The books “The Art of War, The Art of Work and The Art of the Trade”, all discuss strategic ways to engage yourself in order to succeed, win or overcome. What if you just want to provide quality customer service to your clientele for retention and growth purposes? We all have had those horrible experiences with so called customer service professionals. As I reflect on my own experiences, I can remember the time I ordered from a website called “bodykits.com”. I was making a purchase of an “Origin” body kit for a 2003 Nissan 350z. Being naïve and unaware that Origin is only manufactured in Japan and due to the Chinese New Year and shipping regulation, I received my order about 6 months later, however completely wrong. I contacted the company to try and resolve this, and the gentleman initially informed me they would be in touch with me within 24 hours to help rectify this order. I didn’t hear back for over 3 days. I then reached out again to discuss this situation. I was given excuse, upon excuse and then hung up on. I contacted the company back again, located in California and the individual I spoke with proceeded to tell me to be just glad that I received a part and then hung up again. Horrified, I attempted to contact the manufacturer for assistance, located in Ohio. The manufacturer displayed empathy to my plight and reached out to the website. However the Origin Manufacturer could not assist besides letting me know that they would place the correct order for me, and in addition, I would need to pay full price again. Finally, and fortunate for me, the initial order was placed on my credit card (MasterCard) and I was able to recoup my money after filing a complaint and proper documentation. I am sure each of us can come up with a similar experience, if not a much worse occurrence that did not maybe go as well as mine in the end.
What about those great customer service experiences? Can you name them, even possibly remember them? How is it that we always remember the negative or horrible experiences and seldom remember the good, great, UBER or SUPER occurrences? For this fact alone I have decided to share with you how you can have your customer service experience be enhanced in your business, company and go from possible horrible to good, too great, to UBER to SUPER with a few simple steps.
Step 1- SMILE.
Step 2- Answer the Phone. Each person that enters your establishment or contacts you is possibly worth $1,000 bucks. Would you turn it away, so why would you not answer the phone?
Step 3- YES….say yes and mean it.
Step4- Remember and don’t forget that you are providing a product/service for the benefit of the customer
Step 5- Respond Quickly and Effectively
Step 6- Dream Big. Meaning value what you are providing. Set the bar high and set yourself apart from the crowd
Step 7- Have Fun. Deliver it with passion. You either choose to endure it or have fun while delivering it. Loosen up; engage the moment as it only last one time.
Step 8- Make personal connections. Great customer service is about making personal connections. Encourage them to be themselves, learn about them, have fun with them, etc….
Step 9- Live by this…no matter what we achieve, we all received help along the way
I recently placed on my white board in the fitness center this quote, “No One Cares How Much You Know, Until They Know How Much You Care”----Theodore Roosevelt. As I think it fits perfectly with this article. So next time you are trying to convince someone to buy your product, hire you for a service or to utilize your expertise to get to the next level, think about these steps and deliver them so that the person knows that you are not going anywhere.
~Jesse Swoyer
