Have you ever been on the opposite side of the counter, attempting to deliver exceptional customer service? It might be difficult since comprehending client desires necessitates a sensitivity to human emotions. You may not need to dive into a customer's psyche, but some basic insight can help you keep the customer and make them come back.
Do Unto Others As You Expect Others To Do Unto You
In hindsight, Customer Service is about helping the customer make their buying decision or assist them in solving a problem. People buy for personal, habitual, situational, social, or psychological reasons. We wouldn’t know, therefore, we should try to surprise customers by reasoning with their curiosity about buying decisions and empathizing when they have a problem.
I remember at an international conference I attended a few years ago, the attendees were multicultural, diverse, and comprised of about 200+ Customer Service, Sales, and Marketing people. One of the facilitators who was vaxxing eloquent on ‘Customer Service’ challenged us to dial any difficult or obnoxious customer from our own domains and give him the phone so he could demonstrate how to ‘negotiate’ with them.
That man was bold and ballsy! I forget what he did, but I still remember his challenge because every problem and predicament is unique. Therefore, it’s no point remembering the result; remember the process. Sell the benefit to the customer. If there is a problem, solve it if possible. If not, circumvent or negotiate a settlement for the problem.
• If you are talking to a customer, make sure that you ‘listen’ to understand not just to reply. There is always that ‘implied’ little detail they need, and if you don’t ‘actively listen’ you will miss it.
• Ask open-ended questions to clarify and ask closed-ended questions to verify.
• If you cannot resolve the problem, and you have the option to escalate, do it soon without agitating the customer. No customer would like to repeat the problem over and over.
• If you cannot resolve it now, buy time with the permission of the customer. Also, if you want to put him on hold [Telephony], ask for permission.
• If you say you will call him back, make sure you give a time [in two hours]. If you say you will call back in two hours, make sure you will call back in two hours, regardless of whether you have resolved the matter or not.
• If you can’t resolve it, buy more time, but make sure you give honest reasons. Do not take too much time from a customer; by the second call, you should find a solid answer.
• It is about winning their trust; the more you are honest and show empathy, the more you will sound credible. Even if you can’t resolve the problem, they will understand and appreciate your efforts.
• BTW, please make sure no white noise when talking to customers. You cannot be dealing with peripheral stuff when attending to them. Set your coworkers, pets, and darlings on mute.
• Say you are delighted and show gratitude for their business in words and deeds.
According to a Harvard Business Review study, customer acquisition is often five to twenty-five times more expensive than retention (Taylor Landis, Outboundengine.com)
Your responsibility is to make sure customers comeback without losing them. When they do, try cross-selling or up-selling; it's guaranteed they will not want to miss-out. The ethos of Customer Service should be instilled from the premises security personnel to the CEO so that there will be no need for a Customer Service department.
