Customer Dis-Service Today

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On any given errand day, I can walk into almost any store and deal with a bad customer service representative. While looking for an item, such as out-of-stock laundry detergent, I’m met with frowns, blank stares, and “I don’t know” types of answers. Whatever happened to great customer service and pride in one’s work?

Customer service can be defined as simply the ability to provide a product or service in the way promised, but it should be viewed by business owners and employees as so much more. Customer service should be viewed as customer care. Not only should you treat your customers the way you’d want to be treated, but you want to go above and beyond even that. Customer care should be viewed as one of the basic philosophies of your business. Without your customers, you wouldn’t have a business. They should be treated with respect at all times. Not only should you be providing the highest quality goods or service in your market, but you should be doing so with the right attitude, the highest amount of knowledge, technical support and doing so with a smile.

Customer service is a dying art form in most businesses today. It’s like they don’t care about their customers at all. Salespeople and store employees often display a complete lack of respect for the customers, no willingness to learn about the products or services they’re representing, and even the lack of a smile on their faces.

Lack of good customer care leads to disgruntled customers who complain to other potential customers about their bad experiences, loss of income and potentially even a complete shut-down.

Customer service skills shouldn’t be employed only when customers are complaining, nor should it be used only as a last resort by a manager who’s called over to deal with an escalating situation. Customer service should become one of the cornerstones of your organization. Every contact with your business should leave the customer feeling respected, cared about and content with the outcome.

Train your employees to think about angry/rude/impatient customer situations like this:
1. Am I doing something to elicit this response from the customer?
2. Do I deserve this behavior?
3. Why is the customer acting this way? What can I do to improve it?

Any representatives of your business should always answer any and all questions from your customers as promptly as possible, as politely as possible and with a smile.

When you utilize good customer service skills and truly value your customer’s place within your company, you will earn more business. They will refer friends and family to you for the same great service they received and they’ll keep coming back themselves. Let your customers know that they’re the backbone of your business and build relationships with them. Give them the “mom-and-pop” shop sentimentality, even if your company is more like a mega-mall.

Looking for more resources on customer service? Visit:
www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz
www.customerservicemanager.com

Patty Benton is a teacher who has taken her teaching abilities and created a coaching practice like no other. She began as a Virtual Assistant, building an amazingly diverse and professional team (www.professionaladminteam.com) providing support to Coaches who are looking to take their business to the next level through teleseminars, providing web and graphic design, as well as newsletter services (JERPAT, LLC). She became passionate about helping other women who desire to work from home, achieve their dreams. She partnered with Dolly Norris Hooker to bring a complete coaching program, The Missing Piece, LLC, that is designed to reach virtually every woman where she is at, and help to find her missing piece(s) to a fulfilling life (www.everywomansnorthstar.com). You can learn more by going to her blog at www.fromawomansheart.com.

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