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Customer Relations
7 tips for excellent customer service
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/
resources/management/small-businessmanagement.aspx
means offering someone a truly exceptional experience," says Dr. Noelle Nelson, author
of "The Power of Appreciation in Business." "The quality of something may be good, but
it's the overall experience that will really define customer loyalty."
By Jeff Wuorio
In the business world, good customer service
often isn't good enough anymore.
Customers and clients are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the merely adequate.
For them, extraordinary service is the rule,
not the exception. Anything less, and they're
happy to vote with their feet and their wallets.
That makes extraordinary service necessary,
not just desirable. And that, in turn, mandates
a strategy to help ensure that your business
matches that standout service standard on a
daily basis.
Here are seven ideas and tips to
help your business establish and
maintain an ongoing climate of
service excellence.
1. Define what extraordinary
really means.
It's an easy term to toss about,
but knowing what exceptional service entails
is essential to establishing the procedures
and the mindset with which to achieve it. So,
delineate what extraordinary means — is it
lower price? Keeping appointments on time
or making certain that telephone service reps
always say "please" and "thank you"? By
knowing precisely what is merely good
enough — and what takes your business
beyond that — you get a firm handle on
what you need to do to hit that goal on a
consistent basis. For 1-800-Got-Junk? that
means calling a customer to let them know
that the van they're expecting is going to
arrive on time." We pledge to arrive on time,
in a clean shiny truck, with two friendly uniformed drivers — but so can anyone. What
makes us unique is our truck crew will call
the customer 15 minutes ahead of time, and
let them know we're on time," says Christopher Bennett of the Vancouver, B.C., junk
removal service. "This has a huge impact on
the customer. Calling ahead sets exceptional
expectations — even if we're running late,
the customer appreciates the call in advance."
2. Ask if you're not sure. Many companies
may find it understandably difficult to genuinely pinpoint what extraordinary service
really entails. So, do some legwork. Conduct
focus groups with customers to see what
they really value. Ask your complaint department, if you have one, to identify topics that
are frequent targets of dissatisfaction. Often,
you may find extraordinary translates to a
holistic grouping of issues, not just one product or service. "Often, being extraordinary
3. Allow your people to be extraordinary. Saying you want extraordinary service and
actually carrying it out is a tough nut without the necessary authority. One of the biggest
challenges of providing a consistently top-drawer performance is shifting conditions —
what's appropriate for one customer may not work with another. . For instance, one customer may be so dissatisfied that a partial refund may be in order. By contrast, other customers who are a bit less peeved may be happy with a problem solved without any sort of
refund. So, allow employees reasonable freedom of choice to read a situation and react
accordingly. For instance, Nelson suggests giving employees a budgetary allotment which
they can use, as needed, to address refunds or other unexpected costs associated with
giving customers the benefit of the doubt. To illustrate: Southwest Airlines gives its telephone customer service reps the authority to OK refunds if a caller claims they didn't get
the airfare they wanted. (The reps charge their own credit cards, then later get reimbursed.)
4. Share information. If you run a retail business, business management tools, such as
Microsoft's Retail Management System, can be invaluable in tracking critical data,
such as what items and services are selling particularly well. If you have that data,
don't keep it a state secret. Sharing the information with your employees lets them
know what's hitting on all cylinders. It also helps them promote these products or
services to customers. "Sharing information with others is a really positive step,"
says Nelson. In other words, don't keep critical customer information close to the
vest. That holds true with businesses other than retail. For instance, Microsoft
Dynamics Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software lets you share
valuable information about clients and customers with your entire organization.
Customer buying habits, particular needs, interests and other data can be stored in
a central location and easily shared.
5. Share the commitment. Nothing can prove more destructive to a commitment to extraordinary service than management for whom the concept is little more than lip service.
Walk the walk by buying into that commitment just as much as you hope your people will.
Make sure you reward top performance. Invest the time and expense in any sort of training that may help employees carry out and
maintain high performance standards. Don't
The quality of something may be
forget yourself and others in the front office.
"Make sure that training takes in everyone,
good, but it's the overall
not just sales, marketing and other front line
experience that will really define
employees," says Karen Leland, author of
"Customer Service for Dummies." "Training is
customer loyalty."
an