There are no absolute rules to how we ensure customer service.
If you want increase customer retention here’s four things that may help.
At least half of all businesses are very customer services related. The success of these businesses hinges on the interaction between customer and the people who work in customer facing roles.
As businesses struggle, we seek to compete against evermore present competition. It therefore becomes crucial that service is delivered in the way that the client would expect and indeed beyond the client expectation.
We need to build trust with your customers so that they come back and so they refer other people to us.
Rule one. Never Treat customers with complacency. It is quite natural for us to treat new customers in an energetic and enthusiastic way. Because they are new, there has been a level of excitement generated through the sales department and this kicks to the service people. However the value of repeat customers can never be overlooked we must continually treat them with the right attitude and the right commitment. Then the customer is king whether they are new or old. The cost of creating new customers is much higher than retaining, fostering, developing relationships and getting referrals from existing customers.
Rule two. Never make a promise that you cannot keep. Please do not oversell and under deliver. Many potential high-value relationships are damaged at the very start by this dynamic. If anything we need to undersell and over deliver. Whether we like are not a customer has expectations of how service should be delivered. Whether we meet or exceed all expectations is down to the energy and enthusiasm commitment and attitude of all those involved in delivering service to our customer at this crucial time.
The rules of trust apply in all our interactions with customers.
Being open and honest in delivering the right level of communication and consistency in all our interactions and procedures cements the picture in our customer’s mind of whether we can be trusted to deliver.
Rule three. There is no doubt with early economic challenges, the price has moved to number one in the way that we market and sell a lot of products and services. Don’t be fooled however that this is the only reason that customers make the purchasing decision. There are still a large potential batch of our customers or market you will pay that extra bit if we deliver on service. People are so used to poor service that they will pay that extra bit we deliver exceptional service.
How we build a culture of exceptional service is crucial, and is not totally achieved just through customer service training. We need people who will lead by example but also their server processes that ensure everyone is on board what customer service really is in our business, and what customers experience as exceptional service.
Rule four. The customer is always right. Things haven’t changed. The customer to pay the bill and we therefore need to be totally behind their needs to express what they need and how they feel about our service. Attitude is everything and when we interact with customers either over the phone and face-to-face it’s crucial that they feel we are driven solely by serving them and resolving whatever service issue they have.
With the huge levels of competition that we have in ever sector, we really drilled down to what procedures we have, regardless of whether it is a first-time customer OR, when a customer needs to replace an item OR complain about an item OR indeed enquire for more information about something they purchased.
Have we drilled down on all the procedures that are your customer service people may experience?
Written by Peter O’Connor.
Peter is a facilitator & MD of Performance Partners Ltd.
Performance Partners specialise in bringing about Employee Passion and building a Customer Service Culture.