Surprised? Why should you be? Years of worrying about one's job, wage and hour reductions, more responsibilities and the general uncertainty about the future, have left many unfocused, disconnected and disengaged with their jobs and it's easier to just throw the company under the bus than solve the customers' problems.

It is time to revisit your company's values and beliefs and re-formulate how this translates into "how we treat customers". If customer satisfaction is not a priority for the leadership, don't expect that it is for anyone else. We have to acknowledge that satisfying customers has two components:

·         Setting the stage and

·         Treating customers according to your values

What do I mean by setting the stage? Being prepared by adjusting capacity to the increased business levels, having resources available when needed and staffing appropriately, seem reasonable expectations to me. So is proactive and honest communication with the customer prior to letting him discover missed deadlines, quality deficiencies or other problems.

My other expectation is that everybody in the company knows where the money is coming from. Not every customer is creating the same sales volume or profit. In most companies, 80% of the profits are created by servicing just 20% of the customer base.  How can we provide exceptional service to our best customers if not every employee knows who they are? After all, they are our competitors' best prospects.

Treating customers' right comes down to attitude and skills to active listening and assertive communication. If you enjoy your job and enjoy helping a customer it shows in your voice - when taking a call- or body language -when talking to a customer in person. This sets the stage for the ensuing exchange:

•  Smile and truly focus on the person you are talking to
•   Listen empathetically by putting yourself into their situation
•  Be curious; be there for them to learn more. Don't get distracted by others talking around you or by scanning the room
•  Solve the problem together with the customer. Nobody wants to be told "NO". So if the answer needs to be "NO", don't hide behind company policies, your "boss" or circumstance out of your control. Start by telling the customer what you can do instead. By creating options for her she is empowered to define a solution with you.
•  Follow through on your promises; if you commit to have an answer, let's say by 4pm today and you don't, call and let the customer know that you are still working on it. If you promise to ship something, call him or her and let him or her know when it is on the way.
•  Knowing how to deal with difficult customers becomes more and more critical: Otherwise reasonable customers can become enraged, make unreasonable demands, and get abusive or threatening. What you say to calm the situation is critical and a skill everybody needs to master and refresh periodically.

Good customer service is not about giving the customer what he wants. It's all about finding a solution which satisfies his and your company's needs. And almost always, open and assertive conversations, combined with the right attitude, will avoid doing damage to you and your company's image.         

If it is time for you to refresh your associates' skills, give us a call. We offer customized one and two day customer service training classes where we hone skills to read customers' needs, deal with difficult customers and to communicate assertively.