Zan Marketing

Please? Thank you? Have a nice day?

When was the last time you heard these in a grocery store, department store or restaurant? Odds are you have probably heard them more in the last year than you have in the last decade.

The reason? The stores have to.  They are in need of your business and desperate for your loyalty.  They need you to come back over and over and tell your friends about how great of an experience you had.

Never before have businesses been so willing to lower prices to undercut their competition, which has led to price not always being the final deciding factor when it comes to someone making a decision where to buy something.

The experience you have while shopping or dining plays a large role in whether you will return to one establishment over the other, regardless of price.  Many factors go into the experience you have at a store but none is more important than customer service.

The quality of service given is enough to sway a current purchase decision and, most likely, a future purchase decision.  They’ve already got you in the store, all they have to do is keep you there and make you leave with something.

I know I have a preference in stores, and its not about the price.  It’s about how knowledgable and friendly the staff is.  These business have earned a lot of my money over the years and will continue to do so, as long as the service and experience stay the same.

When it comes time to purchase something, what is more important, experience or price?

Customer service mishaps are bound to happen.  You can’t predict every situation that will arise when your employees are dealing with your customers.  All you can do is try to instill the virtues of good customer service in your workers to help them handle the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to customers.

Here are 5 virtues every employee should have when it comes to dealing with customer service issues.

Compassion

Your employees are customers at some point to other businesses and they probably deal with bad customer service periodically.  Help them understand that the way they felt when they were faced with bad customer service is the same way their customer is feeling right now.  They should try to provide the service that they wished they had received.

Respect

Encourage your employees to have the utmost respect in themselves and for whoever they are dealing with.  There is no reason to let your employees be constantly disrespected or harassed by an outrageous customer.  This may seem like you are telling your employees to “not take any crap from anyone” but what you really are doing is proving to your employee that you stand by them and want them to take pride in their position and who they are.  Remind them not to be disrespectful to a customer but to not also allow themselves to be made to feel unimportant.  If it costs you a client then so be it.  A good, loyal and prideful employee is worth more than a paying customer in the long run.

Listening

Tell your employees to do more listening than talking.  Let the customer vent, rant (to a extent) and complain.  Really listen to what the customer thinks is the problem, what they think your company did wrong and how they feel the situation could be made right.  Even if you can’t give them everything they want they will appreciate being listened too.

Honesty

Of course you want trustworthy employees that won’t steal or lie to you but you want your employees to be honest to your customers as well.  There is nothing worse then when a problem makes it’s way all the way up to the boss only to find out that the problem has been perpetuated by a lie by from an employee.  Don’t let your employees lie and promise something to a customer that can’t be delivered, it will only make your organization look bad and untrustworthy.  Its better to have a customer walk away unhappy because you couldn’t help them than have them walk away after being lied too.

Patience

A bad customer situation can drive your employee to the edge.  The last thing you want is a shouting match between your customers and your employees.  Patience is going to be a combination of listening, respect, honesty and compassion.  Don’t ask your customer service guys to rush clients, this will be viewed by the customer as being short, disrespectful and marginalizing their issue.  Give your team the time to listen to each customer situation and do their best to resolve the issue.

Teach your team these 5 virtues and you can sleep easy knowing that you did your best to improve your customer’s experience with your company.  A great customer service team is worth more than gold…and it’s harder to obtain.

Any other advice you give to your customer service guys to help them out in the field?