The good customer service is the lifeblood
of any business. You can offer promotions and slash price to bring in as many
new customers are you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to
come back, your business won’t be profitable for long.
How do you go about forming such a
relationship? By remembering one true
secret of good customer’s service and acting accordingly; “You will be judged
by what you do, not what you say.”
I know this verge on the kind of statement
that’s often seen on a sampler, but providing good customer service is a simple
thing.
- Answers 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.
- Don’t make promise 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.
- Listen to your customers: Is there anything more exasperating that 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 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.
- 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.
- 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 bang together. When I explained the problem, the proprietor said that he thought me 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 l’ve told this story to?
- Train your staff 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 regularly.
- Take the extra step: Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it. They may not say so to you, but the people notice when people make an extra effort and will tell other people.
- Throw in something extra: Whether it’s a coupon for the future discount, additional information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile, people love to get more than they were getting. And don’t think that a gesture has to be large to be effective.