Customer Service Helper

The 7 Keys to Keeping Customers - Key Six - Be Reliable

It might seem ridiculous to include “Be Reliable” on the list of the seven keys to keeping customers because one would think that if someone owns a business, they would already understand the importance of keeping their word to their customers and how not doing so could lead to them lose those customers quickly.

But, unfortunately, a lot of business owners don’t understand this simple principle and end up, either knowingly or unknowingly, letting their customers down by showing them they can’t be trusted. If customers don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you. Period.

If you’re a business owner who’s having this problem, there’s a simple fix. Just keep your word to your customers. If you tell them you’re going to complete a job by a certain day or at a certain time, do everything in your power to make sure when that day and time come, the job is done.

Or, if you tell your customers they’re going to love a certain product or service they purchase from you and they end up telling you they hate and it doesn’t work like you said it would, be willing to either give them their money back or give them credit towards something else you sell.

The point is this. If you aren’t 100% sure you can do something for your customers, don’t even hint to them that you might be able to do it. Often when people hear you say you might be able to do something for them, they get so excited about the thought of having it done, they hear you instead saying you will do it.

This can lead to misunderstandings that cause your customers to see you as an unreliable person to do business with. It can also leave your customers looking for someone else in your industry who will be reliable when doing business with them. So, if you’re absolutely positive you can make something happen for your customers, by all means, tell them. Then, when it comes time for y Read the rest of this entry »

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Good Customer Service Skills

The competitive business market today requires all businesses to instill good customer service skills in their work force. Without good customer service skills it becomes difficult to retain a regular and consistent customer base because the customers you do get will walk away dissatisfied.

Customer service is all about maintaining a positive perception in your customer’s eyes. If they walk away from your business with a smile on their face knowing that you and your employees did the best they could to help them get exactly what they were looking for, your business over all is going to improve. The positive feedback from customers trickles through the entire social network of that customer.

For example: let’s say that I own a business that sells blue widgets. A customer comes in wanting to buy a blue widget but doesn’t really know what kind of blue widget he’s after. He honestly has little idea of what blue widgets really can do and he needs a lot of information about these things before he can make a purchase. He goes up to one of the associates in my Blue Widget Shop and starts to ask them questions. Two possible things can happen from here, we want the customer service representative our customer is talking with to be knowledgeable and have good customer service skills, but what if she doesn’t?

Let’s first say she doesn’t have good customer service skills and see what happens. She’s slouching lazily against one of the shelves while talking to him, fiddling with her hair and chewing bubble gum. She speaks really fast as she explains a blue widget and points with her finger to a vague location where he might be able to find some more. The customer doesn’t get a good feeling from this and doesn’t make a purchase at all. After all, he doesn’t know what he wants to buy and it was up to our service representative to help him out.

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