Great customer service can help your business operation and be the deciding factor that differentiates your brand from others. Excellent customer service creates loyal customers who are willing to refer your business to friends, family, and colleagues.
The customer is king so you have to make sure that s/he is satisfied with your services as this may be the deciding factor that will make or mar your business. To serve your customers well, it is important to know that your job is to indeed “serve” the customer. The dictionary defines service as “an act of helpful activity” and serving as “to be of use”.
Today’s customers want to be helped by someone of use to them. This basic premise has been lost within a lot of scripted approaches and poor listening skills.
Customer service is the act of attending to the needs of customers by providing and delivering professional, helpful, high-quality service and assistance before, during and after the customer’s requirements are met.
Now, let us look at the ways to deliver excellent customer service.
1.Know Your Product or Service
To provide good customer service, you need to know what you’re selling inside and out. Make sure you and your customer-facing staff know how your products or services work and help the customer. Be aware of the most common questions asked by customers, and know how to articulate the answers that will leave them satisfied at all times.
2. Be Friendly
The act of customer service starts with a smile. When you are in a face-to-face situation, a warm greeting should be the first thing your customers see when they ask for help. Smile when handling customer service requests via telephone, as a smile can come through in your voice and the customer hears it. Make sure you are ready to be friendly.
3. Say Thank You
Gratitude is memorable and it can help remind your customers why they chose your business. Regardless of the type of business you are running, saying thank you after every transaction is one of the easiest ways to deliver excellent customer service.
4. Show Respect
Regardless of what the situation is, it is important that you remain courteous and respectful through the whole transaction. Customer service often can involve emotions, it is therefore important to make sure you know how to handle your customer and service tasks no matter what is thrown at you. Avoid letting your own emotions overtake your desire to see your customer walk away happy.
5. Listen
Listening is one of the simplest and the most important secrets of customer service. It means hearing what your customers have to say, as well as what they are communicating, verbally and non-verbally. Watch out for signs that they are displeased or happy while listening to what they say to you directly.
6. Be Responsive
There may be nothing worse than nonresponsiveness to a customer who is trying to get help, resolve an issue or find out more about what you’re selling. It is important to respond quickly to all inquiries. A simple response informing them that you are looking into an issue and would get back to them soon, will suffice. A response is always better than none, so the customer does not feel ignored.
7. Ask for Feedback
Ask for feedback, and you may be surprised by what is revealed about your customers and their needs. Also ask them what they think of your business, products and services. One simple way to do this is by conducting customer satisfaction surveys, feedback forms, questionnaires or direct phone calls. Furthermore, you can make it a common practice to ask customers for feedback after every purchase or when they are completing their orders.
8. Use Feedback You Receive
Excellent customer service often comes down to regularly checking in with your customers and making sure they are satisfied with the products and services you are selling. You should also check if they are satisfied with the process of purchasing, ordering, and working with you as well as the product. You then need to take it a step further to ensure you use the feedback received to improve your customer service process.
In other words, take time to regularly review feedback, identify areas for improvement, and make specific changes to the areas in your business you are lacking. If you do that successfully, you are on your way to providing excellent customer service.
9. Train Your Staff
It is important to ensure that all of your employees, asides from your customer service representatives, understand the way they should interact with and assist customers at all times. Providing employee training that gives your staff the tools they need to execute good service to the customers is another way to deliver excellent customer service.
Customer service should not be looked at as just the duty of just the designated officer, but as the duty of everyone in an organization,from management level to the entry-level.
In conclusion, all we need is to practice excellent customer service in our day to day lives and the world would be a better place. Be friendly, Show respect, Listen, Be responsive, Ask for feedback and Use the feedback you receive to avoid a disaster.
- https://www.thebalancesmb.com/customer-service-survey-2948072
- https://www.thebalancesmb.com/best-gifts-for-clients-4154861
- https://www.thebalancesmb.com/rules-for-good-customer-service-2948079
- https://www.best-job-interview.com/definition-of-customer-service.html
- https://www.thebalancesmb.com/providing-excellent-customer-service-2951744
- https://www.paramountplus.com.au/what-is-customer-service/
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