This is Tony (and Krystal)....
Tony is a personal trainer at Complete Fitness. Tony’s responsibilities include delivering orientation sessions to new clients, demonstrating the correct way to use exercise equipment, delivering training to clients and assessing their progress. In addition, Tony has been selected to coach new hires at his workplace. As the first point of contact for the clients at Complete Fitness, team members, like Tony, are empowered to own issues and make independent decisions on behalf of the company in order to provide great service.
What does personal presentation relate to and why is it good for business?
Personal presentation may be related to personal hygiene, correct work uniforms, clean and tidy clothing, neat and clean hair, and overall attitude.
Within a customer service environment, personal presentation is extremely important. It communicates a range of information to customers including attention to detail, professionalism, company values, integrity, care, competence, honesty.
How could you acknowledge and greet a client when you see them for the first time?
Demonstrate that you have recognised their presence and convey a friendly attitude, you would smile. Exchanging some form of pleasantries such as "Good morning, lovely day today", "Hello" or "Hi!”. A non-verbal acknowledgement can be making eye contact and smiling and nodding if you are busy with another customer. Welcoming the customer makes it easier to build up trust and a working relationship later on.
Use your own personality to start building rapport quickly, be at ease. Make sure your body language is open and remember it is about being interested not 'interesting'.
When busy with tasks, remember to look up regularly, scan for customers and look for opportunities to acknowledge them. It may seem simple, but never let a task come before a customer.
Approach the customer when you are able to and when they are clearly interested in speaking to you.
What are some of the principles of effective customer service?
The whole team needs to support customers, not just one person. Listen to what the customer wants. Always be honest with your customers. Be empathetic – put yourself in the customers place. Know your products and services. You don’t have to know everything about every product and service, but you should have a basic knowledge and should know where to find additional information when needed. Don’t make customers wait – no-one wants to stand around twiddling their thumbs waiting for service. At the very least, acknowledge the customer when they arrive and if you are busy, let them know you will be with them shortly.
What are some other ways you communicate with clients?
Most of our communication is in-person, conducting client consultations and personal training sessions, however, we also take phone enquiries and set up appointments and I am sometimes required to respond to emails. The same basic principles apply, although with email I also have to make sure my spelling and grammar are correct.