Customer Service | TheMiddleShelf.com

7 Tips for Exceptional Customer Service

July 14th, 2010

Maria Helm

In the business world, good customer service often isn’t good enough anymore. Customers are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the merely adequate. For them, exceptional service is the rule. Anything less, and they’re happy to vote with their feet and their wallets. That makes exceptional service necessary, not just desirable. And that, in turn, mandates a strategy to help ensure that your business matches that standout service standard on a daily basis.

Here are seven ideas and tips to help your business establish and maintain an ongoing climate of service excellence.

1. Know what exceptional really means.

It’s an easy term to toss about, but knowing what exceptional service entails is essential to establishing the procedures and the mindset with which to achieve it. So, delineate what exceptional means — keeping appointments on time or making certain that telephone service reps always say “please” and “thank you”? By knowing precisely what is merely good enough — and what takes your business beyond that — you get a firm handle on what you need to do to hit that goal on a consistent basis.

2. Ask if you’re not sure.

Many companies may find it understandably difficult to genuinely pinpoint what exceptional service really entails. So, do some legwork. Conduct focus groups with customers to see what they really value. Ask your complaint department, if you have one, to identify topics that are frequent targets of dissatisfaction. Often, you may find exceptional translates to a holistic grouping of issues, not just one product or service. “Often, being extraordinary means offering someone a truly exceptional experience,” says Dr. Noelle Nelson, author of “The Power of Appreciation in Business.” “The quality of something may be good, but it’s the overall experience that will really define customer loyalty.”

Meetings . . . Making The Most Of Them

April 7th, 2010

Maria Helm

It’s not unusual for some of us to attend three to six meetings every week. The majority of these are about one hour long. At this rate, one could spend a staggering 9,000 hours or more in meetings over the course of his or her career. This makes it especially important to evaluate whether a meeting is necessary and how to make the most of those you lead or attend.

Make sure every meeting is absolutely necessary. Only call a meeting when it is absolutely the best way to accomplish an objective. Explore all other alternatives before calling a meeting. If you can accomplish objectives by phone or e-mail, save everyone’s time and plan it accordingly.

Make the meeting short. Most managers say that at least one-half of their meeting time is wasted. That averages out to 5 hours per week, 250 hours per year for each person involved.

How to Lead for Exceptional Customer Service

August 20th, 2009

Maria Helm

Ever stop to really ponder about what business you’re in? Ask around, and you’ll probably hear things like: retail, food service, manufacturing, etc. If those are the kind of answers you or your employees would give, then you’d be only half right!

One question for you: If all your customers went away for good, would you still have a business? Would your employees still have jobs? Nope, of course not! The more important half of what you and your employees do is CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Everyone in your organization needs to know excellent Customer Service, more importantly need to practice it. And the leadership you provide plays a huge role in making that happen.

Here are some Customer Service Leadership tips:

Start with hiring the right people. Your selection process must be a part of your overall customer service strategy. During interviews, probe the candidate’s passion for providing superior service. Pose hypothetical situations and ask the candidate to describe how s/he would handle them.

State it in Job Descriptions. Make “Customer Service” a part of all job descriptions, no matter the level of function. Make sure that that each employee understands how he or she directly or indirectly “touches” the customer.

Expect it and Inspect it. Clarify your expectations and communicate them to everyone. Have follow-up meetings to make sure that they are clear on what is expected of them. Include “customer service” feedback in all performance evaluations.

Make your Employees Customer Service Experts. Help your employees become experts on the products and services you offer. Provide them with product manuals, sales tools, and appropriate training. The more they know, the better their service will be.

Celebrate Successes. Recognize employees who provide exceptional customer services. Share their stories internally and with your customers.

By applying these ideas and by focusing on the people who focus on the customers, you can help ensure that you don’t end up as one of the losers. You owe it to your customers, you owe it to your organization and you owe it to yourself.

“Motivate them, train them, care about them, and make winners out of them . . . we know that if we treat our employees correctly, they’ll treat the customers right. And if customers are treated right, they’ll come back.” – J. Marriott, Jr.