The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Rizal Provincial Office continues to develop micro and small entrepreneurs to be ready to level up their business operation and improve their products. With the localized remote mentoring intervention, Collaborative Harnessing and Mentoring Program for Micro Entrepreneurs in Rizal (CHAMPS-Rizal) will prepare entrepreneurs to avail DTI’s flagship program such as Kapatid Mentor ME and One Town, One Products.
One of the CHAMPS Modules focused on ultimate customer service was conducted on 23 June 2021 and was attended by the 24 CHAMPS enrollees and 27 other MSMEs from the province of Rizal. In behalf of Provincial Director Desiderio Jurado III, Chief Trade Industry Development Specialist (CTIDS) Sharon F. Dioco welcomed the participants and shared how customer service seemed to be a hot topic for entrepreneurs as evidenced by the number of registrants, showing how eager they are to provide exceptional service. She stated how first-rate customer experience is key in sustaining and growing a business.
Genebee Nofuente, CHAMPS Program Coordinator introduced the speaker for the afternoon, President & CEO of Mansmith & Fielders, Inc. Chiqui Escareal- Go, the leading training and consultancy company in the country.
Escareal- Go presented the three (3) main agendas for the day: developing a mindset of excellent service by being customer-centric and knowing your brand promise, the importance of having the right people and the right processes in handling different kinds of customers and complaints. She emphasized that handling complaints is the last part because she believes that if businesses have the customer mindset, they will know what customers will expect of them.
For the first agenda, regarding businesses being customer-centric and knowing the brand promise, Escareal- Go said that customers aren’t always right but they are still customers. She suggests that it helps to adapt the customer mindset to better empathize with them to enable the business to best address the issue at hand.
For the second agenda, she stated the importance of employing the right people at the right processes. For instance, a newly-hired employee without training shouldn’t be placed on the frontline because he wouldn’t know the nitty-gritty. Escareal-Go also advised to create a process map which will enable businesses to quickly pinpoint the process gaps and eliminate redundant processes which will make service more efficient.
And for the last part, handling different customers and complaints, Escareal- Go enumerated different types of customers and how to best approach them. She encouraged participants to view customer complaints as an opportunity to win them back using recovery techniques through “mirroring”, the 3Fs (feel, felt, found) approach and position/action/benefit statement. The webinar ended with the awarding of Certificate of Appreciation to Chiqui Go. ♦
Date of Release: 13 July 2021