+Customer service: how to delight your customers

Customer service: delight your customers

Customer Service Tips

Treat every problem as an opportunity. Go just a bit overboard to please any customer who complains.
Don't wait for customer complaints. Try purchasing your own products, and see what the experience is like.
For every customer who complains, 9 will be silent about the same problem. Try to track down who else had the problem, and follow up with them.
Don't make it your goal to please a customer; make it your goal to delight a customer.
Respond to every customer who contacts you--this alone goes a long way toward repairing damage.
Try to understand two things: what the problem is, and what the customer's perception of the problem is. Address both.
Never give a glib response to a customer complaint. Their comments are valuable feedback.
Some customers are not worth keeping--a customer who is chasing the lowest cost or who makes unreasonable demands limits your ability to service your other customers.
Never minimize a customer's problem--if the problem is serious enough for the customer to complain about, it's serious enough for you to resolve.
Don't shuffle a customer to someone else. People really hate this kind of treatment. If you must forward a customer to someone else, leave the customer your name and contact information so the customer can come back to you. Also, asks the customer for contact information so you can ensure the problem is resolved. Make a note to contact that customer within 24 hours. If you are forwarding the customer by phone, stay on the line with that customer until s/he reaches the right party.

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Business Excellence Resources

Accounting

Advertising

Best Practices

Business

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Business Law

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Contracts

Customer Service

E-commerce

Ethics

Franchising

Inventory Management

Leadership

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Management

Managerial Economics

Marketing

Mentoring

Negotiating

Books on negotiating.
DVDs on negotiating.

Operations Management

Production Planning

Productivity

Project Management

Publicity

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Sales

Supervision

Taxes

Tax books.
Tax DVDs.

Teamwork

Success in business depends on preparation. Those who wing it are those who fail. But don't prepare just in your area of technical expertise. Prepare there, yes. But also:

Keep learning about your own field. There's a reason why state licensing boards require continuing education. Apply this same concept to whatever areas you work in. If you are licensed as, say, a CPA, then continue your education also in the areas of customer service, productivity, time management, and other areas that will help you do your job better, faster, and at more of a competitive advantage.
Learn about related fields. For example, sales people should learn about marketing and operations. This helps you when promotions are considered.
Network. Get to know people. Ask them about what they do. Show an interest.
Establish your presence in your professional organizations. Join the top two or three of these organizations, and attend meetings. Become an officer in one, and take that position very seriously.
Play nice. No matter how good you are, your career is going to stall if people don't like you. So show respect and be fair. Don't worry about popularity, worry about your reputation.
Know your business goals. Often, people let themselves get diverted from their business goals. They start staying busy, instead of focusing their time and other resources on their business goals. Remind yourself daily about why you are doing the job you do.