SME Investor Magazine Jun-Jul 2017 | Page 16

BE IN FLUENTIAL Find what works and model excellence. PLAY YOUR PART Let's say that one of your employees is Provide Superior Service customers with the level of service they already consistently delighting your provide. The key to success is to ensure that all employees model the same behaviour. This also ensures that the employee feels rewarded and appreciated, and are far more likely to stay with your company. There are many different techniques to find out what it is exactly what it is that the model employee is doing well. Common C ustomers that are delighted and truly amazed Equally important, ensure that the people by your service, will not only remain loyal and involved in providing that service, know profitable, they will also be an excellent source exactly what the customer expects of them. of referrals for you. Then your company is in a position to delight the customer, by delivering exactly what was Create a culture of excellence said on the tin. And then some, always go that In order to truly be a respected organization, it is important to instill an excellence culture in the organization. Just as everyone little bit extra! One of the hallmarks of good customer service responsible for selling your offering, so is is the ability to turn a complaint into an everyone responsible for servicing your opportunity. customers. When an angry customer is on the phone the It is important to utilise people's best skills in natural reaction is to try to solve the problem the correct positions in a team sport. The same as quickly as possible. However if you study is true in your company. There are many those who are expert in this area, before they psychometric testing systems around that help solve any problem, they quickly and easily determine what roles a person is best suited to gain rapport with the customer. fulfill. These can be used at recruitment stage. What an irate customer really needs is With existing employees, empathy. It is important to understand what it will take to cool him down, make them feel Suffice it to say, that someone in customer understood. The customer needs to feel that their Just for clarification, by customer service, I problem is being taken seriously. mean, ensuring that a customer who purchases Once this is done, the customer is ready your offering is able to make use of it in a way to have their problem solved, and they that will fulfill and exceed their expectations. will definitely appreciate the service. They are clearly demonstrate to them what they are getting, in terms of what, when and how, with what resource. as you have financial systems, manufacturing processes, sales processes and distribution processes, it is very important to have a sound customer service process. Superior customer service is indeed alive and working at many progressive companies, both not simply a term or a department, but rather an attitude and a manner of doing business. It boils down to caring and adhering to the golden rule…"to do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Superior customer care has declined to such an extent that some firms are actually promoting their own efforts at providing customer service as a unique benefit of dealing service needs to be a caring type of person. When a customer orders a product or service, Create a Customer Service Process. Just large and small. Customer service is introduce something like this tactfully! Set the customer up to be delighted great technique! Don't solve problems too quickly is you need to sense is a now in a position to become a delighted customer who, in all probability will continue buying from you. with their firm. Unfortunately, that is an apt description of the current state of customer service provision from most companies. Most companies do not get it. They are so consumed with the bottom line that they miss one of the most important factors growing their in business: The customer is king. He always has been and always will be.