Customer Service 101

My personal definition of customer service is a simple one – it is the act of answering questions and resolving customer problems in a friendly, accurate and timely manner. That’s it. There is nothing fancy about this concept. It doesn’t involve dinners, tickets, trips, or golf outings. After all, if that is your only value to your customer, you’re doing it wrong. Those things don’t get you respect or increase your company’s reputation. They are important in the social aspect of what we do, but if you are unable to provide great customer service during the business day, it loses its importance.

We all need to know our products, but we also need to think more deeply about customer questions and concerns. We need to offer helpful advice and go beyond, “Here’s your cost and that’ll be two weeks.” See a purchase order that just doesn’t quite make sense? Contact your customer. Ask the questions. Head off disasters before they begin. Answer the phone! Quit letting calls go to voicemail. That question or problem is still going to be there later and now your customer has to wait for resolution. Let your customer know you care enough to at least answer their call and that you are going to do everything you can to take care of them. If you don’t know the answer, don’t lie. Don’t lie, period. It will always catch up with you.

We consistently get compliments on our customer service, and I take great pride in it. Again, it’s simple things; answer the phone or email promptly, get the right answer even though it might not be what they want to hear, and let them know you care. If we all just followed these easy steps, we’d have quite a few happy customers out there eager to do business with us.