Superior Service is What It's All About
Every time you have any contact whatsoever with a customer, that customer forms an opinion about you and your company.
Listen! Listen to what your customer is saying. Ask questions and more questions. Only when you fully understand the customer’s real need, will it work for you and the customer. Keep notes on what’s really important –you have to know your customer.
Communication is absolutely critical! Give feedback, stay in touch, and ask questions. No communication on your part indicates to the customer that you are either disorganized or you don’t care.
Service is the key. If you truly provide service, you can take on any competition, as there will always be a market for those that provide real attention and real service.
How do you operate? Do you meet, or do you exceed customer expectations? This is where you have to be super critical about your own level of service. Would you come back to your own business if you were a customer? Would you refer other customers if it wasn’t your own business? If you pitch yourself as an expert –ask yourself-are you expert at pitching yourself or are you expert at performing?
What are the five single most important things that your customers expect from you
Do you score a TEN in all five categories? If not, what are you going to do about it today?
What does your competition do that you can do better?
Empathize with the customer. This is all about listening, caring, giving attention and understanding.
Give your customer your full attention. Texting, taking regular calls, constantly glancing at your cellphone, not making eye contact all contribute negatively to the business you are trying to do.
Own the problem. Take care of it A to Z. If you do delegate it, don’t abdicate it.
You still need to get the required information back from your subordinate so you can report back to your customer, so stay on top of it!
If you embark on a “Customer Service Campaign” then you as the Leader must live, eat and sleep customer service. Only when your employees see that you are truly committed will they truly get on board. Signs in the store saying “the customer is # 1” are meaningless unless top management is truly committed.
Do it right the first time but if you mess up, fix it NOW!
I once heard about an owner that had “CEO and Senior Customer Service Representative” on his business card. Now that says it all!
To really make a lasting impact, contact your customer after the sale. Very few people do this. You will stand out provided you are prepared to take care of a problem the customer might still have.
The way you and your employees feel is ultimately the way your customers feel.
The first thing Bernard Kirk tells his clients is that the absolute critical factor in any business is people.
With seventeen years of operational management, twenty two years of strategy implementation for multiple entrepreneurs, professionals and high level businesses across the globe, Bernard is an expert in how people affect outcomes.
Having the right people doing the right things in the right job, is usually the difference between mediocrity and greatness for both the individual and the organization. Bernard’s methods of determining what needs to be done by what type of person and how to select and retain those persons has attracted interest on an international basis. Bernard has consulted in the retail, hospitality, manufacturing, medical, recycling professional and academic fields. He lives in Arizona, USA.