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Use these common-sense, practical suggestions to deliver great customer service. These tips will help you meet and exceed your customers’ expectations. [1]
Realize That to the Customer, YOU are the Organization
A customer makes an impression of your organization based on contact with an employee. When dealing directly with customers, you should reflect your organization’s values. If in doubt, be positive and professional.
Consider Your Internal and External Customers
A customer is anyone who’s affected by the work you do. So, whether your customers are external or colleagues within your team, treat them with the same care and respect.
Show Good Manners to Your Customers
In a rush to get things done, we can lose simple but important values such as courtesy, dignity and respect. Each customer must feel valued and important. For example, sales agents may have a target number of calls, but if they don’t treat customers courteously, they’re unlikely to make the sale.
Communicate Well to Deliver Good Service
Effective communication is the foundation of quality service. Using positive language and being personal helps you build strong relationships with customers. Your communication style should reflect your organization’s values. If in doubt, empathize, be honest and trustworthy. What’s more, be genuine, specific and timely.
Understand Your Customers' Needs
Without understanding your customers’ needs, it’s impossible to offer the best service. Sometimes you have to ask for this information. In that case, listen to the answers, then repeat what you hear to show you’re listening and better understand what they’re saying. Once you’re clear about the customer’s needs, try to meet their requests quickly and effectively.
Be Reliable
Reliability is a cornerstone of excellent customer service. A reputation for faultless delivery builds long-term, positive relationships with customers and colleagues. So, you should keep all promises you make to the customer. And, it’s better to under-promise and over-deliver than the other way around.
Demonstrate a Positive and Professional Attitude
A reputation for competence helps organizations stand out. Show a positive attitude in your work to give your customers confidence that your organization is professional and reliable.
Be Honest
Honesty is the only policy when dealing with customers. Apart from avoiding being caught telling a lie, honesty will help you to manage expectations. Be clear about what you are and aren't able to do for them.
Respond to Queries Promptly and Appropriately
With the pace of modern life and technological advances, people expect a fast response to queries. Customers will determine your success or failure on your ability to deliver on time. So, if a customer asks you something on social media, answer them there rather than pointing to a phone number or email address.
Show Empathy to Your Customers
Understanding your customers’ feelings helps you deliver excellent service. You may have to deal with your customers sensitively. For example, pharmacy employees must be candid when dealing with customers to avoid embarrassment. But all customers need your understanding. For example, if an internal customer seems stressed out, you could arrange another more suitable time to talk.
Listen Actively
Active listening is the best way to discover what customers really want. You should listen on a one-to-one level and a wider level by seeking customer feedback on your service. It can be difficult to keep listening if you deal with large volumes of people with similar requests and issues. So, concentration is key.
Use Intelligent Questioning
Ask questions to better understand what the customer is saying – and what they’re really after. Listen to the answers and paraphrase what you’ve heard in your own language. This shows you are listening and helps you absorb information. It’s better to clarify at the beginning of a conversation than potentially deliver the wrong thing.
Pay Attention to Non-verbal Communication
If you meet customers face-to-face, pay careful attention to non-verbal cues. Watch their body language and ‘listen’ to what they’re saying. Also, think about your own body language and whether it’s consistent with what you’re saying. For example, if you’re fidgeting, you may not convey confidence and enthusiasm about your product or service.
Work on Your Telephone and Online Manner
If a customer can’t see your face, try to convey a welcoming manner through your tone of voice and by using positive language. You could, for example, ‘smile’ down the phone or sign off with a smiley face emoji on ‘live chat’ if appropriate. A tone-of-voice guide can help you talk consistently with customers across all channels. A ‘cheat sheet’ can also provide answers to questions likely to come up.
Develop Your Written Communication Skills
Good writing is a powerful part of great customer service. As with phone communication, you should think carefully about your message and tone. Proofread to spot spelling errors and write in clear, concise language – avoiding slang or business jargon.
Balance Sales and Service
Sales and service are two sides of the same coin. Although you need to make sales and attract new customers, this shouldn’t stop you from providing great customer service. This will allow you to retain your customers and build a good reputation.
Thank the Customer
Sounds simple, but it works! Thank your customers for their patience if your service is down, their understanding if you’ve made an error, their loyalty if they renew, and their feedback (good or bad). Customers are more likely to stay loyal if they have a history of positive experiences with you.
Act Quickly When Things Go Wrong
Inevitably, your service will break down at times. On these occasions, act immediately. Pay careful attention to a customer’s needs, wants and expectations. When solving any problem, always begin with a sincere apology.
Ask for Feedback
When you make it easy for your customers to feed back, you’ll find out how they really feel about your product or service – and spot ways to improve. Types of feedback include: online ratings, comments on your website, email questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups. Incorporate the lessons learned back into your processes to improve and develop further.
Keep on Learning
Learning helps you deliver effective customer service. That includes staying up to speed with your latest product or service, and the changing needs of your customers. And, self-development (like reading this article) can help you and your team perform better.
References[1] Tips based on: Kristin Anderson and Ron Zemke, Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service (Amacom, 1998) and John Tschohl, Personal Success Plan for Excellence in Customer Service (Service Quality Institute, 2001).
