When talking about sales personnel in the UAE, the service standards act as a mandatory element of their job tasks and are to be strictly defined in their job description. In turn, the job description also regulates the direct activities of the relevant managers. For example, as the job description specifies that the manager must provide quality service to all customers, the applicable standards define the principles and particulars of the provision of such service.
The standards of service are the main means of corporate control on the service quality. In fact, such criteria clearly define the procedures and the rules of interaction with potential customers – how to greet and serve customers, how to display or present the goods, how to deal with complaints, etc.
In other words, service standards should serve as a perfect guideline for company’s sales staff in the UAE on what is permitted and what is strictly forbidden.
Monitoring and assessing the sales personnel efficiency & service standards
After the procedure of developing and implementing new standards, you can start to exercise control over its application on the day-to-day basis. First of all, you should assess the new standards and their feasibility in terms of the existing service system. To check the effectiveness of the improvements, use the methodology of test purchases.
A test customer is one of the most effective tools for testing the existing system and identifying problematic areas. This involves anonymous testing of the existing service standards without informing the sales staff on such tests.
Proceed with the test purchasing at stores and retail chains, and this will let you evaluate the complete network, as well as the practice used by your sales managers.
How to implement service standards in practice
There are two ways to achieve effective standardization in a UAE company. First, you can independently develop and implement it. However, there is a certain complexity to this approach. If you've been in the business for a long time, it will be hard for you to see the state with a "fresh" outlook. Furthermore, this process needs time. Often, management has neither the wish nor the time to work with the new standards, and as a result most of the newly developed standards do not work in praxis as not being fully implemented, or even worse, the work just remains incomplete and forever pending.
The second method is more effective: engaging external specialists and experts. The joint efforts of the management and external qualified specialists can give you the wanted result in a relatively short period of time. Truly effective standards and rules of personnel behavior can only come through the joint efforts of the business owners, staff and external advisors.
And that is where Atton Institute Dubai can be exceedingly helpful – we have the competence to provide the entire range of specialized courses and education programs which are the perfect support within definition and implementation of effective company service systems.
See more under the courses on sales provided by Atton Institute Dubai.