Two ways to install a customer service mindset.

In my book, Real Estate for Real Reasons, I discuss some of the most important aspects of customer service: absolute professionalism, the quality of the interaction, making promises and keeping them, follow-up, creating expectations and many more.

You are absolutely nothing without the customer – you can posture, you can go about believing you are a “gun”, you can cite your sales figures, you can brag about your superiority as a businessperson, or a salesperson, but you should always remember, you are NOTHING without the customer.

Just as the Roman Emperor used to have servants whisper in his ear, “remember, you are dust” every time he stepped out in front of his adoring public, to inoculate himself against too much pride, so you should remember that important adage. Have it above your desk and remember it whenever you feel like giving them short shrift, or ignoring their requests, or avoiding them for any reason:

“I am NOTHING without the customer!”

Being in a business is like being a novelist who needs readers, a singer who needs listeners or a football team that needs fans. It’s like a variation on that old saying about a tree falling in the forest. If you don’t have customers, are you really in business at all?

What all the people mentioned above have in common is that they are oriented toward their “audience” – readers, listeners, fans. They try to see themselves the way their “audience” does, in order to be understood and appreciated. Because only when people understand and appreciate them will they part from their hard-earned money.

When it comes to customer service, there are two important things for you to consider.

Firstly, when conceiving your business, you should ensure that every service you provide, and the way you provide it, is pleasing to your various stakeholders – customers, other clients, suppliers, etc.

You should be constantly asking yourself “what would they want?”

If you manage a business, much of your training and much of your feedback with staff should be concerned with the quality of their interactions with your customers. This is not just for their development. You need to know how they are representing your company and the values it espouses. There is no more destructive signal to send out than a renegade staff member who wears your colours, but represents your very publicly stated service and values badly. Such a walking contradiction will bring disdain and even anger. It will repel customers.

Secondly, along the way you need to regularly hold a mirror up to yourself and take a good, honest look in it. You need to try hard to experience your business the way your customers would experience it.

There are plenty of ways to achieve this, and next week, I’ll talk about finding out what customers want from you.