Five Tips for Giving Better Customer Service

In today's world, customers expect and even demand better customer service. For years, customer service has been too often something that companies thought they could push to the side or cut out all together. The growing trend of outsourcing customer service is starting to cause concern with unhappy customers. Customers want, and need, to know that they and their problem are important and that you want to help them... now.

Every successful customer service interaction contains five elements. I call these five elements the "Five Laws for Good Customer Service." They are:

Acknowledge

You want to acknowledge what the customer is saying. Even if you don't agree with it, you want to acknowledge the customer's right to complain. This can be as simple as letting the customer complain without interrupting.

If dealing with customers via email, an auto-responder will accomplish this by letting your customer know that you have received their email.

Listen

Customers want to be heard. But more than that, they want to be listed to... really listed to. By that, it means listing to what they are saying and not just hearing what they are saying.

One time, I went to a drive through during my lunch break at a local burger place. When I returned to my office I found that what was in the bag was not what I ordered. The burger was overflowing with mustard; I hate mustard and I couldn't eat it. When I called the restaurant and explained that I was on lunch and now I could not eat what I had received, the manager replied "No problem. Next time you're in, just ask for me and I'll give you a free meal." Now, that was nice, and that's what a manager should do. He "heard what I was saying" but he didn't "listen." If he had "listened" to me he would have understood that I was on a lunch break with a limited amount of time and now I was without something to eat and without time to come back to the restaurant to get a new burger. Sure, by acknowledging that my lunch was ruined would not have made it better, but it would have been nice for him to realize what his restaurant's mistake really cost me and acknowledge it.

Resolve

If you or your company made a mistake fix it. It's that's simple. You should want to do everything you can to retain a customer. Think about how much your company spends to attract new customers. Now think about what it's worth to retain a customer and who probably will be a customer for life if you resolve their issue. I'm sure you'll find it's worth it to fix the mistake and fix it fast.

Check for Satisfaction

Too many times companies will fix a customer's issue and think they're done. One time I was having cable TV installed and the installer never showed up. I called the cable company and they said they'll reschedule for next week. The person on the phone told me they'd give me a $10 credit on my first bill for the inconvenience and thanked me for calling before hanging up.

I don't know about you, but if you've ever taken time off from work and waited four hours for someone who didn't show up, I don't think you'd be happy with a $10 credit. Neither was I. But the customer service rep never asked me if I was happy with the $10 credit; it was just forced on me. I called back and explained that while I appreciate the $10 credit, I had missed a half day of work to wait for someone who never showed up. They eventually apologized and gave me a $50 credit.

Before ending any customer service interaction, ensure the solution is acceptable to both the company and the customer. If it's not, then go back and work on a mutually acceptable solution. After all, as already mentioned, it worth keeping a customer especially when the cost of attracting new customers can be high.

Follow-up

If you're replacing a defective product, or re-scheduling a missed cable installation appointment, follow up with the customer after a few weeks to ensure everything is to their satisfaction. Your company dropped the ball once and you want to let your customer know you don't want that to happen again and this time you've being proactive to ensure it doesn't.

If you use the five basic elements if your customer service interactions, you'll be sure to satisfy your customers' needs and far exceed their expectations every time.