Communication:

Raising the Standards of Customer Service

Customer service is the core of every successful business and just like any other service, it can always be improved upon. Customer service these days has become increasingly important with all the new companies popping up every other day. All these dot com companies are competing with large corporations for the buck. What will distinguish one from the other is not size but good customer service. Surve

ys prove that people who think the employees were courteous and helpful will return for more business day after day because they feel comfortable with them.

Conducting mail surveys and follow up calls are very important. After seven days of possession of a product that you sold someone, call him or her up and ask how they are doing. Ask them about the quality of the product or if they had any trouble working it. If there is no telephone number available, mail them a survey asking them to rate your customer service. That is the only way to find out if your system works or not. This way you can see if the customer is unhappy or not. Ask them to place their number on it so you can call the unhappy ones and try to make it right. After you have gathered the numbers and responses, try to make sense of them and start implementing new policies to fix holes in your customer service system. The best thing to do from the beginning is to teach your employees about customer service. The day they are hired and show up for work, they should be given an orientation on how to deal with your customers. Every store has different policies, so don’t assume anything about a person who is coming from a similar company. You should inform all your employees about your policies regardless of their background.

Try to create a respect-your-fellow-worker environment in the company. The better the employees treat each other, the more their courteous nature shows up with customers.

Always let the employees know that customer service is your priority. You want them to treat every customer with respect, even the difficult ones. Your employees should all be educated on company policies enough to make the right choices when dealing with customer problems.

Make an effort each month to reward good customer service by pointing out the best employee of the month. In addition to prizes, commend him in front of his peers, so the rest of the work force that is watching realizes how important customer satisfaction is to you.