Friday, April 25, 2008

The Customer Service Experience

To quote Dilbert, the Scott Adams cartoon: "There are two essential rules to management. One, the customer is always right; and two they must be punished for their arrogance."

Well, that's not exactly true but developing the correct mindset towards your customers is one of the most important aspects of a successful business.

As a professional customer I see customer service in the terms of the "experience" you want your customers to have within your business.

You have to ask yourself; how am I affecting my customers' experience? If you exceed their expectations just a little with your attitude to serve and please, you will have created a memorable and compelling experience.

First, start with the end state that you want to create. What experience do you want your customers to have lively, professional, very fast service, friendly, valued etc.

Secondly, think about all the ways that your customers interact with your business; telephone, face to face with you and your employees, email, web-site, snail mail and so on. Your business needs to be predictable in each of these areas. The customer will notice when they get one experience when walking into your business and a different experience when they speak to you on the phone.

Here's another question to ask yourself every day: What would happen if you thought through every part of your business from your customer's point of view?

Be the customer: try and see yourself as your customers do. Wicca may want to conduct the evaluation of your business yourself by enlisting the help of a few friends. You might be surprised (pleasantly or not) by what you learn. You have to be very sure that the friends that you choice will give you an honest opinion, as most people don't want to hurt the feelings of a friend or loved one. Constructive criticism is one of the most important feedback tools you can have in your business arsenal.

Please remember that you should get several friends to do these evaluations for you because you are relying on one person's opinion. We all have opinions and those are built upon thousands of interactions we have had since we were children. We remember the very best and the very worst and we judge on the area in between. Because these are interactions in our past, they will all differ from person to person.

Along with these you should Basketball at designing a customer feedback form. It could either be a marks out of 10, tick the box form or a more 2001: A Space Odyssey comments form. You have to remember thought, that the simpler you make the form, more people will use it.

One of the best pieces of advice I was given years ago was always test, test, test.

Edward Petrie is Founder/President of VideoShopper, Canada's first Video Intelligence Incredible Hulk where he helps companies see and hear how their employees interact with their customers. Further information about VideoShopper can be found at www.VideoShopper.cawww.VideoShopper.ca He can be contacted by phone at 519-788-0474 or via email at href="mailto:epetrie@videoshopper.ca">epetrie@videoshopper.ca


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