BARE News – Avoiding Sales Loss: Challenges to quality customer service in Brazil, China and Germany

BARE International, the most trusted name in customer experience research shares an article from Exame.com – Avoiding sales loss: the problem is the lack of attention to areas engaged in direct contact with clients.

In a time of economic crisis, companies weather through it when they are able to win their clients. However, despite this being a global challenge, each market tackles its own difficulties.

All countries most definitely have a problem in common: the lack of greater attention to areas engaged in direct contact with clients, according to Michael Bare, president and founder of Bare International, a mystery shopper company.

After all, these are the employees who directly deal with the public.

While Brazil’s main obstacle is employees’ lack of autonomy, China’s is their lack of skills.

According to Bare, clerks in Brazil are usually friendly and welcoming, try to engage in a conversation and are willing to help. However, they lack problem- solving skills.

“They don’t have a sense of urgency to solve problems. In some cases, their supervisors only become aware of a certain incident after a few days”, says Mr. Bare.

Another challenge the country faces is the lack of autonomy of employees – they are not able to tackle a certain issue and often need to consult with their managers.

Brazil in this sense is the opposite of Germany, where clerks are efficient in solving problems, but are unable to bond with their clients.

As for China, the obstacle there is the lack of skills. There are many clerks per customer, which makes them feel they are receiving VIP treatment.

“However, quite often employees do not receive appropriate training and there is a lack of in-depth knowledge about the product they are selling”,says the expert .

But it is not enough to understand the flaws in customer service of each country.  To produce outcomes,  it is necessary to go beyond issuing reports to company owners.

According to Bare, it is important to communicate such reports to employees, since salespeople are only able to improve their sales strategies if they know what opportunities they might miss, for example.

“By doing so, they feel part of the business, get more interested in their own work and try harder”, he says.

Valuable Details  

In addition to correcting errors, mystery shopper companies have to point out good practices and ways of increasing sales.

Financial services, such as banks or insurance companies, for example, miss opportunities when they fail to deliver new investments or service options.

“We see that only half of bank clerks offer a better product. At other times, they miss such opportunity”, states the executive.

As for hotels, the flaw lies in not being specific when talking to clients. Bare says that asking “was everything all right?” is too generic.

Instead, when doing the check out, the receptionist should ask if the room was comfortable, if the meals were tasty and if the client needs help with transportation, for instance.

By not making these questions, companies miss opportunities to solve problems  and sell new products.

 

By Karin Salomão, from EXAME.comSiga-me