Thanks to funding received from Allerdale Borough Council, Cumbria Chamber of Commerce is able to offer business support to visitor economy, retail and personal service businesses within Allerdale. These sectors have been identified by the council as most severely affected over the longest timescale by the pandemic, and rather than leave them to go it alone have teamed up with the Chamber to offer a package of business support.

Businesses in the identified sectors can choose to benefit from one of two support packages on offer:

1. A choice of sector specific online workshops followed with 1-2-1 bespoke advice, delivered remotely, to help implement actions.

OR

2. Free or funded membership of Cumbria Chamber of Commerce giving access to specific legal and HR advice, around redundancies & changes to working practices for example as well as a range of other member services.

We’ve got two workshops booked taking place in September:

Understanding & Managing Customer Emotions – Wed 8^th Sept 10am to 12.30pm

Did you know that “on a lifetime value basis emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable than highly satisfied customers?”

Emotionally connected customers are vital for business success as emotions play a key part in the customer experience.  They can be positive and/or negative emotions and can be evoked at any stage of the customer journey. Customers base their decision making on how they feel during each interaction and engagement, decision making ultimately affects the bottom line.

Therefore, it is crucial to not only recognise what customers are feeling but also to understand why they feel the way they do in order to build those all important emotional connections with customers.

During this workshop we will explore:-

• Emotional triggers and drivers
• The role emotions play in the customer experience
• How your own emotions can impact how the customer feels about their interaction with you
• Using emotional intelligence to manage customer emotions and build strong customer relationships

Handling Customer Complaints –  Thursday 23^rd Sept 2.30pm to 5pm

“96% of customers will continue to do business with an organisation if their complaint is resolved”

In a perfect world there would be no complaints, unfortunately some customers will complain, that is a fact.  In most cases, when a customer complains it means that the service delivery has not met with their expectation.

Maybe they have been kept on hold for a while or been passed from department to department having to explain the reason for their call more than once.  Perhaps their product is out of stock, delivery time is much longer than expected or there is an unexpected price increase.  There could be a multitude of reasons why people complain.  It really matters how the complaint is dealt with as this determines how the customer feels about their experience and the business as a whole.

And when a customer is dissatisfied they can become more critical about other areas or interactions with that business.

The majority of people don’t complain without good reason. Every situation needs to be fully explored so that successful service recovery can be implemented and managed.

This workshop focuses on the following:

• Customer Expectations: How are expectations formed?
• Why customers complain?
• The CLEAR approach: Handling difficult situations
• Identifying ways to reduce customer complaints
• Maintaining the ongoing relationship with your customer

We will also look to support businesses through any of the Chamber’s business support activity as well as signpost to other external support.

If you’re interested in either support package please email info@cumbriagrowthhub.co.uk