Good Customer Service

Customer service is the backbone of your business

Good customer service should be one of the top priorities of your business. I would not say the top but definitely the second. The reason I would not say the top is because if you own a restaurant and your food sucks no one will want to come back to you regardless of how outstanding your customer service is. 

When most people buy from a business they like the product or services they are getting but they are also paying for the experience. Bad customer service can steer you away from certain businesses if you know that when you walk into an establishment you are going to be treated less then great.

Quick Story

Every day we end up at the post office. Luckily for us, there are several of them close by. Let me say we spend thousands of dollars yearly with the USPS. Still, when we come to the counter with our rush orders we still get attitudes and less than great service. They make us feel unwanted, especially at a specific post office. Our packages our pre printed and only need to be scanned. The only reason we take these packages is that our carrier already did their pickup from us and we have last minute rush orders that need to go out. 

We find our selves trying to avoid that specific post office even though it is the closet. If there was any other shipping carrier that could match their light weight prices we would stop using USPS altogether.

Now to the good parts 

What are some of the Top skills you should apply?

• Answering the phone - This is extremely important. You will want to answer not only quickly but respectfully. Missing calls can lead to missed sales. If you don't answer when a customer calls they will call the next business on the list. Also, make sure you smile before you answer the phone. This will make your voice more likable and pleasant for a customer. No one wants to hear some one answer the phone sounding like the guy from the clear eyes commercial. 

• Attitude - When a customer comes into your store you should be smiling. No customer wants to come to somewhere where they do not feel welcome. Patience is also another trait that customers want you to have. They are depending on you to help them. They do not want to feel rushed either.

• Product Awareness - You should learn and know everything about your services or your product. When customers call you they are usually wanting to get questions answered. If they call and you don't have the information they are looking for this can make them frustrated.  

• Listen - Customers want you to listen to them. Customers do not want to repeat their self. Remember the details. Remembering their names can even take you the extra mile with them. I hate going to a fast food drive in only to need to tell them the same thing 3 different times. No one wants to feel like they just wasted their time and energy speaking for nothing.

• Deal with complaints - How you deal with complaints is important. If a customer comes to you with a complaint they want you to fix. Apologize and accept responsibility and make things right with them. You want the customer to come back. You correcting their problem will assure they will come back because they know and can trust that you will fix your wrongs. We print custom t-shirts so there are a lot of things that customers can complain about. We try to let our customers know in advance all the things that could be wrong so they can get clarification before making their purchase.

Training

 A good way is just to observe how bigger companies deal with their customers. Companies like WalMart pays a lot of money in customer service research and employee training. You can experience good customer service from places like WalMart and other companies like Verizon. 

• Online courses - There are lots of Free online courses you can take.

• Youtube - Youtube has lots of good information videos on customer service. 

• Free Classes - You can check with your local community colleges for free classes as well as your cities business center.

Customer service skills may be harder for some than others. It will be a life long lesson that you will pick up from every day. At the end of the day, you should treat your customers better than you would like to be treated. This can assure that your business will continue to grow. 

You can spend tons of money on advertising and marketing to get the customers but if you can't get any of them to return due to your customer service skills then that is money wasted. Most companies do not profit off just 1 sale from a customer. You start to profit from continued orders. So you will need to do your best to keep your customers coming back.