When tough times come, tough guys do two things. They cut expenses and find ways to increase sales.

To increase sales, most foodservice establishments will simply do cold calling, mine for new business from old customers and lower prices to attract more sales. These are short term approaches. The best way weather tough economic times is to rely on solid business relationships built over a period of time.

Relationship selling requires a number of key concepts. Listen to your customer. Don’t be too concerned on what you are selling that you forget to listen to what your customer needs. Remember, you have to fit your services to what he needs. It is important that you build on and constantly mine your database of prospective customers. Don’t write-off a name simply because the prospect didn’t need your services at the moment. That may change.

Find ways to stay in touch, ways that elicit an eventual response to your product or services based on the prospect’s need. Also remember that you may never know when a forgotten prospect may refer you or your products based on the relationship you have established with them.

View customers and prospective customers as partners and above all as people. Their patronage and loyalty will help you put your business into more solid ground.
Build relationships. It sells.

Unilever Foodsolutions provided special chef’s jackets to select culinary teams from Cebu’s top hotels. Donning the chef jackets during the competitions were the winning teams of Waterfront Cebu City Hotel (over-all winner), Shangri-La Mactan Island Resort and Cebu City Marriott Hotel.

Management talk about “customer service” but few have given time and effort to train their employees about the real meaning of customer service or how to execute one. Most simply focus on the appearance of customer service - the right words to say and how to say them, how to smile and welcome, what to ask and how to answer. Only a few number of establishments truly take the time to check if their personnel addressed their customer’s needs – beyond the welcome, the smile and the required spiel.

Most establishments do not train their personnel on the importance of solving customer problems, nor given methods by which to solve them.

What does a company need to do to ensure good customer service? There are some simple rules.

• Train employees in the proper ways to greet, interact and thank a customer, but teach them to be problem solvers.
• Identify the customer's problem by listening, gathering more information and then more listening.
• Make all employees aware of the resources to solve problems…who to call for help, who is responsible for item selection and stocking, who are the key people at different levels of authority.
• Teach suggestive selling to recommend replacement and alternative items.
• Teach them to get customer contact information for follow through if the answer is not immediately available.
• Explain the concept of "follow through" and how to execute it.
• Create a plan for customer service and make sure all employees are aware of the plan.
• Each employee must know his or her responsibility and authority for customer service.

A commitment to customer service requires more than just saying the pre-determined words to a customer. It requires each of your employees be a problem solver, to take a genuine interest in solving customer problems and to know where to find solutions.