Podcast #16 - How to talk to customers

In this edition of The Innovative Marketer Podcast, I speak with Tom Larkin, author of the newly published book How to Talk to Customers.   Tom, and his co-author Diane Berenbaum have a lot of experience consulting on customer service issues through their company Communico.

The book is a good read and I'd recommend it for the solid tips they include on how to better communicate in your daily work life.   There's not a lot new here that you don't already know, but somehow reading it in an easy-to-understand way stands as an important reminder.

Here are three short techniques from the book for improving the interactions with your customers:

**  When you answer your phone, use your first and last name to build credibility, for example, "This is Steve Gershik" vs. "This is Steve."

**  When you are interacting with a customer, you must do so in a way that is accountable, that is, you tell the customer what you're going to do and then follow through.

** In every interaction with a customer, be non-judgmental.

Does this sound simple?  Does this sound obvious?  Then why are our lives filled with interactions like this every day?  And I'm betting if you check your web site, or listen in on the customer service calls coming into your company today, you'll find some of these tenets violated.

What I found truly notable about this book is how it came to me.   A PR rep reached out to me as a blogger, asking if my readers might be interested in the book's subject matter.  A sucker for free stuff, I said I'd take a look at it, thought it would be useful to share, and scheduled a Podcast interview (Tom Larkin's first) about the book.   For fun, I decided to see who else bit on this PR technique and found in general that the book was well received and noticed in the blogging community.  Was this because the publisher reached out proactively to bloggers?   

Interesting concept to consider when you're planning your own PR initiatives.

Listen to the Podcast now.

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Comments

[Chad Horenfeldt]

Good post and 'cast - I would love to read this book if you have it handy when you're in TO. I liked the small tips - especially for how to handle difficult calls (not that I have any :) ).