly using my emotional energy and intelligence I will be able to look for a solution. Each step has guided me to be able to control the conversation (Gladkova,2017. p.45). The objective of this is to acquire more information but still allow the customer to feel he is controlling the conversation. The final agreed between the customer and I need to be beneficial to both parties.
Importance of effective Customer communication in achieving operational effectiveness.
In the daily operation of a business, communication is important in different aspects.At the start we can state that with effective communication, the business can run smoothly, the employees and the customer can interact freely as communication has ignited direction and leadership (Liu,2017, pp.146-162).When the customer agents and sales managers have meaningful customer communication they can uniquely identify the business customer needs and preferences. Such information is important for business in decision making. Effective customer communication can help the business to pick their key/ crucial products and services. As the business sets its objectives on sales, they will be good planning and coordination. Each employee knows what their customers prefer and are ready to assist accordingly. Effective customer communication has always led to higher productivity with little no extra cost. From our scenario, the store manager has to ensure that they have effective customer communication and draw to a conclusion that each party us happy. In conclusion, we can state that the driving force for any industry is customer communication and how the business caters to their needs.
Script on how to resolve this complaint
The store manager will the customer to his office and offer some water and place to seat. The store manager allows the customer to clearly explain the problem at hand. Carefully listening, the store manager will pick important aspects from the customer. The store Manger will look at the phone and explain to the customer the major issues that would have caused the phone to malfunction .The store has return and warranty policies that the customer are given ,the store manager shall read out the policy on malfunction items .The customer will be angry on the payment decision that the store manager gives but the store manager can issue a 30% discount on the cost. This may be the way that the customer can be happy .The store manager can given tell the customer that the discount is due to being a royal customer .Once paid the store manager has to ensure that the customer phone is better within the hour.
References
Ruesch, J., Bateson, G., Pinsker, E.C., and Combs, G., 2017. Communication: The social matrix of psychiatry. Routledge.
Neumann, N., 2016, October. The power of big data and algorithms for advertising and customer communication. In 2016 International Workshop on Big Data and Information Security (IWBIS) (pp. 13-14). IEEE.
Liu, W.K., Lee, Y.S. and Hung, L.M., 2017. The interrelationships among service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty: Examination of the fast-food industry. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 20(2), pp.146-162.
Tangolo, A.E., 2018. Psychodynamic psychotherapy with transactional analysis: Theory and narration of a living experience. Routledge.
Serrat, O., 2017. Understanding and developing emotional intelligence. Knowledge solutions (pp. 329-339). Springer, Singapore.
Gladkova, A.A., 2017. Psychological and socio-cultural adaptation of international journalism students in Russia: The role of communication skills in the adaptation process. Psychology in Russia, 10(4), p.45.