8 Simple Rules for Great Customer Service

Today, good customer service is the heart of any business in virtually any industry. Businesses can offer promotions to bring in as many new customers in as they want, but unless they can get those customers to come back, they won’t remain profitable for long. Good customer service is about bringing customers back and sending them away happy enough to pass positive feedback along to others.

If you're a good salesperson, you can sell anything to anyone once, but your customer service approach determines whether you’ll be able to sell that person anything else. The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers. So, how exactly do you go about forming such a relationship? Here are eight tips for having good customer service in your business.

Answer the phone

Make sure that someone is picking up the phone when someone calls your business.

Don't make promises you can’t keep

Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception.

Listen to your customers

Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem.

Deal with complaints

If you give the complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one person this one time - and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service.

Be helpful

If you go out of your way to help your customers, they will be loyal in return.

Train your staff to be knowledgeable

Give every member of your staff enough information to make those small customer-pleasing decisions.

Take the extra step

Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it.

Throw in something extra

Whether it's a coupon for a future discount, additional information on how to use the product, people love to get more than they thought they were getting.

The irony of good customer service is that over time it will bring in more new customers than promotions ever did!

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• Treat Your Customers Like They Deserve and Expect