Establish and Conduct Business Relationships
Establish and Conduct Business Relationships
Establish and Conduct Business Relationships
Welcoming customer
Who is a Customer?
A customer is an individual who obtains a product, either a service or a good,
from an organization. In normal circumstances the customer will have to pay to
acquire the product, although this is not always the case.
A customer is someone who purchases goods or services from a company. A
customer is the consumer and recommends to others if your business is good or
bad.
• A customer is also known as a buyer, client, or purchaser and refers to a current
or a potential buyer or to a user of the products of an individual or an
organization that is known as the seller, supplier, or vendor.
• A customer is a person, company, or other unit who buys goods and services
manufactured by another entity.
Maintain Welcoming customer Environment
How to Welcome a New Customer?
• Greeting customers is one of the most fundamental skills your team members
can develop to improve customer service.
A good greeting is critical to a store or restaurant setting, since it encourages
visitors to like and trust your staff – which makes it much more likely you’ll build
a bond and create enthusiastic repeat customers…
5 Ways to Properly Greet a Customer
1) Smile with your greeting.
2) Stop what you are doing.
3) Show, don’t tell.
4) Ask questions.
5) Dress professionally.
Clarify needs of customer
How to Clarify Customer Expectations?
Customer needs and expectations can be different from what a seller thinks
they are.
The seller might think that a particular attribute or service is valuable to the
customer
However, unless the customer also feels the same way, the attribute or service
might add no value (and might even be costing a lot to provide).
So what to do?
different methods are used to gain an understanding into customer
expectations:
• Customer Surveys
• Customer Service Questionnaire
• Customer Databases
• Analysis of Customer Complaints
• Staff Training
• provide Information and Advise
Once you have accurately identified the needs of your customer you should be
ready to provide the information and advice that your customer requires.
You will agree that clarity is important when giving information and advice to
customers. Thus we need to provide information and advice so that they are
easily understood by your customer.
Information about the Features and benefits of products/services provided by your
enterprise
Information to satisfy customer needs
Discussion on Alternative sources of information/advice with the customer is
Important
In other cases you may make a note of certain details like
• phone numbers;
• addresses;
• dates and times.
Foster and maintain business relationships
Whatever type of product or service you are providing it is an essential
consideration that you have lasting and trusted relationships with the people
who provide you with work.
You can be the very best at what you do, but treat your clients badly and you’re
going to lose valuable projects.
Building and maintaining client relationships is a central part of working life, and
this is particularly important for small businesses
As with the relationships in other areas of our lives, the way we interact with work
clients should be based on mutual trust and respect.
By communicating openly and honestly we can quickly turn these interactions into
something more personal, working together as people rather than business
contacts.
six steps to maintaining lasting relationships with your
clients
Clearly Plan Projects
Communicate Openly and Effectively
Share Your Knowledge
Network
Manage Time and Meet Deadlines
Be Honest and Be Yourself
Strong Relationships Foster Success
know how important it is to value and give superior service to existing
customers.
Most good salespeople know that 80% of their business comes from only 20%
of their customers
It’s just easier to sell orders to people with whom you have good
relationships, because you know what causes them to place orders.
When you are able to identify a person’s needs and satisfy them, you will sell
orders faster.
“Show me quality.”
“Think for me.”
“I need it tomorrow.”
“Counsel and/or entertain me.
• You must be careful when specializing in personal relationship selling. If you
don’t get close enough, it will not work. If you get too close, it can backfire.
Using good judgment makes the difference.
Consistency is key
• There are many ways you can make your services attractive to new customers,
but the thing that builds respect is consistent good performance. There is no
formal training for this type of behavior; you either do it or you don’t.
To be known as a consistent performer, you can do some of the following things:
• Improve your customers
• Develop reliable calling habits
• Be on time--every time
• Keep yourself current
Facilitate and Capitalize on Change and Innovation
Meaning of Change
Change occurs within our world, in the physical environment, in the way
organizations are structured and conduct their business, in political and
socioeconomic problems and solutions, and in societal norms and values.
Change is an organizational reality. Organizations face change because
external and internal factors create the need for change.
External factors/forces that cause change
Changing consumer needs and wants
New governmental laws
Changing technology
Economic changes
World politics
Global competition
Internal factors/forces that cause change
New organizational strategy
Composition of the workforce
New equipment
Changing employee attitudes
Purposes of Change:-
Meet changing market conditions
Respond to internal pressures
Take advantage of new opportunities
Respond to competitive pressure
Satisfy the changing needs of customers
Types of Organizational Change
1. Planned Change
Change as an intentional, goal-oriented activity.
It has two goals:
o it seeks to improve the ability of the organization to adapt to new factors
in its environment.
o it seeks to modify employee behavior.
Planned Change has two forms:
◦ Radical change.
Also known as frame-breaking change.
Change that result in a major overhaul of the organization or its component
systems.
◦ Incremental change.
Also known as frame-bending change.
Change that is part of the organization’s natural evolution.
It implies no fundamental shifts in the assumptions how the organization can
improve its functioning.
2. Unplanned Change
Occurs spontaneously or randomly
May be disruptive or beneficial
The appropriate goal is to act quickly to minimize any negative consequences and
maximize any possible benefits.
Lewin’s Three-Step Change Model
Also known as phases of planned change
Discusses how does organization engage in the change process
Kurt Lewin argued that successful change in organizations should follow three
steps, that is, change processes:
Unfreezing
Changing/Moving
Refreezing
Cultural Variables
Acceptance of Ambiguity
Low external control
Tolerance of conflicts
Focus on ends
Open system focus
StructuralPositive
variablesfeedback
Emphasis on how the organization’s structure got in the way of innovation.
Effective structural variables that facilitate innovation has the following five
variables:
Organic-type structure: positively influences innovation because;
low in formalization, centralization, and work specialization,
facilitates the flexibility and sharing of ideas that are critical to innovation.
Availability of resources: provides a key building block for innovation.
With an abundance of resources, managers can
• afford to purchase innovations,
• afford the cost of instituting innovations, and
• can absorb failures.
Inter-unit communications:
• helps break down barriers to innovation.
• Cross-functional teams, task forces, and other such organizational
designs facilitate interaction across departmental lines and are
widely used in innovative organizations.
Minimal time pressure:
Innovative organizations should try to minimize extreme time pressures on creative
activities despite the demands of white-water rapids environments.
Even if time pressures may spur people to work harder and may make them feel more
creative, many studies show that it actually causes them to be less creative.
Work and non-work support:
Employee’s creative performance was enhanced when an organization’s
structure explicitly supported creativity.
Beneficial kinds of support included things like encouragement, open
communication, readiness to listen, and useful feedback
Cultural variables
Innovative organizations encourage experimentation, reward both successes and
failures, and celebrate mistakes.
An innovative organization is likely to have the following characteristics:
Accept ambiguity: too much emphasis on objectivity and specificity
constrains creativity.
Keep external controls minimal: rules, regulations, policies, and similar
organizational controls are kept to a minimum.
Tolerate conflict:
• diversity of opinions is encouraged.
• harmony and agreement between individuals or units are not assumed to be
evidence of high performance.
Focus on ends rather than means:
• goals are made clear, and individuals are encouraged to consider alternative
routes toward meeting the goals.
• focusing on ends suggests that several right answers might be possible for
any given problem.
Use an open-system focus:
• closely monitor the environment and respond to changes as they occur.
Provide positive feedback:
• Managers provide positive feedback, encouragement, and support so employees
feel that their creative ideas receive attention.
Tolerate the impractical:
• Individuals who offer impractical, even foolish, answers to what-if questions
are not stifled.
• What at first seems impractical might lead to innovative solutions.
Exhibit empowering leadership:
• Be a leader who lets organizational members know that the work they do is
significant.
• Provide organizational members the opportunity to participate in decision
making.
• Show them that you’re confident they can achieve high performance levels and
outcomes.
• Being this type of leader will have a positive influence on creativity.
Human resource variables
Innovative organizations:
• actively promote the training and development of their members so their
knowledge remains current;
• offer their employees high job security to reduce the fear of getting fired for
making mistakes; and
• encourage individuals to become idea champions, actively and
enthusiastically supporting new ideas, building support, overcoming
resistance, and ensuring that innovations are implemented.
• People with idea champions have the following personality characteristics:
extremely high self-confidence, persistence, energy, dynamic leadership and
a tendency toward risk taking.