At the heart of any business, if it is to succeed are it’s customers. It is impossible to overstate the importance of good customer service to any business. Sure, there are businesses out there who are only interested in a one off order from a customer and therefore have little if any interest in maintaining the customer after that initial order, but this is an extremely short term view and almost always relates to very short lived businesses. There is only so long that you can fail to service customers well before word spreads and orders dry up. For businesses that are looking to grow and become stable and eventually successful this is not a viable strategy. So what is involved in good customer service?
You almost certainly know the answer to this yourself. We are all consumers to a greater or lesser extent, and more importantly, we are all customers. All we need to do is honestly ask ourselves, what is it that makes me a happy customer. Which companies satisfy me when I buy from them. What is it that makes me choose one source for a product over another. Sure, price has an effect, but I’ll guarantee that at some level your decision making process comes down to three pretty simple things. The first is trust, do you trust the company you are dealing with, are they credible, do they give you a sense that they are dealing fairly and honestly with you? Secondly, is importance, does the company make you feel that you are important to them irrespective of the size or value of your order, and thirdly do they do anything that takes their level of service beyond what you as a consumer would expect from anyone?
You can probably already see that this customer care business is certainly not rocket science. It doesn’t matter what line of business you are in, it doesn’t matter whether you sell to the public or to business, it doesn’t matter what you sell or how you sell it, the same basics still apply. The question now is how do you convey the qualities that all consumers are looking for to your potential and existing clients? How do you let them know that you are trustworthy, reliable, keen for their business? How do you do this better than your competitors who are also trying to do the same thing if they are smart? It comes down to presentation. Every contact you make, every phone call, every e-mail, every letter, your website, any promotions you run, even down to invoices and dispatch notes need to speak to your customer about your efficiency and reliability, your credibility.
You are constantly being judged, whether you are aware of it or not, and there are some key lessons to draw out of this. These are aphorisms that have been doing the rounds for years but the reason for that is that there is more than a grain of truth in them. Firstly, if you make a customer happy they might tell one of their friends, maybe, if you let them down or upset them they’ll tell all of their friends. Secondly, if you lie to a customer you can be sure that at some point you will be found out, and they’ll become unhappy and tell all of their friends. Thirdly, reputation is everything, and reputation takes a lifetime to build and a second to destroy. Keep these thoughts in your mind and you won’t go far wrong, and never forget that if you are doing something to a customer that you wouldn’t be happy with having done to you as a customer you are probably doing something wrong…..
No comments:
Post a Comment