Achieve Excellent Customer Service For Your Business

At one time or another, all of us have experienced customer service so atrocious that we wonder why the company still has customers. Amazingly, even large companies with enormous training budgets are not immune to poor customer service. Often in smaller companies, no formal customer service trainings exist.

Research shows that poor customer service is a leading reason for customer loss. This should not be the case because only a little investment is needed to have substantial improvements. To get you started, here are some key tasks to enhance your customer service:

Set your customer service standards. The ideal is that the customer is always right, but the reality is that there are limits to what you could offer. Quantify how much would be the total benefit and the total cost of a particular policy. This is no easy task since you could only estimate the benefits, such as the positive effect of good word of mouth advertising. Often, too, you would only know the cost once you have been implementing the policy for a certain time. You must also take into account industry standards and possible legal problems. There must also be periodic reviews if the policy is still ideal, as situations may evolve. What was once a good policy may later turn out undesirable.

Know and manage customer expectations. Find out the key factors that are the most important to your customers and how much they are prepared to pay for such. Be sure to satisfy the critical needs and then see how much of the less essential matters you can afford. From the start, make clear what values your customers will be receiving. It is better to underpromise and then to over-deliver. This is especially important for products or services where there are repeat purchases.

Make a good first impression. The first few seconds or minutes of interaction have a great impact. Have all employees who will be in initial contact with the customers to have special training on the exact words to greet customers and how to handle inquiries. Whether over the phone or in person, you must immediately convey a professional manner to encourage and reassure people about your company.

Turn complaints into customer service opportunities. Despite all your preparations and precautions, it is inevitable that there will be shortcomings. In cases like this, you must know how to handle the upset customer, not only to appease him/her but also to showcase how excellent your response is. If your company was indeed at fault, besides making things right, you may invest in a small gift or some other way to compensate for the inconvenience.

Increase customer retention. It is many times more costly to get a new customer than to motivate a customer to return. Because of this, it is generally more profitable to look for ways to keep your customers coming back than to spend on getting more clients. Develop programs to increase loyalty.

Customer service is one of the most neglected aspects of company operations. Improving this aspect of your operations will certainly pay off in more loyal customers.

To know more about this, BusinessCoach, Inc., a leading business seminar provider, conducts a seminar entitled, “Customer Service Training.” Contact (02) 727-5628, (02) 727-8860, (0915) 205-0133 or visit www.businesscoachphil.com for details.

Click here to view details of the seminar: Customer Service Training»

*Originally published by the Manila Bulletin. C-4, Sunday, October 13, 2013. Written by Ruben Anlacan, Jr. (President, BusinessCoach, Inc.) All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or copied without express written permission of the copyright holders.