Customer Service is an innate component of the business world… or it should be at least. I'm sure you can recall your most positive and negative customer service experience. Did the waitress bring you a new steak after you specifically requested medium-well but received rare? Did the Mercedes-Benz salesman personally drive your new car straight to your driveway after you faxed in your paperwork? Or on the other hand, have you waited on the phone with your cable company for over 42 minutes? Was the customer service representative for your health insurance policy rude and unhelpful?
These are all common occurrences of negative and positive customer service experiences. The bottom line is -- customer service is vital – it can truly shape your customer base and ultimately, your success. The amount of value and time spent on developing and ensuring optimal customer service directly correlates to customer satisfaction, revenue, and productivity.
In plain English: Happy Customers --> Returning Customers --> Referrals --> More business --> Cash.
According to a 2010 study in the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, satisfied customers will tell 4 to 6 people about their experience, whereas dissatisfied customers will tell on average 9 and 15 people.
Geez. Why is it that the unhappy people have larger mouths than the happy folks?? If only it were the other way around….
Whatever the case may be, the message is clear. It's worthwhile to keep your customers happy. Not only will dissatisfied customers spread the negative word twice as much, but 91% of dissatisfied customers will not willingly do business with your organization again says Lee Resource Inc.
We all know the various factors for successful customer service: Recognize what the customer wants, treat the customer as you personally would like to be treated, create customer loyalty, etc. etc. etc. But let's talk about customer service and TRAINING.
Training is crucial in any department. You can't expect any individual to perform or be well-informed without the proper training. Training for customer service can be directly applied to training across any industry. Here's how:
Step 1: Lay out expectations. Make sure employees understand guidelines, policies, and procedures related to their department.
Step 2: Cover the cornerstones of the service area: Teach employees how to deal with every aspect of their position from greeting to closing, handling stressful situations, and ensuring proper listening skills (in the case of customer service.)
Step 3: Train on system and equipment: Once the foundation is laid, test skills in a hands-on environment.
Step 4: Offer a mentoring program: At the end of the day, the learning is never completed. Once an employee is fully trained, assign a mentor who can assist when problems or questions arise.
Step 5: Test the trainees: Provide assessments and quizzes that directly reflect what the employee has learned and make sure he fully understands how to handle each aspect of his position.
What can we learn from this?
At the end of the day, we are all in the customer service business. Customers are the single most important factor in a business because in reality, if there were no customers, there would be no business. Take the above training steps to heart. Train your employees as if they were customer service reps. Train them in their specific field, but don't lose site of the customer service component. Each employee should be friendly, resourceful, and willing to help.
After all, retailers deliver the highest level of customer service in North America says the Forrester Customer Experience Index of 2010.
So -- let's do our jobs right!
