1. Hire people who have a service attitude. Some people
simply enjoy serving others, their organizations, and even
their communities. The spirit of service dominates their
personality. This attitude of service has nothing to do with
money or background, and people who have this attitude are not
necessarily the most outgoing or bubbly. This type of person
will move your business forward. These people make the best
salespeople as well.
2. Make the customer's time with you an experience. You
have but a few short moments with customers. You don't have
time to complain about your day or anything else. Ask
yourself, "How can I make their experience better?" Can I
refer to them by name and how can I ask without being too
aggressive? How can I control the environment in this company?
How am I affecting their 5 senses? Exceed their expectations
just a little with their senses and with your attitude to
serve and please, and you will have created a memorable and
compelling experience. Of course, all you really have to do is
visit your competition, see what they are doing and then top
them. But would that be cheating? No, that's comparative
shopping.
3. Regularly inform all your employees about what's going
on in your company. Employees need to know what's happening.
What new products are you offering? When will they be
available? What kind of advertising will take place in the
next month? Will any physical changes be happening in your
offices? Will new branches be add? The more they know, the
better they can serve your customers.
4. Make every decision with the customer in mind. Ask
yourself questions such as, "Do our customers like what we're
doing?" and "Would our customers like this type of promotion?"
Change the way you look at things from having it centered
around you to focused on whether the customer would approve.
5. Make the customers an agenda item at every staff
meeting. Present their point of view and ask these questions:
What would the customer think of this? Would this move be fair
to them? How can we serve our customers better or differently?
6. Empower your employees to do the right thing. And don't
hold it against them if the situation doesn't turn out
perfectly. That means giving employees the power to do
whatever has to be done to make a customer's experience a WOW
experience. They will make mistakes, but each time they will
learn – with your help.
7. Continually ask yourself how you can improve and add
value. If you don't keep asking and pushing yourself, you'll
start to slip behind the competition. Customers have more than
one choice and your competition is aggressively marketing to
them. They know what is being offered by others. Be ahead of
the curve by asking what you can do to add value to your
customer’s experience with you.
8. Create an atmosphere of excellence. Let it be known that
everything you and your employees do has to be the best, and
you won't accept less. Remember that winning organizations are
always raising the bar. If you aren’t pushing to do better
than yesterday, you will be left in the dust of your
competition.
9. Continually do the unexpected. Have the reputation for
doing the unexpected, and customers will always expect
something different and exciting from your company. This
doesn’t mean that you have to have dancing clowns in your
lobby, but having the same lollipops that everyone else gives
out is not at all unexpected. Do something different. These
are the things that customers talk about.
10. Never let an untrained employee have customer contact.
Your employees represent you, your company, and your brand.
Working with customers is the most important thing they will
do. Give them the tools necessary by giving them adequate
training to handle customers.
Margo Chevers, author of the book STOP the BS (bad
service), has been providing sales and customer service
seminars and consulting to a diverse cross-section of
industries for the past 15 years. To receive her free 10 top
tips for exceptional customer service, call (800) 858-0797 or
email
margo@margochevers.com.
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