Customer Service — Conclusion
posted in Customer Service |
Customer Care Summary
The Profit Margin Is In The Details
We started this Customer Care series by asking you to examine how to deliver excellent customer service in a way that allows the customer to access them in the most efficient, fair, cost effective, and humanly satisfying and pleasurable manner possible.
The Golden Rule, “Treating others as you, yourself, would like to be treated,” is the surest foundation for any customer care program.
One of the best ways to keep your customers happy is to understand the way they think.
- What motivates your customer to buy now, or hold off until later?
- What worries them or makes them feel confident?
- Which product or service benefit means the most to your client base?
All Business Transactions are Based in an Emotional Response
Customers, and all of us are somebody’s customers, do business on the basis of their feelings. We customers want what we want, when we want it. We business owners need to position our product or services to not only understand, but also accommodate our client’s sentiments and sensibilities. As individuals, we customers gravitate toward a company or group of people with whom we enjoy doing business — patronizing those businesses and organizations with which we are comfortable. We customers are very reticent about changing our buying habits; however, when we are disgruntled by a minor frustration or discourteous response, experience has shown that we customers will not only change vendors, we usually share the source of our dissatisfaction with several of our friends and associates.
Ways to Deliver Outstanding Customer Care
Successful organizations understand the need to stay close to their customer base. In every business function — product/service development, marketing/sales, distribution and customer care — employees and owners need to understand their customers’ wants, needs and expectations.
What do they want?
Ask them!
Use surveys, the best are short and drill down to unambiguous conclusions that give the business owner actionable intelligence.
Utilize Blogs, customer forums, users groups and other online resources to communicate with your customers and learn their attitudes, what they want, and what they dislike.
Carefully analyze the ideas, suggestions, and complaints of your present and former customers.
Communication, Communication, Communication
Consistently courteous phone manners are a BIG issue that is often overlooked in a “growing” business enterprise. Candidly consider both your own and your employees’ telephone manners. Consider sponsoring formal phone etiquette classes for every one in the organization. Good phone manners are particularly important for small businesses. Mishandling a phone contact could undermine an otherwise successful marketing initiative.
Institute a program to regularly check employees’ phone protocol. Contract with someone whose voice is unfamiliar to play the role of a customer or prospective client, preferably one with a problematic or unusual issue. Assess the tenor of the response and address any client care issues that need correction. It is essential that any correction or criticism include specific points and solid suggestions for improvement. To simply complain about an employee’s phone manner is not helpful to either the individual in question or your customer. Specific phone etiquette guidelines, such as prompt answering and a cheerful attitude of helpfulness are critical aspects of a successful customer care initiative.
It Takes a Village, or at Least Everyone Who Works in the Organization…
Really great customer service is a team effort. Successful organizations develop a customer-care culture. When dealing with a corporate culture, it is important to acknowledge that each business has its own quirky personality — that unique something that permeates the organizational structure. Find those support tools and services that build on your organizational personality. It is that distinctiveness that drew your client base to you in the first place. Any customer care initiative needs to be authentic — true to the organizational culture, to be successfully integrated into a consistent practice. Find out what works best for your organization. Some companies have used group meetings, specialized onsite training, memos, posters, in-house publications and rewards specifically designed to acculturate great customer care. Getting and holding customers requires the whole team’s attention. Invite employees’ and other stake holder’s ideas — Listen, learn, adapt and listen some more.
Do Your Clients Consider You and Your Organization as Welcoming?
As a founder of an emerging business or an established enterprise you and your employees, need to be out and about. Some business owners and professionals confine their meet and greet time to “business to business” events like Chamber of Commerce or other professional meetings. It is simply good business practice to extend your after-hours, public relation efforts to the more informal environments favored by your client base. All business activity is a form of energy exchange. Your existing and future clients react positively to a graciously welcome vibration. A genuine, consistently pleasant demeanor attracts folks to you and your business. Take advantage of the relaxed atmosphere of social occasions or the neighborhood community center to turn friends into customers or to reinforce the loyalty of existing ones.
If you have any customer service ideas, or experiences, please share them with the rest of your Millionaire Mind Support Network™
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