How To Provide Good Customer Service
No matter what industry you’re in, you undoubtedly will work in service to others. With that in mind, everyone should make good customer service a thing to focus on. Here’s how to provide good service in any career:
Know your stuff
Of course, if you’re going to provide customer service, you must be well-versed in the service you’re providing. How extensive is your training at your office? Sure, you have employees who have dealt with what seems like every customer situation in the book. But you never know what else you need to address. So make sure to know the ins and outs of your service. What happens when a refund cannot be processed? Was there a change in the policy?
Be friendly
While it’s great and appreciated to be polite, why not go the extra mile and be friendly? A simple and genuine, “How’s your day going?” after your initial “Hello” makes more of a difference than you think. Taking the time to be friendly can set your company apart from others. After all, when you’re a customer yourself, you always take note of the friendly people who help you out, and tend to get annoyed with the more rude or cold companies.
Create clear communication by really listening
It’s not enough to be nice and read from a pre-planned script. Why? Because you end up so caught in a flow, that you can forget to listen to the customer. A lot of times, we develop such a routine in our customer service that we expect responses we think we’ll hear, instead of listening to the person in the present. Try not to get stuck in your routine by being very present with the conversation you’re having. It’s also a lot easier to create solutions in the conversation when you do so.
Be open to feedback
Some criticism isn’t necessary, but you should always welcome it when it’s constructive. Maybe without realizing it, you may have some things to improve on in terms of your customer service. Maybe you think you’re being polite, but you don’t realize you’re working in autopilot mode, unengaged. Maybe your phone quality is a bit muffled but had no idea. Maybe there’s an instruction missing on your website and that’s why every customer seems to have the same question. A simple end of call survey, or a follow up “Thank you” email with a “Tell us how we can improve our service” would be helpful! After all, you want to provide the best customer service you can, right?
17
Oct
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