Too many organizations assume that they are providing excellent customer service. However, I would challenge that assumption.
Consider the following:
- How do you define customer service? Does your customer have the same definition?
- What are the customer’s expectations? How often do you exceed their expectations?
If you truly want to provide excellent customer service, and more importantly, reap the rewards of providing excellent customer service, then you must seriously consider these questions.
Customer service has many definitions. However, the definition is not important. What is important is what this "looks" like. Customer service is demonstrated by the ability of an organization to meet the needs of their customers. This is the "bare minimum."
However, I believe that meeting the needs of your customers is not enough.
The standard which we should strive for is excellent customer service. This happens when an organization consistently exceeds the customer’s expectations (i.e under promise and over deliver).
The key to remember in providing excellent customer service is consistency. It is easy for an organization to perform at this level occasionally, or even for a few people in the company to consistently exceed expectations. However, all the people within an organization must consistently exceed expectations. This must become the accepted minimum standard. When the expectations of the customer are exceeded on a regular basis, then, your company has reached the level of excellent customer service.
Regardless of your company’s current level of customer service, you have the opportunity to improve. Whether you are good, bad, excellent or awful, improving customer service is a choice. It can be done by simply making a commitment to learning the basics and applying these on a daily basis.
Excellent customer service is not rocket science; in fact, it is the opposite. Customer service is common sense. Unfortunately, common sense isn’t so common.
How many times have you been in line at the grocery store and the cashier is talking to the bagger, and neither of them acknowledges your presence (much less make you feel like a valued customer)? Have you ever asked an employee at a retail store a question only to get the response "I dunno" as they walk away These are examples of little things that make a big difference.
As you will discover, the little things matter when it comes to customer service. Or as Benjamin Franklin once said, "Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves."
Translation: pay attention to the details.