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The Essential Elements of Great Customer Service
By Sarah Pearson Published: 13/03/2009
Good customer service is one of the main elements of any business's survival. If you do not have a good customer service plan in place, your business will certainly suffer and maybe even fail entirely. On the other hand, if you have GREAT customer service, you will see your business flourish with customers, sales, and many happy returns for both. But what are the essential elements your customer service should include? Read on to find out what those elements are – chances are that you are doing one or more of these already, but if you find your way towards getting them all in place, then your business will really soar.
1.) Be available. This is the most important thing – you can't give good customer service if you aren't around, and this is especially important if the bulk of your business is done over the Internet. If you get customer service inquiries via email, make sure the emails are answered within 24 hours. If you take customer service phone calls, make sure someone is always answering the phone, whether it's you, a staff member, or just an answering service.
2.) Listen. Listen to what your customers are saying. If it's a compliment about something you or a staff member did, you can take that and make sure to use it again with future customers. If it is a complaint, you can take that and use it to avoid the same problem again in the future. Regardless, listening to your customer means you will always understand what the issue is and why it happened, and it makes the customer feel valued.
3.) Fix it. If a customer comes to you with a complaint, do what you can to fix it. You can't please all the people all the time, but you can please the majority of them by coming up with some kind of solution that suits everyone.
4.) Don't make promises you can't keep. And if you have a staff, don't let them do it either. Honesty and integrity in customer service are fundamentals you should always have in mind.
Always keep in mind what you like and don't like about the customer service at businesses that you deal with when you are working out customer service principles for your own business. Approaching things from a customer's point of view will go a very long way towards ensuring you are able to take care of everyone, and that, in turn, will take care of your business, too.
