Describe Good Customer Service
An old adage in business warns, "If you ignore your customers, they will go away." Exemplary customer service increases the likelihood that your customers will continue bringing you their business. Kitty Pope of the Alliance Library System defines excellent customer service as reliable, timely, personalized and memorable.
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Customers Are Priority
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Business often brings frequent interruptions---a ringing phone or equipment in need of repair---that can distract from immediately acknowledging or giving adequate attention to a customer. Making customers your priority also shows respect for their time.
Positive Attitude
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If you like what you do and enjoy helping people, your sincerity will more likely impress your customers. Likewise, if you loathe your work and don't want to be there, your customers will detect that too. Develop a sincerely positive attitude about your work in lieu of a fake smile, even if it means changing your perspective about your work.
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Care About Customers
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Excellent service establishes a positive relationship with customers. Customers believe that the owner and employees care about them and their needs. Show a genuine interest in your customers and empathize when things go wrong. Remember customers' names or details from previous interactions.
Keep Your Promises
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Don't get ahead of yourself making promises you can't keep. Good customer service is defined, in a large part, by honesty and trustworthiness, which means delivering on your promises to customers and being honest when you won't be able to deliver.
Forget the System
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Part of caring for customers involves understanding that customers don't necessarily come "fitted" to your system. Good customer service allows for the flexibility needed to manipulate and even go against the system developed in your organization as a way to meet a customer's needs.
Resolve Problems
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The dissatisfied customer poses a threat beyond lost sales and future business. Surveys show that one dissatisfied customer will tell eight to ten people about her negative experiences, and 12 positive service experiences, on average, are needed to make up for one negative experience. Handle customer problems immediately. Ninety-five percent of people will patronize your business again if you resolve their problem immediately.
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- Photo Credit handshake image by Alex Anstey from Fotolia.com
