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Des Squire

Great Customer Service

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 08:35

Irrespective of your own thoughts or expectations, great customer service is only great if your customer believes it is. So how do you know what great service means to your customers? Have you ever tried asking them?

Your plans for providing great customer service should always include understanding what your customer wants, how you can make life easier, and how you can help them and how you can help them solve their problems.

Everyone likes to feel they know what’s going on and your customers are no exception.

Keep your customers up to date with the latest products and services. Show them how they will benefit from the product or service and how the product or service will add value to their personal or business lives. It may be an invitation to a seminar or a new way of solving a problem you know they’ve had in the past.

Great customer service starts with a warm welcome. There’s no bigger turn-off for a customer than feeling you couldn’t care less. Worse still is creating the impression that they are taking you away from your personal or business activities.

Show you appreciate their business by giving your customers the courtesy they deserve and your full and undivided attention.

Lastly, it’s important to remember that your customer’s view of what great service really is will be affected by their whole experience with you and your staff and not just parts of it. Service for customers includes their entire experience of choosing, buying and then using your product or service.

You may have the best face-to-face sales force in your store, or the best people in reception or client services department, but if your customers can’t park outside then they may never actually come in to meet these fabulous people!

Remember to review your customer’s entire service experience with you when you are looking to make improvements.

“Always under-promise and over-deliver” - There’s a real skill to managing your customer expectations and it’s worth putting in the hard work to get this right. It’s very tempting to rush a job through to try and meet customer demands, but “Murphy’s Law” says something unexpected will happen to mess up your plans. Plan for the unexpected and you’ll find yourself delivering on your promises more frequently, without harassing your staff or burning yourself out.