Extraordinary service = Out-of-this-world helpfulness, usefulness, value, teamwork, or friendliness. It’s going beyond what is expected.
When you provide this type of service customer, your customer may:
- Tell others
- Pay more
- Overlook imperfections in the product
- Promote you/your product
You have many types of customers – not just your obvious direct, external customers. You also have internal customers such as coworkers you support, and indirect customers who are not direct customers, but who influence your customers. Recognizing your various customers is essential to serving them well.
Anytime a customer comes in contact with your organization, they form an impression of it – every contact makes an impression, and the last interaction is often a lasting impression.
We can all think of a time we were dissatisfied with service and it left a bad taste in our mouths. Years of good service can be forgotten in one moment of truth gone wrong.
The lifetime value of a customer is the total revenue they will bring to your organization across their entire relationship with you. This changes the way we view single interactions. These are not stand-alone events, but part of an ongoing marketing strategy. Every interaction moves the relationship forward or can send it backward.
Another key to providing customers with good service is when employees view themselves as “owners” of a company. Then they often tend to be ambassadors and not just pawns.
Employees who interact with external or internal customers need to understand their empowerment boundaries. They should fully comprehend the level of authority, spending limits, and scope of decision-making they have to satisfy a customer. Individuals, teams, and management need to work together to clarify these boundaries of authority before customer transactions.
There are seven steps to resolving customer complaints:
- Listen actively
- Listen for feelings, then facts
- Paraphrase and record
- Determine expectations
- Provide a solution
- Confirm the resolution
- Follow up
What Customers Really Want, presented by Deb Topka, is a great training that will dive deeper into workplace communication by examining the do’s and don’ts of technology, and how to use these advances to further their customer alliances. Groups will practice learned skills in dealing with difficult situations and making every interaction a positive experience.
(we recommend customer experience webinars).
