Embracing Customer Service With Both Hands

Embracing great customer service is key in business. But, who are customers? On one hand, the group often thought of as customers are purchasers, the end consumer of the product or service. On the other hand, employees are also a type of customer, trading time for money. Each “hand” has five keys making everyone happy and business productive.

Employees are your supporting hand. Giving them the tools to do their job well will positively affect consumers. Five keys for employees include hiring, training, empowerment, recognition, and feedback. These fundamentals create a solid workforce ready to give amazing service.

Hiring. Finding good, reliable, team players, willing to follow procedures, is crucial.

Training. Employees must be trained to follow company procedures to meet consumer expectations.

Empowerment. Trusting well chosen, well trained employees to give consumers their best options, gives those employees a feeling of connection to the business, benefiting consumers.

Recognition. It’s vital to have recognition programs in place driving employees toward success.

Feedback. Allow employees to offer suggestions and concerns. Frontline people know best what consumers need. Follow up on feedback. The tool is useless if ignored.Now one hand is set. On the other hand, consumers also have five major customer service needs through the project, from their greeting, to listening, anticipating, exceeding, and follow up.

Greeting. Many consumers looking for your products and services have had a problem occur that needs fixing. They are stressed. A positive, welcoming first impression helps ease concerns.

Listening. Consumers often don’t understand the problem or how to ask for what they need. Careful listening is crucial to giving them optimal service.

Anticipating. Active listening alleviates some problems, but anticipating others before they arise, and keeping your consumer informed of possible roadblocks, helps your consumer feel confidence in your work.

Exceeding. Know what your competition does and go one step farther. Be friendlier, offer additional services, or be more efficient.

Follow up. Just as feedback from employees helps better your business, following up with consumers makes them feel appreciated and helps you fix any areas needing improvement and offer consistently excellent service.

Embracing these keys to great customer service with employees and consumers builds a strong, positive reputation, helping keep valuable employees, and bringing new and returning consumers, allowing your business to flourish.

Tagged as: customer service