Saturday, August 16, 2014

Tips for great Customer Service

Service - Words magnifying glass Good customer service is no longer an exception; it’s the expectation of every customer.  In order to be competitive today, you must exceed the expectations of your customers.  There are many elements that can cause a business to succeed or fail, but something that should be copied from every successful business is the customer experience.

Here are some tips to help you improve your customer service.

1.  Look at your business from the customer’s perspective.  You can't do this yourself because your viewpoint is biased, so are your staff.  Ask friends, family, relatives, acquaintances and strangers to visit your organization and your competition.  Get brutally honest feedback from a customer's perspective and don’t be offended by their feedback.  You can start focusing on the routine procedures like the meet & greet and more smiles.  A warm, energetic smile with a personality overflowing with enthusiasm is hard to say no to.

2.  Actively listen to everything that can help you see what the customer sees.  Very few people will give you direct feedback.  So you have to look deeper for the clues.  Active listening means taking and hearing all verbal and non-verbal cues.  It means really listening to your customers’ reactions to your sales processes, staff and facility.

3.  Measure everything from the customer's perspective.  How fast does your web site load?  Is a customer’s sent a sincere thank you note?  You and your team’s number-one job is to exceed each and every one of your customer’s expectations and do so with sincerity to make the customer feel welcome.

4.  Improve constantly.  The atmosphere of your organization should be warm, professional, friendly, inviting and fun.  Don’t forget that last word “Thank You” either.  It makes a huge difference for your staff and your customers.  By relaxing the environment, productivity and customer satisfaction increase exponentially.  None of us, especially our customers want to be around people with a bad attitude.

Remember, you're trying to create an experience for the customer that can be described as great customer service.  Customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty, which increases repeats and referrals and leads to maximum returns, value and customers for life.

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