How May I Help You? Customer Service: America’s Secret Weapon
By Dr. Noel Norcross – March 1, 2011
What is customer service?
Simply put, customer service is all of the seller’s behavior surrounding and during the purchase of a product. Good customer service aims at giving the buyer a sense of satisfaction, the belief that his or her expectations have been met and possibly surpassed.
How does it contribute to the success of a company or country?
Good customer service is what will keep people coming back to you and your product. By showing consumers that you care about their needs, are listening to their concerns, and are working to address any problems, you win their confidence and loyalty. Thus, even if your product is not the best available, costs more, or is so new that few people have heard about it, you can get ahead simply by providing strong customer service.
Say you go to a large paint store that is part of a national chain. The selection is enormous and the prices are low. However, it takes a while to get the attention of one of the busy employees. You ask some questions about what kind of paint is most appropriate for your project, but the employee seems a little uncertain about his answers. He promises to go ask someone more knowledgeable and get back to you. You wait and wait, but he never comes back. Frustrated, you leave the store and go to a smaller, local retailer. There, you’re greeted as soon as you walk in and asked if you need any help. The store owner is there and after hearing about your project, he says he knows exactly what you need and offers some tips. He admits that he doesn’t have quite as many options as the bigger store, but that he can order anything you want. You notice that the prices are higher than at the other store too, but at this point, you’re so pleased with the attention and information that you’ve received, it seems worth the small increase in price. The next time you have a project requiring paint, you will probably go straight to the smaller, helpful store, and you will likely recommend the place to friends. With enough “word of mouth” advertising, the smaller store will attract more repeat customers, make more profits, and probably be able to pass more savings on to you eventually.
In the US, customer service is recognized as essential. You won’t find any business that believes its product is so good that it doesn’t need to provide customer service. When businesses get lazy about customer service, falsely believing that low prices alone will draw and keep customers, their competitors step in to fill the void. It is such an important part of business that whole departments are formed around customer service. Large stores often have a customer service desk or phone number where consumers can ask questions, make returns, or file complaints.
While personal, face-to-face customer service is probably the most appreciated, it can get expensive and be inconvenient or even impossible in the case of online transactions, which is why many companies are providing a mixture of in-person customer services and some more passive forms such as Frequently Asked Questions pages on websites and automated informational phone messages. Many businesses also have email addresses, telephone hotlines, and online forms that allow customers to provide feedback quickly and sometimes anonymously. The issue here is finding a balance. While many consumers appreciate the ease of these methods, they may also miss the lack of personal, human attention.
Another ‘solution’ with which many Americans are familiar and often frustrated is outsourcing. To save money, some companies have chosen to move the call centers for orders, complaints, and general support to foreign countries. It is not unusual for an American customer to call the customer service number for his or her cell phone service provider or credit card company and to be connected with someone in another country. In comedic sketches mocking this situation, the customer service representative is often in a small cubicle, trying to offer help in a thick Indian accent and only infuriating the customer further.
Perhaps in America’s efforts to provide customer service across the board, the country’s businesses have begun offering a watered-down version of it, which has in turn led to frustration and the very opposite of what customer service is supposed to generate. Instead of making our lives easier, many customer service mechanisms have left people screaming into their phones at recorded messages and resulted in lost business.
Using the principles of customer service to your own advantage
Despite the problems associated with customer service in America today, the basic idea is sound. What’s important is to return to a personalized, genuine kind of customer service that focuses on the individual rather than a faceless, general public. Here are a few things to remember in your own efforts to provide customer service that will help grow your business:
· Provide personalized attention. No matter what kind of business that you have, it’s nice to let the customer know that he or she is important. Whether you take the time to learn the customer’s name and then use it when bidding him or her farewell, or remember and mention something about the customer’s last visit and needs (this may be with the aid of a computer), such personal touches will not go unnoticed.
· Pay attention to the customer’s needs and wishes. Even if you’re passionate about your product, as you should be, you need to listen to what the customer is looking for first. Doing so will make it easier for you to explain how your product fits the bill and make the customer feel at ease.
· “The customer is always right.” Although it may seem cliché and although it takes a lot of patience, it’s important to listen to complaints, acknowledge them, and work to address them. Getting into arguing matches with customers is always a bad idea, even if you disagree with them. You can’t make everyone happy, but you’ll get points for trying.
· Be honest, even if it means that you might make a little less profit. If you know that the product isn’t going to work for the customer, suggest one that will even if it’s the less expensive item. For instance, if you’re working in a clothing store, don’t tell someone that they look nice in something that doesn’t fit them well. They’ll learn the truth eventually, be embarrassed, and be sure to never come to your store again.
· Don’t make promises that you can’t keep. Like the first employee in the paint store example, don’t tell someone that you will deliver and then fail. You’ll never see that customer again.
· Don’t talk negatively about your competitors. Hopefully, you are proud of the product that you are offering. If not, you may want to consider finding a new line of work. In any case, saying negative things about your competitors’ products or policies will only reflect poorly on you in the end, and it might make it seem like you’re trying to hide your own deficiencies.
Simply put, customer service is all of the seller’s behavior surrounding and during the purchase of a product. Good customer service aims at giving the buyer a sense of satisfaction, the belief that his or her expectations have been met and possibly surpassed.
How does it contribute to the success of a company or country?
Good customer service is what will keep people coming back to you and your product. By showing consumers that you care about their needs, are listening to their concerns, and are working to address any problems, you win their confidence and loyalty. Thus, even if your product is not the best available, costs more, or is so new that few people have heard about it, you can get ahead simply by providing strong customer service.
Say you go to a large paint store that is part of a national chain. The selection is enormous and the prices are low. However, it takes a while to get the attention of one of the busy employees. You ask some questions about what kind of paint is most appropriate for your project, but the employee seems a little uncertain about his answers. He promises to go ask someone more knowledgeable and get back to you. You wait and wait, but he never comes back. Frustrated, you leave the store and go to a smaller, local retailer. There, you’re greeted as soon as you walk in and asked if you need any help. The store owner is there and after hearing about your project, he says he knows exactly what you need and offers some tips. He admits that he doesn’t have quite as many options as the bigger store, but that he can order anything you want. You notice that the prices are higher than at the other store too, but at this point, you’re so pleased with the attention and information that you’ve received, it seems worth the small increase in price. The next time you have a project requiring paint, you will probably go straight to the smaller, helpful store, and you will likely recommend the place to friends. With enough “word of mouth” advertising, the smaller store will attract more repeat customers, make more profits, and probably be able to pass more savings on to you eventually.
In the US, customer service is recognized as essential. You won’t find any business that believes its product is so good that it doesn’t need to provide customer service. When businesses get lazy about customer service, falsely believing that low prices alone will draw and keep customers, their competitors step in to fill the void. It is such an important part of business that whole departments are formed around customer service. Large stores often have a customer service desk or phone number where consumers can ask questions, make returns, or file complaints.
While personal, face-to-face customer service is probably the most appreciated, it can get expensive and be inconvenient or even impossible in the case of online transactions, which is why many companies are providing a mixture of in-person customer services and some more passive forms such as Frequently Asked Questions pages on websites and automated informational phone messages. Many businesses also have email addresses, telephone hotlines, and online forms that allow customers to provide feedback quickly and sometimes anonymously. The issue here is finding a balance. While many consumers appreciate the ease of these methods, they may also miss the lack of personal, human attention.
Another ‘solution’ with which many Americans are familiar and often frustrated is outsourcing. To save money, some companies have chosen to move the call centers for orders, complaints, and general support to foreign countries. It is not unusual for an American customer to call the customer service number for his or her cell phone service provider or credit card company and to be connected with someone in another country. In comedic sketches mocking this situation, the customer service representative is often in a small cubicle, trying to offer help in a thick Indian accent and only infuriating the customer further.
Perhaps in America’s efforts to provide customer service across the board, the country’s businesses have begun offering a watered-down version of it, which has in turn led to frustration and the very opposite of what customer service is supposed to generate. Instead of making our lives easier, many customer service mechanisms have left people screaming into their phones at recorded messages and resulted in lost business.
Using the principles of customer service to your own advantage
Despite the problems associated with customer service in America today, the basic idea is sound. What’s important is to return to a personalized, genuine kind of customer service that focuses on the individual rather than a faceless, general public. Here are a few things to remember in your own efforts to provide customer service that will help grow your business:
· Provide personalized attention. No matter what kind of business that you have, it’s nice to let the customer know that he or she is important. Whether you take the time to learn the customer’s name and then use it when bidding him or her farewell, or remember and mention something about the customer’s last visit and needs (this may be with the aid of a computer), such personal touches will not go unnoticed.
· Pay attention to the customer’s needs and wishes. Even if you’re passionate about your product, as you should be, you need to listen to what the customer is looking for first. Doing so will make it easier for you to explain how your product fits the bill and make the customer feel at ease.
· “The customer is always right.” Although it may seem cliché and although it takes a lot of patience, it’s important to listen to complaints, acknowledge them, and work to address them. Getting into arguing matches with customers is always a bad idea, even if you disagree with them. You can’t make everyone happy, but you’ll get points for trying.
· Be honest, even if it means that you might make a little less profit. If you know that the product isn’t going to work for the customer, suggest one that will even if it’s the less expensive item. For instance, if you’re working in a clothing store, don’t tell someone that they look nice in something that doesn’t fit them well. They’ll learn the truth eventually, be embarrassed, and be sure to never come to your store again.
· Don’t make promises that you can’t keep. Like the first employee in the paint store example, don’t tell someone that you will deliver and then fail. You’ll never see that customer again.
· Don’t talk negatively about your competitors. Hopefully, you are proud of the product that you are offering. If not, you may want to consider finding a new line of work. In any case, saying negative things about your competitors’ products or policies will only reflect poorly on you in the end, and it might make it seem like you’re trying to hide your own deficiencies.