Running your business is complicated; you have a lot on your plate. But good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. Bringing in new customers through promotions and sales are important, but unless at least some of those customers come back and buy again, your business won’t be profitable for long.
So it’s key to send your customers away happy – happy enough to give positive feedback to their friends.
You can sell anything to anyone once. But your approach to customer service will determine if you’ll ever sell that person anything else. In her newsletter, business speaker Barbara Wold says, “The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers – a relationship that an individual customer feels he would like to pursue.”
Below are Wold’s Eight Simple Rules to Good Customer Service:
- Answer your phone. Make sure that someone with a pleasant voice is picking up the phone.
- Don’t make promises unless you “WILL” keep them. Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception.
- Listen to your customers. Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting certain merchandise or how to solve the problem.
- Deal with complaints. Give the complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one person this one time — and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service.
- Be helpful – even if there’s no immediate profit in it. The other day Jane popped into a local watch shop because she had lost the small piece that clips the pieces of her watchband together. When she explained the problem, the proprietor said that he thought he might have one lying around. He found it, attached it to her watchband — and charged her nothing! Where do you think Jane will go when she needs a new watchband or even a new watch? And how many people do you think she has told this story to?
- Train your staff to be ALWAYS helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable. Give every member of your staff enough information and power to make those small customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, “I don’t know.”
- Take the extra step. Lead the customer to the item they asked about. Better yet, wait and see if he has questions about it, or further needs. Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it.
- Throw in something extra. Whether it’s a coupon for a future discount, additional information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile — people love to get more than they expect.
Applying these eight simple rules consistently, you will make your business known for good service. Over time, good customer service will bring in more new customers than promotions and price slashing ever did!
