If your business is lacking in customer service, how can you focus on improving? Customer service is one of the easiest things to fix and it is a necessity if you would like your business to have a strong reputation and customers that continue to support your company for years. Excellent customer service is a key element of success and by changing your policy to focus on the customers, you can make them feel connected to the company and strengthen your organization overall. Focusing on excellent customer service will come down to the way in which you treat people and if you are approachable. A person that makes another feel welcome will bring about repeat business. If you are ready to get started with new customer service methods, here are five effective customer service tips you need to follow:
1. Greeting words. In order to get your customers to respond to you, it is important that you have an outgoing and happy personality. Great your customers in a friendly manner and make sure they feel welcome. Make your greeting “real” and not “canned” like many people have when they go to large retail stores. A greeting needs to help you personally connect with the customers so use appropriate greetings like “hello, can I help you find anything today?” or “good afternoon, may I help you today?” The sincerity of the greeting will make the biggest difference in showing the customers that they are appreciated and not just another “dollar” that walks through the door.
2. Be approachable. Always have a smile on your face and be kind to the customers. This helps you to be approachable and shows people that you like working for the company and you appreciate them as a customer. Go out of your way to make the customers shopping experience worthwhile and make them feel appreciated. Smiling is a great way to maintain excellent customer service and though you might not agree, it does help to improve the energy in the room.
3. Let the customer be right. There is nothing quite as frustrating and stressful as an upset customer. The customer is always going to be right and they need to feel this comes from you. Even if it means you have do things that aren’t easy for you to understand or pull off, you have to go above and beyond to make the customers happy. Keep your cool when dealing with an irate customer. If you lose your cool, it will make the situation worse. Be diplomatic in your approach and allow the customer to speak their mind and calmly respond with solutions. Your goal needs to be to find some type of agreement. If you end in an argument, you will lose many customers and severely damage your reputation.
4. Listen to the customers. You need to be able to truly listen to your customers and look for ways to solve their problems. Listen to them when they come in with a problem but you also want to listen to them when you are trying to sell them something as connecting with them based on their interests will go a long way in helping you to complete the sale. Be sensitive to your customers needs and ask for their opinion, it will make you a better salesmen and it will give the customer more information and feel appreciated. Remember that the customer wants to know what you can do and what the product can do to improve their life.
5. Be prompt. If you have ever come to a store only to wait for several minutes to have a customer service rep come to you, it can be annoying and incredibly frustrating. You need to have a system in place that approaches customers soon after they walk through the door and engages in positive conversations with the customers. This helps to build up excellent customer service.
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These are indeed very helpful tips on how to effectively deal with clients. Treat them as your best friend. Just like how the old saying goes: “The customer is always right”. However, you should also be in control of their concerns. After listening to your customers, give them sensible responses. If you feel like there’s a better way to go, recommend it. What a customer needs is a solution. Offer them options that will satisfy them.
ReplyDeleteSonia Roody
Often, customers with complaints want to know what your response will be. Their usual thinking is that you are there to find a solution, that’s why it is important to respond to your customers as soon as possible. If you can’t’ solve the situation yourself, inform them that you have recorded their request and give them a timeline of when you’ll be able to process their request. It’s good that customers know that you’re doing your very best to meet their needs.
ReplyDeleteNoreen Clay
“Listen to customers” – Let them air out whatever sentiments they have before anything else. Irate customers tend to shout as if they are blaming the person on the other end. Listen to them, and then offer a solution to their problem. Listening shows how interested you are in helping them with their problem.
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