Customer Care

Principles of good customer service
The key to good customer service is building good relationships with your customers. Thanking the
customer and promoting a positive, helpful and friendly environment will ensure they leave with a
great impression. A happy customer will return often and is likely to spend more.
To ensure you provide the best customer service:
• know what your customers consider to be good customer service
• take the time to find out customers' expectations
• follow up on both positive and negative feedback you receive
• ensure that you consider customer service in all aspects of your business
• continuously look for ways to improve the level of customer service you deliver.
The following are some of the main elements of good customer service.
Customer relationships
To build good customer relationships you need to:
• greet customers and approach them in a way that is natural and fits the individual situation
• show customers that you understand what their needs are
• accept that some people won't want your products and concentrate on building relationships
with those who do
• help people - even just letting a customer know about an event that you know they're
personally interested in is helpful
• continue to keep customers aware of what's in it for them to do business with you.
Staff
If you want to provide the best customer service, all of your staff need to have good communication
and sales skills. You will also need to show leadership by personally providing excellent customer
service at all times. Learn more about the sales process.
Complaints
Listen to customer complaints; you may learn something about your product or service. Let
customers know that you appreciate feedback.
Overcome any objections. Listen to what the customer is objecting about (often price, merchandise
or time). Confirm the validity of each concern and offer a solution. Find out more about managing
customer complaints.
Products
Know your products - where everything is located, brand names, place of manufacture and price.
The more you know, the more confidence you can build in the customer.
Recognise product features. Turn these features into benefits for the customer. Ensure your staff can
tell customers about the product features and benefits.
Five Ways to Deliver Excellent Customer

Service
Posted by Steven MacDonald on 15 May, 2019 - 26 Comments
Post summary:
• There’s a lot of negative press coverage for companies that deliver poor customer
service. If you want to stand out, you need to rethink how you treat your customers.
• The number one reason why a customer leaves is because they feel like you don’t care
about them. But, how can you show them that you care? It’s simple. Provide excellent
customer service.
• We share 5 ways to help you deliver great customer service, including real-life
examples from Lexus, Starbucks, Amazon and more.
When was the last time you provided good customer service?
Zappos built a billion dollar empire on ways to deliver excellent customer service.
In fact, delivering excellent customer service is one of Zappos’ company values.
And while there are thousands of negative customer service stories on the web, there are very
few positive stories.
But, it’s the great customer service stories (see Nordstrom’s tires refund story) that stand out the
most!
To help you inspire you to improve the quality of customer service, we’ve gathered some of our
favorite stories online and share our thoughts on what makes good customer service.
5 customer service examples that provide great service
Here are five ways to stand out from the crowd to help you deliver excellent customer service.
Let’s get started!
1. Respond as quickly as possible

One of the biggest factors in good customer service is speed, especially when a client is requesting
something that’s time sensitive.
Several years ago, STELLAService conducted a response time report and found that the average
email response time for the top 100 Internet companies was 17 hours. Today, it’s not much better as
own customer service study found that the average response time is 12 hours.
While Frost reported that 41% of consumers surveyed listed being put on hold as their biggest
frustration. Make sure you don’t leave customers waiting.
A great example of this is when Lexus recalled a series of Lexus ES 350 sedans and asked car
owners to visit a dealership to bring their cars in. Instead of having to sit in a waiting room
watching their cars being worked on, customers were given a brand new Lexus instead.
2. Know your customers

Great interactions begin with knowing your customers wants and needs. Customers love
personalization. Get to know your customers, remember their names and previous conversations. If
needed, make a note of what was discussed previously so you can refer to it the next time you meet.
When Starbucks launched a new campaign focusing on improving relationships between their staff
and customers, each person who introduced themselves by name received a free latte. In total, more
than 350,000 free drinks were given away.
Object 1
3. Fix your mistakes

Not taking responsibility of your mistakes is a sure fire way to getting a bad reputation.
Transparency is important in business and customer service is no different. Always strive for a high
quality output as it shows you have a high level of standards.
An Amazon customer ordered a new PlayStation for his son for Christmas. When the shipping
company delivered the parcel, the customer was away and had a neighbor sign for the package. The
neighbor left the package outside the customer’s house (in which it soon disappeared). When the
customer realized what had happened, he was left in complete shock.
Even though Amazon was not to blame for this mistake, they were quick to resolve this by not only
sending a new PlayStation in time for Christmas, but did not charge for the extra shipping.
4. Go the extra mile

Going the extra mile will not only result in an indebted and happy customer, it can also go a long
way in terms of keeping yourself on their radar for future business.
A three year old named Lily Robinson wrote a letter to Sainsbury’s, a UK grocery store, a letter
asking why ‘tiger bread was called tiger bread and not giraffe bread?’. To Lily’s surprise, Chris
King, the customer service manager of Sainsbury’s responded with “I think renaming it to giraffe
bread is a brilliant idea!”. Several months later, the bread was renamed to giraffe bread.
5. Think long term – A customer is for life

Think long term when dealing with customers. By keeping customers happy, they will be loyal and
through word of mouth, will do the marketing for you. In fact, according to author Pete Blackshaw,
a satisfied customer tells at least three friends (whereas an angry customer tells 3,000!)
Peter Shankman, author and business consultant, was ready to board a flight before tweeting “Hey,
@Mortons – can you meet me at Newark airport with a porterhouse when I land in two hours? K,
thanks. :)”.
As soon as Peter landed, a gentleman wearing a tuxedo was holding a bag that contained
porterhouse shrimp, napkins and silverware. Knowing that Peter was a regular customer and having
tracked down his arrival details, Morton’s traveled more than 23 miles to deliver excellent service.
How important is it to deliver excellent customer service?
Customer service has an impact on both existing customers and potential customers. A recent
survey found that 68% of consumers would react by telling family and friends about a bad
experience by posting it on a social network. And as each Facebook profile has an average of 155
friends, the reach of this experience can quickly reach thousands.
However, there is great value in ensuring you deliver a positive customer service.
A RightNow Technologies Customer Experience Report found that 86% of U.S. adults are willing
to pay more for a better customer experience and 73% of U.S. adults said a friendly customer
service made them fall in love with a brand. Not only will brands get happy, loyal customers but
will see increased business.
Conclusion
Business should be built around how to deliver excellent customer service. It’s easy to forget its
importance when you are building your brand’s web presence and marketing your website. But,
these five examples above provide truly excellent customer service.
What Is Customer Service?

Customer service is the process of ensuring customer satisfaction with a product or service. Often,
customer service takes place while performing a transaction for the customer, such as making a sale
or returning an item. Customer service can take the form of in-person interaction, a phone call, self-
service systems, or by other means.
Understanding Customer Service

Customer service is an important part of maintaining ongoing client relationships, which is key to
continuing revenue. For this reason, many companies have worked hard to increase their customer
satisfaction levels. Although many people may work behind the scenes at a company, it is primarily
the personnel that interacts directly with customers that form customers' perceptions of the company
as a whole.

Customer Care

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Customer Care

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Principles of good customer service

Five Ways to Deliver Excellent Customer

1. Respond as quickly as possible

2. Know your customers

3. Fix your mistakes

4. Go the extra mile

5. Think long term – A customer is for life

What Is Customer Service?

Understanding Customer Service

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