Make Progress or Make Excuses

Whether you are the owner, manager or employee, when it comes to customer service, the question you must ask yourself daily is: “Are you making progress or making excuses?”

Business Purpose
The real purpose of any business or organization is attracting and retaining customers and clients. In other words, marketing, selling to and servicing the customer should all be part of the same strategy.

An Easy Trap to Fall Into
If your company does the bare minimum in the way of customer service, then chances are, you are making a lot of excuses to dissatisfied customers. This scenario is an easy trap to fall into for most businesses. Even though your initial intentions are noble, and the customer’s needs and wants are a top priority, it is not difficult to minimize the delivery of the best service for the sake of efficiency.

Red Flag
When policies that penalize the customer are implemented, it should be a red flag to your company that trouble is brewing. Remember, the average person likes to feel important, and when you don’t treat them that way, you violate a basic principle of respect.

So, to remedy this quandary, here is my recommendation.

Hold a Meeting

Hold a meeting with your employees and managers, and brainstorm all the different ways you make the customer feel like number one. Then on a different sheet of paper, list all the ways you are not doing that now. Ask the question.”Why are we doing the things that do not make the customer feel like they are important?” Discuss the excuses for treating the customer this way and explore how this occurred. Next, come up with strategies that will replace the excuses with the kind of service that will create progress in delivering real customer service.

Make the changes that are necessary to put your company back on track delivering the kind of service that earns you the loyalty of the people you serve. When this happens, your company will be making progress and not excuses in delivering real customer service.

If you are interested in a better career in customer service visit www.customerservicejobs.com


Tom Borg is president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. He is a business consultant, speaker, coach and author. He helps companies and organization become more successful and profitable by helping them attract and retain their customers and clients.