Providing Customer Service with Excellence

In the business world, customer service very often determines business success. We live in a time when providing top notch customer service is vital. When we go to a restaurant, we expect excellent service from the hostess to the busboy to the waiter. When we shop, we expect the salesperson to be prompt, attentive and knowledgeable about the product or service we are purchasing. Yet too often, we find customer service to be, at best, mediocre.

Customer service is a trickle-down effect. Customers are everywhere – your internal customers are your employees, co-workers and managers. People who purchase your products and services are your external customers. If your staff is properly trained and motivated, they will, in turn, provide your company’s customers with the excellent service consumers today desire and expect. Mediocrity cannot and should not be tolerated in any business. Strive for excellence! Not only will it keep your current customers coming back, but it can generate new revenue for your business as well.

Here are four easy steps to providing outstanding customer service and growing your business:

As the owner of a business or the manager of a department, set an example yourself. Positive work attitudes begin at the top. Allow your staff to see your humorous side and the humorous side of work. This will result in a stress-free work environment. Energy levels will increase while frustration will decrease. Studies have shown that morale and productivity increase when people have fun at work. As a result, customer service will escalate. Employees who provide mediocre customer service cost you your time, money and customers. Bobbe White, who helps businesses incorporate laughter and humor into the workplace, writes, “Show me a person with no skills, but who has a good attitude; I’ll work with that person forever. Give me a person who possesses the skills, but has a lousy attitude in general and no sense of humor in particular, and we’ll pray he will stay in the proverbial revolving door of employee turnover until it lets him out onto the street.” Remember - employees cannot afford to have a bad attitude and employers cannot afford to hire a bad attitude.

Place your staff in positions that fit their personalities. How often have you come across a salesperson, waiter or healthcare provider who was nasty and obviously, quite unhappy? Managers do this all the time. They place the employee with the sourpuss on the front lines. They hire people thinking that once they place them in the position, they will be able to convert them. That isn’t any different than thinking you will change your spouse once you are married! It just doesn’t work that way. If you don’t have the right person in the right job, it will hurt your business.

Adopt the “Go the Extra Mile” attitude. That is, go the extra mile and encourage your staff to do the same. Don’t be content with providing what your competitors are doing. Take it a step further. Put yourself in the customer’s place and think about how you would like to be treated. Be thoughtful, considerate, kind, and give people more than they expect. Often a simple conversation or exchange can help the customer feel important. It’s not often that people go into a store or business and are treated with patience and a genuine concern and interest by the staff and employees. Talk less, listen more. Listen to what your customers have to say, solicit their input. Do the same with your employees. This will cause the customer to want to return. For your staff, it will promote high morale within the ranks. And be enthusiastic. It’s contagious! Consumers will see you as approachable.

If you are already providing a high level of customer service, then you already have an environment in which your customers are satisfied and loyal. While that will maintain your customer base, it will not grow your business. But delivering good customer service can be a great revenue opportunity. Products don’t sell themselves. You must pursue sales and marketing to support revenue growth. Get offensive with customer service! Use your proven track record by leveraging customer service to make selling easier. Use old customers to make new sales.

Customer service is one of the stones upon which the foundation of your business is built.
As with most things, providing customer service with excellence is a choice. Choose to be successful!

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