Excellence in Customer Service

Posted by Joni Rose Apr 30, 2008

Improving customer service requires attention to details. Pay attention to promptness of service, how you treat your customers, your product knowledge, and how you listen to customer’s requests.

Promptness

• Answer a customer inquiry line by the 3rd ring
• Reduce order processing times to 24 hours or less

Treatment

• Treat a customer the way you want to be treated
• Treat all customers equally – new prospects, repeat clients, online, in-person etc.
• Develop relationships with your customers so that they feel special
• Use positive language – compliments, highlight strengths, frame everything in a positive light
• Make things easy for the customer as much as possible
• When a mistake is made – apologize, fix it happily, quickly and liberally and resolve to not have this happen again
• Don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth advertising. Bad service is talked about as much as good service.

Product knowledge

• Know the differences between product lines and models
• Understand what has been improved upon or changes with the new model
• Be able to speak to the benefits of the product – specifically, how it saves time, money or energy, solves problems or brings pleasure
• Offer the customer the least expensive option that meets their basic needs and then let them know clearly what a higher price can offer them

Listen

• Be a detective searching for clues as to what the customer wants
• Don’t waste a customer’s time focusing on what you want, not what they want
• If you show them a product or service and you get a negative reaction, ask questions and listen carefully as to why they did not like the suggestion

Adhere to these principles of excellence in customer service and your customers will keep coming back for more!