What Is Excellent Customer Service? Part 2

I am resuming the discussion I started in part one in last week's blog, looking at being prepared when you interview for a customer service position, to answer question related to your thoughts and practices in the customer service career. We move from looking at some of the basic concepts in customer service, to looking at more of the philosophy behind customer service.

If the interviewer asks you what your philosophy is for excellent customer service, simply saying something like "the customer is always right," while accurate, is not definitive enough to give a deeper understanding of what that means to you when it comes to action. For instance, if you are faced with an irate customer, would your first instinct be to find someone to push them off to, to pass the problem to another person, area, or department, so you can move on to something else? Or are you willing to take it upon yourself to personally take the situation under your wing and develop a relationship with the customer, in an effort to fully understand and satisfy the customer's need?

While you may ultimately have to pass the customer over to someone else, do you drop your involvement after that? It is always a good practice if possible, to follow the situation through till resolved. If you pass the customer over to Paul in accounting, for instance, then find the time to follow up with Paul to verify if the situation was effectively and satisfactorily resolved. Then, a quick follow up call back to the customer, thanking them for calling, asking if everything was sufficiently resolved, and seeing if there was anything else you could do for them, would be to go the extra mile in customer service. This type of treatment is rare for a customer to receive, and would go a long way in establish a great relationship with them that will spread as they tell others.

So many customers are gained by word of mouth, when a friend tells someone of the great service they received at a business. I know I personally often ask my friend’s things like, "hey, I need (such-and-such) done, do you know a reliable company that I could contact?"

Take responsibility, as a company representative, for the issue at hand, and see it through to the end, making a final follow up call to the customer. Such treatment goes a long way in meeting and exceeding the typical customer service experience.

Jeff McCormack resides in Virginia Beach, VA. where he works as a web designer by day. In his off time he is a husband, father, and musician. Aside from being a freelance writer for this Customer Service Jobs blog, he also seeks to assist in career choices and information by contributing to other Nexxt blog sites.