When customers upgrade, you probably notice a glazed-over look in their eyes as they survey the high-end phones sitting on your counter. There is a way to bring those blank stares into sharp focus and that is to clearly demonstrate how to use the features that are stupefying them.
To help you do that, LG has a surprising customer service angle for its resellers. They have a group of product trainers whose only job is to help you sell LG phones. These trainers go all over the country introducing themselves in wireless stores and then offer up a hefty amount of product knowledge.
Sharing knowledge is part of LG’s customer care and it is demonstrated in a variety of settings including a virtual method that works great for online stores and call centers. Call centers don’t have budgets to keep products on-hand for their operators to demo, so when a customer calls with questions about an LG product, there are interactive flash-based simulators that help train call center reps. But call centers aren’t the only ones being trained by LG.
Martin Valdez, LG’s Sr. Product Trainer for the SW region, gave me a tour of the company’s booth in Vegas at CTIA in April, (the video is available on our website). In that interview, Valdez is demonstrating some of their top performers including the new and exceedingly popular Voyager and the enV series phones for Verizon and the stunning Vu for AT&T - as well as some outstanding concept watch phones that are absolutely gorgeous. But what you’ll notice in the video is the kind of attention Valdez gives each model and by doing so generates the kind of charge that makes LG phones an easy sell.
Manipulating tiny phone menus has gotten easier with touchscreen models but it can still be daunting to the first-timer who is over the age of say, 19. Last year’s confused customer wanted to know how to send text and pictures or use the speakerphone and download ringtones. But this year they want to take and send video, use the web browser, download mobile games, get their email, use GPS navigation, get TV shows and music, listen to music and even watch full length feature movies, which means learning how to change out the memory cards, and connect to the computer to download movies and music, some of the LG handsets can even be used as a USB mass memory flash drive to tote files from one computer to the next – it’s becoming a whole new phone. Oh yes, it is still a phone.
Understanding the features of these new phones is more than a mouth full but once you show your customers what’s possible with the help of LG trainers, they are going to get all bugged-out about it. Valdez says that the reps, ranging all the way from the regional/district managers to call-center operators, speak in high praises about their sales and customer service levels being immediately and positively influenced by the training. Reps get excited when they talk about the capabilities of LG’s handsets, but it’s not just products that trainers educate and inform about. LG as a brand is given top billing as well.
“We don’t just talk about the products in our training,” says Valdez “we also talk about who LG is and where the company comes from with its history of design, engineering and manufacturing. LG products are incredibly durable. We give our reps a great deal of confidence about the brand as a whole.” The U.S. mobile phone division of LG has only been around since 1998 so they entered the mobile phone market late enough to have brought a new style and brand position to the wireless market. LG Mobile is headquartered in San Diego and is a sister division to the refrigerators, washer and dryers, TVs and other high-end electronics that are associated with the brand. U.S. LG Electronics is headquartered in NJ.
Valdez says LG gets a lot of great feedback from their reps and that they credit the training with an increase in sales of the top tier phones. But the kicker to all this attention from the “Life’s Good”, Korean manufacturer is that it’s free! It’s part of their customer care initiative. Nothing in this industry is less than $4.95 a month, but LG’s training offers something that might actually generate sales just with brand spanking new product knowledge.
Contact your local LG representative to see how your stores might benefit from this unique brand of customer care. Besides, you just can’t go wrong with a company who believes that Life’s Good and who works so hard to make it so.