People Will Never Forget How You Made Them Feel by Marc LeVine

"Service, in short, is not what you do, but who you are. It's a way of living that you need to bring to everything you do if you're to bring it to your customer interactions." - Betsy Sanders

In our daily lives we all make mistakes. ?It is what we do immediately after making them that matters most. ?When mistakes happen in business, there are usually customers or clients affected in negative ways.?Time and money may be lost due to costly mistakes. This is why people serving other people need to always be prepared to offer exceptional customer service whenever things go wrong. ?Failure to do so effectively can damage both business and personal reputation. ?

Customer service is BOTH a philosophy and orientation. Businesses vary a great deal regarding the level of customer service they choose to offer. Some offer a lot and some offer little to nothing. ?In fact, some businesses charge additional fees to those who wish to speak to a live customer service representative. ?Those unwilling to pay are directed to go online and chat with an AI bot, visit and read FAQs, or simply leave a message in the system to be reviewed up to days later.?

Companies that truly care about offering great customer service place their representatives at “center stage” to address their customers’ needs.?Companies that don’t care as much about customer satisfaction often make it quite difficult to contact and speak with a dedicated customer service representative. ?This may be the case when they try to save money by having only a few customer service representatives on hand. ?Some outsource their entire customer service function to an offshore “boiler room” with workers who often struggle with the English language and are not too familiar with the products and services the customers are calling about.

The quality of customer service offered by businesses often depends less on their “make good policies” and more on the personal nature and good will of the individual(s) representing the organization in the field. We should already know this by now because we have encountered workers, who seemed annoyed when we or others have asked them for help. ?Obviously, these are the wrong people in the wrong jobs. ?No matter how much their employers want them to offer great customer service, they do not seem to care enough to provide it.

There are indeed some truly gifted people offering superior customer service to their clients and consumers in every industry. They may be considered “top-notch” ONLY because they were trained well and truly believe that ALL customers deserve the same level of assistance as they expect when their shoe is on the other foot.

Anyone dealing with clients or consumers must be “people-people” and have a calm, positive demeanor rather than a short, hot fuse. ?That’s just for starters. They also need to have a strong understanding of standardized customer service principles and be properly trained to successfully execute customer service practices in accordance with their employer’s policies.

Here are some things to remember when addressing most customer service complaints:

1.??????Help make the customer whole again.

Whatever the customer has lost due to error needs to be restored in full. ?Just being warm and friendly is not sufficient. At the end of the day, the client or customer expects their business transaction to be concluded fair and reasonably. ?As someone offering customer service, what can you offer to make up for their hardships and inconvenience?

??????2. ???Acknowledge responsibility and explain the problem and the fix.

It is critical to clearly distinguish between offering a lame excuse for any mishap and accepting full responsibility for the mistake. ?The client or customer wants to see some accountability on the part of the company, receive a sincere apology and gain a better understanding of how the problem will be rectified this time, so it won’t recur in the future.

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??????3. ??Express your regret.

After all is explained to the client or customer, the time is right to apologize for whatever mistakes caused them any problems and inconveniences.?By now, the client or customer has a much better understanding of what went wrong, why, and what will be done to prevent such errors from rearing their heads again in the future.

Follow this plan to address any customer service issue on a one-to-one basis as week as in writing. ?It is based on sound human relations fundamentals and will serve you well whenever things may go wrong.

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The Author

My Recent Interview on “Engineering Success”

Marc LeVine is a graduate of Syracuse (NY) University with a degree in Industrial Psychology, Marc is currently Talent Acquisitions and Learning and Development Lead at Thermo Systems. He is the recipient of the Excellence in Talent Acquisitions Award from HR Awards in 2021.

Marc's prior employment includes senior Human Resources and Staffing Industry management roles with Edgewood Properties in Piscataway, NJ, Brickforce Staffing in Edison, NJ, InfoPro Inc. in Woodbridge NJ and Plainsboro, NJ and Harvard Industries in Farmingdale, NJ, a former Fortune 500 company. He also served as Director of Human Resources for New Jersey Press, the parent company of the Asbury Park Press, Home News and Tribune and WKXW-NJ101.5. Earlier in his career, Marc served as Director of Career Services and Placement at Union Technical Institute in Eatontown and Neptune, NJ. In addition, Marc owned and operated Integrity Consulting Associates, a New Jersey based Human Resources and Social Media Marketing firm for 11 years. Marc also served as Council President in his hometown of Freehold Borough, NJ