Customer Service Superstardom: Customers Will Love You

To provide great customer service, you need to put energy and enthusiasm into your interactions with customers. Great customer service begins with a great attitude.

As a society, we are all aware that a lot of emphasis is put on individual appearance. To some extent this is actually something regrettable, as it means that people are prepared to judge a book by its cover.

As a society, we are all aware that a lot of emphasis is put on individual appearance. To some extent this is actually something regrettable, as it means that people are prepared to judge a book by its cover.

It is essential that anyone in a customer-facing job approaches their day in a sensible, structured fashion, which allows them to get the most out of themselves even on those low energy days.

Customer service is about connecting. Whether we are talking about life in general or becoming a better customer service provider, there is power in positivity.

Think about different ways to help you feel more positive at work.

The first step in improving customer service is to determine what customer's value in their interactions with your organisation. What do they want? What do they need?

The more time you spend in a customer facing role, the more you will learn about the kinds of customer, and the different needs that they have.

Appearing impolite and almost trying to give the impression that you know the customer’s needs better than they themselves do, is something that will lose you sales.

Every customer will have certain needs that have to be met in order to feel that they can walk away from a transaction satisfied.

This is something you will look to achieve at every opportunity. In order for a transaction to be successful, the customer must leave with their basic need satisfied.

Basic needs are those needs, which are absolutely essential to the transaction, the customer’s reason for coming to the store in the first place.

A company that exceeds expectations.

Why is a relationship with your customers so important? Because it is the cornerstone of customer retention and customer retention is the key to business success.

Whether you are trying to learn more about your customer or trying to fill a gap in the conversation, its great to know how to master the art of small talk and use it when necessary.

Any customer who feels that they have been given exemplary service will be like a walking billboard or a cheerleader for your company. This is something that many companies fail to keep in mind, and it costs them money in the long run.

No business, no matter how big or small, likes to have customers complain about the service they have received or the product they have bought.

Mistakes happen in life and in business, and so much of what we are about is shown by how we deal with the consequences of these mistakes. There-in lies your opportunity!

Sometimes, due to the limitations of your job, a customer will present you with a request that you simply cannot deliver on. They may well become insistent on the subject, and in some situations customers have been known to become abusive.

Dealing with this as a customer service provider can be difficult, but it is one of those challenges that makes you or breaks you in the role.

In-person interactions provide a great opportunity to build relationships with customers.

When it comes to customer confidence, being able to look a customer in the eye and tell them that you will get to the bottom of their request or issue does enable a certain amount of satisfaction on the part of the customer that is not easy to achieve in any other way.

Body language is honest in many ways because it happens by accident. When you are speaking to someone, you are likely to be doing things with your body that you do not even realize you are doing.

Without body language, you only have tone and inflection to transmit, confidence to the customer. Practicing a reassuring tone in your voice with go a long way when communicating with your customer.

Tips and tricks to think about when having a conversation over the phone.

As soon as you pick up the phone, body language becomes irrelevant. The success of your interactions depends almost entirely on your tone of voice and your choice of words.

A growing number of customer interactions are taking place via email. But email interactions have limitations. To provide excellent customer service via email, you need to understand what works and what doesn’t work, and how to make the most of the tools that are available to you.

In absence of body language, a telephone conversation leaves us relying on the inflection in our voice to give the correct interpretation to the words, in e-mail, we don’t even have that inflection to rely on.

There are still advantages to email.

When we speak out loud, our words have an inflection, they are absorbed by the listener, and then we move on. In an e-mail, it stays there on the page and can be read into a number of different ways.

Some additional email tips and tricks

The purpose of this activity is to highlight the importance of body language by sharing social or business encounters that were not based on spoken communication.

One of the hardest challenges customer service staff face is dealing with difficult customers. Sometimes customers have a legitimate reason to be upset and sometimes they don’t. In either case, customer service staff needs to be prepared for dealing with difficult customers and finding ways to win them back.

"I can tell this is obviously a matter of some importance to you – I’d like to do what I can to help you”.

When your job entails dealing with customers, it is inevitable that from time to time some of those with whom you deal will be dissatisfied and in something of a mood.

Your job in this case – as in all cases of customer service – is to ensure that the issues are dealt with promptly and efficiently.

There may be times a customer will come to you with a problem that you cannot solve. You will be the one that will have to tell them.

In these cases it can be difficult to get your point across in a way that leaves the customer satisfied and seeing your point of view – but it is important to at least try.

When dealing with a customer who is angry, it can sometimes be difficult to maintain your own composure in the face of their protests.

Your job as a customer service provider is to try and solve their problem and to avoid getting agitated yourself. However, the fact is that we are all human and we all have our limits.

Providing great customer service does not mean that you have to put up with threats, intimidation, or vulgar language from customers. If customers are out of control, you need to take over the situation and protect yourself, staff and other customers.

There may be times when people will resort to such expressions of anger, and as a customer service provider it is up to you to decide what you will allow and what you won’t.

Insults are never nice to hear, embarrassing and always uncalled for.

Physical and verbal assault are both illegal and should be treated seriously.

As an employer, you have a responsibility to have policy in place to protect and guide your employees in dealing with difficult and perhaps dangerous customers .

When dealing with difficult customers, there is power in sharing your stories and learning from actual experiences.

Here is a simple rule: Always give people more than they expect!

Getting customer service right is no easy matter. This is why the companies who are good at it have an above average record of customer retention.

10 tips to help you exceed expectations.

The book should be found anywhere you find employees.

In this ever-increasing competitive world, it is essential to continue to learn, grow and differentiate yourself

In taking this customer service course, you have done just that. I wish you continued success.