Improving Your Business Through Quality Customer Service

As cliched as it may sound, the customer really is king. There wouldn't really be a business if there was no customer. The process of customer service and customer satisfaction begins the minute you lay the foundation for your business and continues until you harbor the desire to keep your business afloat and make it profitable. A satisfied customer means more business and by the law of networking, more customers. So, how do you ensure that you put in place a well oiled system that takes care that no customer of yours gets a reason to complain and that your company delivers relevant quality and timely customer service at all times?

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Understanding What The Customer Wants

 

New business owners are sometimes driven more by enthusiasm than practical sense and tend to go overboard. Gaining visibility is important to a business. But in the process if you go ahead and advertise the moon, customers are bound to come looking for it. Make it a point to commit only what you can deliver. What you should understand is that the customer comes to you with a need and expects it to be taken care of promptly as per quality standards desired and expected without being given the run around. Customers don't come to you expecting frills and fanfare. But if you have to provide it make sure it is not done to cover up an anomaly or a feeble attempt to push an inferior product. If you can't keep up a promise don't make them. On the other hand if you look beyond just selling your product and provide something when the customer least expects it, then you would definitely be inviting loyalty.

 

Communication Is The Key

 

You might have a great customer service team in place and you might hire the best sales people, but they would be of no use to you or the customer if they are not able to communicate effectively. If you have been lucky enough to build a loyal customer base ensure that you take adequate measures to retain them. Imagine a customer's delight when a salesgirl at a supermarket rings up a sale and the entire check out team gathers to sing 'Happy Birthday'. There are a number of software solutions that help retailers gather customer's data which can be retrieved when required. You can be assured that all the friends and relatives would have heard of it by the end of the day. The power of word-of-mouth can do wonders for your business. Keep your customers informed of promotions, festival offers, end of season sales and other such events well in advance. Mailers and pre-event phone calls will ensure that your turn out on day one would definitely be much more than expected. Retailers have been known to organize a member's exclusive day before the sale opens up to the general public. Making a customer feel wanted and special can definitely add value to the relationship.

 

Handling Complaints, Queries and Feedback

 

Feedback is an amazing tool that can tell you exactly where you may be going wrong and what you can do to rectify it. On the other hand if you just collect feedback and do nothing about it, eventually your customers will realize that you do not intend to do anything and that providing feedback would be a waste of time. Introduce an effective feedback mechanism, acknowledge receipt of the feedback and thank the customer .Inform the customer that you will act on the feedback and when you have made the required changes invite the customer to come over to experience the difference. Retailers need to be careful with pricing, exchange policies and offers. If you have policies that customers need to know about ensure that they are displayed prominently or communicated properly. If you make a mistake in ticketing and pricing, accept it and give the customer the benefit of doubt. Having a customer haggling over pricing at your check out counter is never a pretty sight. Attend to complaints promptly, never ignore a customer and never procrastinate. If you are held up due to some reason and are unable to attend to the customer's requirements, ensure that the customer is informed about it. Deal with difficult customers with tact and diplomacy. Contact Tri-Citi Rideshare LLC, California.

 

Put Yourself In The Customer's Shoes

 

Often business owners fail to see things from a customers point of view. You may own a retail store and when you visit an upscale restaurant you do expect a certain standard of service. Similarly visualize yourself as your own customer, look at things from a customer's perspective and plan to implement the kind of service that you would expect yourself. It never hurts to learn from competition. It may pinch to learn that you are probably not creative enough and that your competitor is better at customer delight, but at the end of the day if your customer is happy, then their ideas are worth borrowing. It pays to listen to your front end staff. After all, it is they who interact with customers everyday and through constant interaction, they come to know what the customer expects in terms of service and what bothers the customer about your existing set up.

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