Providing excellent customer service helps differentiate your brand and makes it easier to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Whether you provide in-person support or deliver service by telephone, email or online chat service, you must know how to work with irate customers, defuse tense situations and solve problems quickly. Follow these customer service tips to ensure you provide excellent support to every stakeholder in your company.
Putting customers first is probably one of the best customer service tips to follow in a service-oriented economy. Meeting the demand for new products is important, but you shouldn't put product launches ahead of customer service on your to-do list. Make a habit of getting to know customers by name. If you have so many customers that you can't possibly remember all of their names, at least make direct eye contact with people when you provide one-on-one customer service.
If you have a supervisory role in your company, set a good example for customer service personnel. Employees tend to model the behavior displayed by their supervisors, so be sure to greet customers with enthusiasm and make excellent customer service a priority. If customer service representatives see you ignoring customers or being rude to a customer who has a problem, there's a chance your company will have a lot of service-related complaints.
Whether you are a department manager or an hourly service representative, your focus should be on the customer at all times. Customers feel good when company representatives focus on their issues and take steps to resolve problems quickly. Don't create negative perceptions of your company by checking your email or talking to someone on the telephone when you are supposed to be helping a customer. If you have some down time, don't spend it checking Facebook or playing games on your tablet.
Getting to know your customers is another good way to provide excellent customer service. If you work in a clothing store, try to remember which colors and styles each customer prefers. Your customers will be pleasantly surprised when they realize you took the time to commit their preferences to memory. If you work in a business-to-business industry, such as software sales, find out as much as you can about each of your business customers. Getting to know your customers makes it easier to recommend the right products and services, which often translates into more sales and better business relationships.
If your company is in a competitive industry, providing excellent service is a great way to build loyal relationships with customers. It takes time to develop these relationships, but it is well worth the effort. Loyal customers will visit your store more often and tell their friends and family members good things about your company. This is why customer service should be one of your top priorities.
Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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