Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business.
You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as
many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some
of those customers to come back, your business won’t be
profitable for long.
Good customer service is all about bringing customers
back. And about sending them away happy – happy enough to
pass positive feedback about your business along to others,
who may then try the product or service you offer for
themselves and in their turn become repeat customers.
If you’re a good salesperson, you can sell anything to
anyone once. But it will be your approach to customer
service that determines whether or not you’ll ever be able
to sell that person anything else. The essence of good
customer service is forming a relationship with customers –
a relationship that that individual customer feels that he
would like to pursue.
How do you go about forming such a relationship? By
remembering the one true secret of good customer service and
acting accordingly; "You will be judged by what you do, not
what you say."
I know this verges on the kind of statement that’s often
seen on a sampler, but providing good customer service IS a
simple thing. If you truly want to have good customer
service, all you have to do is ensure that your business
consistently does these things:
1) Answer your phone.
Get call forwarding. Or an answering service. Hire staff
if you need to. But make sure that someone is picking up the
phone when someone calls your business. (Notice I say
"someone". People who call want to talk to a live person,
not a fake recorded robot.)
2) Don’t make promises unless you WILL keep them.
Not plan to keep them. Will keep them. Reliability is one
of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer
service is no exception. If you say, "Your new bedroom
furniture will be delivered on Tuesday", make sure it is
delivered on Tuesday. Otherwise, don’t say it. The same rule
applies to client appointments, deadlines, etc.. Think
before you give any promise – because nothing annoys
customers more than a broken one.
3) Listen to your customers.
Is there anything more exasperating than telling someone
what you want or what your problem is and then discovering
that that person hasn’t been paying attention and needs to
have it explained again? From a customer’s point of view, I
doubt it. Can the sales pitches and the product babble. Let
your customer talk and show him that you are listening by
making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to
solve the problem.
4) Deal with complaints.
No one likes hearing complaints, and many of us have
developed a reflex shrug, saying, "You can’t please all the
people all the time". Maybe not, but if you give the
complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one
person this one time - and position your business to reap
the benefits of good customer service.
5) Be helpful - even if there’s no immediate profit in
it.
The other day I popped into a local watch shop because I
had lost the small piece that clips the pieces of my watch
band together. When I explained the problem, the proprietor
said that he thought he might have one lying around. He
found it, attached it to my watch band – and charged me
nothing! Where do you think I’ll go when I need a new watch
band or even a new watch? And how many people do you think
I’ve told this story to?
6) Train your staff (if you have any) to be ALWAYS
helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable.
Do it yourself or hire someone to train them. Talk to
them about good customer service and what it is (and isn’t)
regularly. Most importantly, give every member of your staff
enough information and power to make those small
customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, "I
don’t know, but so-and-so will be back at..."
7) Take the extra step.
For instance, if someone walks into your store and asks
you to help them find something, don’t just say, "It’s in
Aisle 3." Lead the customer to the item. Better yet, wait
and see if he has questions about it, or further needs.
Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good
customer service, take it. They may not say so to you, but
people notice when people make an extra effort and will tell
other people.
8) Throw in something extra.
Whether it’s a coupon for a future discount, additional
information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile,
people love to get more than they thought they were getting.
And don’t think that a gesture has to be large to be
effective. The local art framer that we use attaches a
package of picture hangers to every picture he frames. A
small thing, but so appreciated.
If you apply these eight simple rules consistently, your
business will become known for its good customer service.
And the best part? The irony of good customer service is
that over time it will bring in more new customers than
promotions and price slashing ever did! Susan Ward
http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/customerservice/a/custservrules.htm
