What to do for Excellent Customer Service

01 Know Your Product or Service

To ensure you provide the best possible customer service, you need to know your product, top to bottom. Make sure yourself, and all of your customer service staff, know the finer details on your services operation or your product. Familiarise yourselves with the most frequently asked questions, and learn how to articulate those answers in a way that will leave the customer informed and satisfied.

02 Be Friendly

Customer service should always start with a smile. Whenever engaging in face-to-face conversation ensure the first thing they experience is a warm greeting whenever they come to you for help. Carry this manner over to your telephone communications as a smile can be conveyed in your voice even if they can’t see you, make sure you are friendly.

03 Say Thank You

Remind your customers you are grateful for their custom, it will help reinforce the reason they came to you in the first place, and give them confidence in choosing you. Regardless of the nature of your business, saying thank you after every transaction is one of the easiest habit to maintain to ensure good customer service.

04 Train Your Staff

The importance of ensuring all your employees, not just the customer facing roles, are familiarised with the manner in which to deal with customers cannot be understated. Provide training to all of your staff to maintain the same great level of customer service throughout every step of the customer experience.

05 Show Respect

Customer service, particularly those involving grievances, can often be fuelled by emotion. In these circumstances it is important to maintain respect and be courteous throughout your communication. Never let your own emotions overtake your desire to see your customer walk away happy.

06 Listen

Listening to your customers is the worst kept secret in customer service. When we say listen, don’t just hear the words, pay attention to non-verbal communication and take on board everything that is being said. Watch for physical cues that they are displeased whilst listening to what they have to say.

07 Be Responsive

Response time may be the most critical attribute to a customer who is in need of help, needs an issue resolving or wants to find out what you’re selling. It is important to respond promptly to all enquiries; even if that response is just that you are looking into the issue and will be in touch soon. Any response is better than none so the customer doesn’t feel ignored.

08 Ask for Feedback

You may be surprised what you learn about your customers and their needs when you ask them what they think of your business, products, and services. You can use customer surveys, feedback forms and questionnaires, but you can also make it a common practice to ask customers first-hand for feedback when they are completing their orders.

09 Use Feedback You Receive

You need to process the feedback you receive from your customers in order to best make use of it, don’t be blinded by your hubris. Ensure you regularly review feedback and identify the key areas for improvement, and adapt your business to suit those needs.

Excellence in customer service often comes down to your ability to be fluid, and adapt to the changing environments. Check in consistently with your customers and make sure they not only happy with your product or services, but also the process, beginning to end of working with you. Identify and fix any weak links in your chain. If you can successfully execute on that, you will be way on your way towards becoming know for your excellent customer service.