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8 Critical Steps to Establish a Customer Service Culture
Upon reflection, most all of my interactions with displeased customers were not the result of a poor product, but rather a disappointing customer experience. Why is that? Because, product is not personal, customer service is. Briefly, I...Continue
A Guide For Customer Service Training Tools
Let's face it, good customer service can make or break a
company. Even if the product is top-notch, if the sales
representatives don't have great customer service skills, it
doesn't matter. Customer service should be a number one priority
to any...Continue
Customer Service is Now Customer Care
As I waited for an answer to my VCR inquiry from a stereo company, the recording stated a “customer care” representative would be available shortly. At that moment, I realized it’s finally catching on everywhere. With aging baby boomers, world events and...Continue
Customer Service Tips for Small Businesses
We hear it all the time about big companies, and most likely we have professed a few of the same sentiments ourselves: "They've gotten too big to care about individual customers," "Personalized service is a thing of the past," and "If you get mad and go away,...Continue
Mystery Shopping - Mysterious Way To Improve Customer Care
Performance analysis and mystery shopping is crucial for any modern business. It is an important part of improving quality of service and enhancing sales so that the business progresses and rules the market. The company that proves its competence gains...Continue
What is Great Customer Service?
In almost all cases customers come to your business because they have a problem and believe that you may have the solution. Whether you do, or whether you can build enough trust with the customer to let them solve their problem is up to you.
In the day...Continue
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Make An Action Plan To Improve Customer Service
Customer Service is a critical factor for keeping your clients coming back and ensuring they’ll refer you to others. Growing your business will be a difficult task at best if you don’t perform, meet and exceed your client’s expectations, and provide service that creates customers for life.
Customer service is all about the customer’s perception. You have to do more than just get the job done. You must deliver on all the things (big and small) that affect the relationship with your client. Consider opportunities for improvement in the following areas.
1. Setting/Reviewing Expectations. Do you work with your client to set clear, appropriate, realistic expectations that you can always meet or exceed? Are you clear about the responsibilities (both yours’ and the client’s), timelines, and expectations of results? Are you then willing to go back and review these expectations with the client at key points along the way?
2. Communication. Do you have mechanisms in place to ensure you’re communicating with clients at every stage of the engagement, from the sales process through to completion of the project? Being clear about where you’re at, what’s been completed, what’s coming up next, who’s responsible, what results you can expect, etc.? Has the client ever had to ask you for these things?
3. Organization. Are you organized? Punctual? Reliable? When you show up to work with your clients, have you done the work and are you prepared to make them feel comfortable and taken care of? Even though you’ve done it hundreds, maybe thousands of times before, do you take the time to organize and prepare to make it the best client experience possible?
4. Committing to the Little Things. Don’t ever dismiss the power of all the little things. Together they can make all the difference and really separate you from the competition. Returning calls and emails in a timely manner. Providing useful information to folks on a regular basis. Showing appreciation for your clients through things like thank you notes, exclusive client-only briefings, and open house, etc.
Clearly these are not the only relevant areas for creating great customer service. I’m sure you can think of more. But, pick just one of these areas and create an action plan to improve it in your business today. Make a commitment to continuously improve the level of service you’re providing and see how it pays off. When you’ve done it, pick another area and work on it.
(c) - Kevin Dervin, KPD Marketing
About the Author
Kevin is focused on helping businesses that are ready to grow, but struggle with how to consistently attract more clients. Visit http://www.proven-small-business-marketing-solutions.com for more information you can use to grow your business. KPD Marketing http://www.ABCDgrowth.com
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