Show You're Serious With Serious Customer Service

If you work at home, you know the rest of the world still has a hard time believing you're a "real" business owner. But you can help show how serious you are by providing good, professional customer service.

In fact, if you provide really good customer service, you'll enjoy an advantage over most of the so-called "real" businesses. A lot of corporate America isn't so hot at dealing with customers and, if you can do better, you might attract some of its clientele.

What does good customer service take? If you use common sense and follow the Golden Rule -- treat others the way you'd want them to treat you -- you're on the right track. But here are a few additional pointers:

* Make a professional first impression. You might answer the phone with a simple, "Hello," when you're at home, but when you're at home and WORKING, make sure your callers know they've reached a business office: "Hello, this is ABC Corp. How can I help you?" If your kids help out -- make sure they're old enough to handle the responsibilitiy -- you can teach them to answer the phone the same way. And, remember, cutesy answering machine messages are OUT.

* Never make excuses. Customers don't want to hear excuses. They want products or services. They want solutions. They want what they paid for. So forget about explaining why you made a mistake or trying to place the blame on someone else ... just make things right as pleasantly, efficiently and quickly as possible.

* Pay attention to the matter at hand. As home business owners, we all wear dozens of hats: owner, president, marketing director, purchasing director, editor, bookkeeper, janitor, and so on. But when you pick up the phone to talk to a customer or potential customer, make that person your ONLY priority. Pay attention to what he or she is saying, and take notes when appropriate. But don't go over tomorrow's to-do list, file papers or clear your desk while you're speaking.

* Don't take things personally. Customers get angry sometimes ... it's a fact of business life. Maybe they've got a legitimate complaint, maybe they're blowing things out of proportion, maybe they've just had a bad day. Whatever the reason, don't let the anger get to you. Focus on the problem and what you can do to solve it. Never get drawn into an argument or become defensive in such situations: responding personally instead of professionally will ALWAYS make things worse.

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