The Do's And Don'ts Of Customer Service | Larmeir.com

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Having been in a industry that?s very customer focused for a long time I?ve learned a thing or two on where businesses succeed and fail when it comes to customer service.

In that time I?ve had the opportunity to experience customer service from multiple sides as I?ve been a manager, a support engineer, a sales engineer, and a customer myself.

What compelled me to write this article was that recently I experienced a very bad customer service situation myself and felt the need to write this article in hopes that company leaders, managers, directs, and trainers could all learn from my experiences.

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The Do?s:

Do be empathetic to your customers, responsive to their needs, and understanding of their situation. In my experience as a support engineer/manager it was important to realize that when a customer?s site was down or application was failing, this was impacting their business and could mean putting food on the table. If you truly provide great customer service you will share the pain with your customer and be committed to helping them in their time of need and supporting them. Your customer?s success is ultimately a success for your business!

Do listen to your customers, take notes, and learn from them. Customers are generally honest and will provide constructive criticism when it comes to areas where your business can improve. An example of this would be ?I?d really like to see so&so feature on your system. I think it would be a great change!? Unfortunately a lot of businesses disregard this type of feedback or take no action from it. Your customers are important to help you drive your business?s innovation and vital to the improvement of the customer experience.

Do be honest with your customers even when stretching the truth could be the easy way out. If something bad happens due to a mistake on your end open up and be forthcoming with information. Most customers will thank you for the honesty and move on with more confidence knowing that your business has that level of transparency. If you?re not open, you risk creating an awkward situation for your employees, liability with your customers, and risk planting a seed of bad precedent.

Do proactively follow up with your customers. If something has happened that has impacted your customer?s experience negatively make sure and follow up with them to make sure everything is ok. A great example of this would be a customer?s service failing due to issues that have since been resolved. A simple followup call to the customer to check in and see how they are doing is a fantastic gesture and also exceeds what most customers expect from their services provider.

Do have other team members available to help in the event you are out of pocket. Things happen and a individual may not be available to help with a customer escalation they have been working with. It?s best to ensure that other team members are aware and able/ready to help in the event the main contact is not available. It could mean the difference between customer loss or customer retention.

Do remember the reason your business exists is due to the customer! That?s why it?s so important to take of your customers ? without them, you do not have a business at all as it is them (not you) who is the foundation of everything that keeps a business alive. As long as your customer service is great, you?ll have high customer retention and the positive actions you take will spread and ultimately help your business grow.

The Don?ts:

Don?t be defensive with your customer. If your customer is engaging you with concerns or service related complaints be open and responsive. A defensive posture will quickly lead to a escalation of tensions and possibly the loss of the customer.

Don?t argue with the customer. Arguing with a customer is a sure fire way to fail as it?s agressive and unprofessional. Allow the customer to talk and express their concerns without resistance unless they are verbally abusive.

Don?t enter a conversation without a positive attitude. If you?re not happy or have something on your mind it will show in the call and could easily lead to a bad customer experience. Cool off, walk outside, or do what?s needed to get your mind right for a customer service call.

Don?t forget to engage other members of your team?as necessary to solve a issue. You may not always have the answer that will satisfy the customer. If you don?t leverage Sr. members of your team for help/information as they may be the key to resolving the situation.

Don?t be afraid to go above and beyond! Limiting yourself procedurally can be a bad thing if you have the flexibility to take service to the next level. If you engage a customer with a passion for service this will happen automatically!

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I do hope that some of these tips will be helpful for someone out there ? Luckily for me, I get to work for a company that has fantastic customer service!

- Dustin

Source: http://www.larmeir.com/2012/07/the-dos-and-donts-of-customer-service/

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