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to GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE |
- Hire The Right People. Find and retain quality people. You can’t
create world-class customer care if you hire run-of-themill employees.
Customer service employees who excel have the right personality for the
job. They are high achievers who take charge. This type of person is
best suited to doing whatever it takes to make customers happy.
- Make Service A Core Value. Even the most eager-to-please employee
must know what’s expected in a variety of customer servicerelated situations.
There’s no way to write a policy manual that instructs employees on what
to do in every conceivable situation but by building the ethic of excellent
service into the organisation’s core values, even without the rulebook,
your employees will know what to do. The process of embedding customer
service as a core value starts at the top. Inspire people by example.
Tell them stories about your company’s great service - appeal to their
hearts as well as their minds.
- Empower Front-Line Employees. Fear may be the biggest factor blocking
great service. By providing extra-special service, employees may fear
overstepping their bounds. To counter this fear, entrepreneurs must empower
employees to do what’s necessary to achieve their customer service. Empower
customer service employees to make a whole range of decisions in an effort
to make customers happy. Let them offer refunds, swap one product for
another, send out free batteries or provide free consulting services.
This type of empowerment only works if customer service reps aren’t reprimanded
for making bad decisions. That means backing them up if they give away
something they shouldn’t have in an effort to please a customer.
- Solicit And Use Feedback. Before you know how much power to give
employees, you have to know what’s important to customers.
How do you find out what customers want? Listen and take notes. The
one thing that can make up for all deficiencies is being in touch with
your
customers. That means using a variety of approaches to encourage customers’ letters,
calls and other feedback.
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