If the staff member notes a negative mood on the part of the customer in terms of tone of voice, speech patterns and word choice, or through other elements of the customer's interaction with the staff member, the staff member should adopt specific tones intended to soothe or otherwise improve customer mood. This can only be accomplished t a certain degree, and it is not expected that a staff member will be able to move a customer's mood from fully negative (which could be caused by any number of events in the customer's life) to fully positive, however any correction in the customer's mood that the staff members makes can lead to a significant shift in the overall experience of the customer; if the degree of negativity in the initial customer mood can be lessened even slightly then the customer experience can much more easily be made positive. After this, or if the customer initially exhibits a positive mood, then the most important factor in terms of creating a positive experience is the level of friendliness, knowledge, and helpfulness the staff presents to customers. For this reason, it is recommended that staff be properly trained not only with the latest and most relevant information regarding the actual products and services being offered and the problems that customers might encounter, but also in manners of speech that convey a sense of friendliness and of competence and knowledge. This will allow for the creation of a more positive overall experience.
The quantitative data and findings in this research also yield some direct and practical recommendations that identify means of creating more positive customer experiences through...
Again, this data matches the qualitative data in calling for more training and development in terms of creating staff friendliness and enhancing the personal qualities of the interaction over the actual product differentiation or features such as pricing, etc. Increasing initial staff friendliness, personalization, knowledge, and helpfulness will greatly enhance initial and overall customer satisfaction and the rating of the customer's experience as increasingly positive, and thus resources should be focused on the development of front-line staff members. Because the research shows a strong negative reaction to the need to speak with a second staff member regardless of how effective this second staff member is in addressing the customer's concerns and issues, it makes sense for the company to consider moving resources to focus more on the development of base-level staff rather than the supervisors and mangers that typically represent the second staff members customers will speak with if an initial staff member fails to adequately handle their issues. Though managerial development is of course important, the quantitative data collected here strongly suggests that even with effective help from a second staff member, the overall customer experience will be negative is a second staff member must be brought into the interaction. Product development including more flexible contracts and more varied pricing options might also be recommended in order to improve the overall customer experience, however major resources should not be focused on developing these elements ahead of staff development along the lines described here.
