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Best Practices for Dealing With Customers
For Route Drivers Only



When you listen carefully to your customer, he or she will give you clues about what you can do to go the extra mile.

BEST PRACTICE
Use the Platinum Rule: “Treat others the way they want to be treated.”

The bottom line to all these rule breakers and best practices is to keep your customer service personal. Don’t just follow the rules; choose the best way to apply them to meet and exceed your customer’s needs.

How to improve listening skills

Listening sounds easy. However, we often don’t listen fully. The following rules will help improve listening skills.

1) Listen with the intent to understand. We often listen with the intent to reply rather than to understand. Have you ever found yourself formulating your response as the other person is speaking? When you do this, it is impossible to listen fully.

2) Listen with your ears, eyes and mind. With your ears you listen to the words the other person is saying. With your eyes you will watch the body language. Does their body language match their words? With your heart you will listen to the tone and pacing of their speech to understand the emotional content. And with your mind, you will listen to what is not being said.

3) Don’t interrupt. Let the other person finish what they are saying. When you interrupt, you disturb the flow of the conversation and can miss important information.

Laurie Brown is an international trainer and consultant who works to help people
improve their sales, service and presentation skills. She is the author of: The Telemprompter Manual for Executives, Politicians, Broadcasters and Speakers. She can be reached at 877-999-3433 or at lauriebrown@thedifference.net.

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Reader Comments
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Posted by Tom Strange in ohio
relations in vending
I worked for avi in wooster Ohio. The customers liked me and were happy but some of the vendroute drivers had a hard time being friendly because the manageers at avi are mean spirited and rotten this shows on the route drivers personalities after awhile the problem is with incompetent managers.
(01/17/10 - 09:19 AM)


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