Excellent customer service is more than what you say or do foryour customers. It also means giving customers a chance to maketheir feelings known. Here are some suggestions for finding outwhat your customers want–and what they think about your customerservice:
- Attend trade shows and industry events that are important toyour customers. You’ll find out what the competition is doingand what kinds of products and services customers are lookingfor.
- Nurture a human bond, as well as a business one, withcustomers and prospects. Take them out to lunch, dinner, aballgame or the opera. In a relaxed social atmosphere, you’ll learnthe secrets that will allow you to go above and beyond yourcompetition.
- Stay abreast of trends; then respond to them. Readindustry trade publications, be active in trade organizations, andpay attention to what your customers are doing.
- Ask for feedback. Survey your customers regularly tofind out how you’re doing. Send postage-paid questionnaire cards orletters, call them on the phone, or set up focus groups. Ask forsuggestions and then fix the trouble areas revealed.
Whatever you do, don’t rest on your laurels. Regularly evaluateyour product or service to be sure it’s still priced, packaged anddelivered correctly.
When you’re a start-up with few employees and few customers,it’s easy to stay on top of what customers want and what they’regetting. But as you add more customers and employees, you add linksto the customer service chain. That creates the potential forgrowth–and the potential for poor service along the way. That’swhy creating a customer service policy and adhering to it is soimportant. Here are some steps you can take to ensure that yourclients receive excellent service every step of the way.
Put your customer service policy in writing. Theseprinciples should come from you, but every employee should knowwhat the rules are and be ready to live up to them. It doesn’t haveto be elaborate. Something as simple as “The customer is alwaysright” can lay the necessary groundwork, although you may want toget more detailed by saying, for instance, “Any employee isempowered to grant a 10-percent discount to any dissatisfiedcustomer at any time.”
Establish support systems that give employees clearinstructions for gaining and maintaining service superiority.These systems will help you outservice any competitor by givingmore to customers and anticipating problems before they arise.
Develop a measurement of superb customer service. Don’tforget to reward employees who practice it consistently.
Be certain that your passion for customer service runsrampant throughout your company. Employees should see how goodservice relates to your profits and to their futures with thecompany.
Be genuinely committed to providing more customer serviceexcellence than anyone else in your industry. This commitmentmust be so powerful that every one of your customers can senseit.
Share information with people on the front lines. Meetwith your employees regularly to talk about improving service.Solicit ideas from employees–they’re the ones who are dealing withcustomers most often.
Act on the knowledge that what customers value most areattention, dependability, promptness and competence. They lovebeing treated as individuals and being referred to by name.
Good customer service is made, not born. Most companies findthat employees require training to provide good customer service.Some of the areas in which employees often get help from customerservice training include:
- Stress management. It’s not easy to be theinterface between an angry customer and a balky accountingdepartment. Training on how to manage and relieve stress will helpcustomer service representatives keep their cool underpressure.
- Empathy. Often, good customer serviceconsists of little more than putting yourself in the other person’sshoes. However, this isn’t always easy. Training employees on howto look at a problem from the customer’s viewpoint goes a long waytoward helping improve customer service.
- Conflict resolution. Many times, customerservice representatives spend their time resolving conflicts suchas those between a customer’s demands and a company’s policies.Training on identifying issues, finding compromises and presentingalternatives can help.
- Listening. Often, the only thing a customerwants is to feel understood. Learning how to listen effectively isnot a widely held skill. However, it can be taught, and listeningtraining is a common feature of many customer service courses.
