For better customer service, be a better customer

In a recent article at Wise Bread, they look at how being a good customer can lead to better customer service. They point out that there are so many customer service articles today about being great at customer service, but it is a two way street. They give advice to you as the customer to get the best possible customer service. They advise the customers to document everything, learn to file effective bug reports, and when you're treated right, be vocally appreciative.

At the end of the article, they look at what a supercustomer is and how to become one:
I use "supercustomer" to describe those — the best! — who go beyond the call of customer duty (intriguing way of looking at it, hmm?) and don't just routinely consume, they actively participate in improving the people & products of the businesses they enjoy.

Build your company on culture

Russ Vernon recently contributed a piece to the Ohio Journal that examined how you can focus keeping loyal customers throughout this hard time. It's important that you stay relevant to your customer base, and keep your focus on your customer. You need to seek gaps that are in your market, in addition to you hiring processes, training and great customer service. So use all of these things not only to sell a product to your customer, but value as well.

Keeping your customers in tough economic times

Over at CustomerThink, they recently wrote a great post about what you should do in these tough economic times to retain your customers. As you'll see budget cuts to the sources that bring in your customers - like marketing and advertising - it's critical to keep the customers you currently have. Took keep them through these difficult times, you must keep your customer service quality high and give them no excuse to switch to a competitor.

Taking care of your customers

A great article at the Customers Think blog, they discuss how one company is not increasing their fees for their customers. They realize that everyone is currently going under an economic burden. Currently, everyone is cash strapped, and they realize that hiking prices now could increase revenue now, but there is no incentive for customers to stick around in the future.

Do you see it this way?

Can't Miss: Keith Ferrazzi Web Seminar

We were pleased and honored to have Keith Ferrazzi give a fantastic webinar entitled, "Team Bonding: How Building Internal Relationships will Lead to Big Wins with Your Customers.” Keith Ferrazzi, the CEO of Ferrazzi Green Light will be a keynote speaker at the 2008 NACCM Customers 1^st.

How many loyalty cards do you have?

In a recent blog by Robert J. Howard at Customer Think, he addresses the loyalty card subject I'm sure we all have dealt with. How many loyalty cards do you have on your key chain right now? He points out that businesses have overrun the customers' wallets with loyalty cards, and the market is at the point of saturation.

It all began with rewards for airline miles, then hotels, and now it's moved to restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations and to anything imaginable beyond that. So what do customers do with their addiction to their rewards? How do businesses find a way to still reward their customers who frequent their business? Do you have a solution to this current plastic crisis?

Positive Customer Experiences

It’s important that your customers have a great experience at every touch point when they are doing business with you. Colleen Frances recently posted her tips for creating the best customer service at all the touch points throughout your customer experience.

1. Love what you sell, the company you work for and the customers you serve. If you show the customer you truly love what you do and what you’re selling, they’ll have a good experience buying the product from you.

2. Be empathetic and compassionate. Know and believe exactly what you’re telling them. Take an interest in the people asking the questions.

3. Add value and give first. Give them something before they buy from you. Show them that they can trust you, and you’re worth more to them than the profit. It may be a dentist or a new business contact, but they’ll see your purpose.

4. Make eye contact. It’s difficult to do, and many other sales people fall short. But if confidence is shown through making eye contact, you’ll truly set yourself apart from your competition.

5. Express your true intent. Don’t fake it, tell your customers your true intentions. Let them know that this might not be the right solution for them, but you’re going to try to show them how your product can fit your needs.

6. Don't go for the big decision all at once. Don’t try to land the big deal on the first try. Gradually move there through a series of conversations, agree on a second or third meeting.

7. Use friendly, warm words. Speak on a friendly level. Limit your syllables and use simple words.

8. Use people's names. Use their names, however, be aware of their comfort level with the name you’re calling them. Do you use their first name, or their title and last name? With the correct name, it’ll make a memorable experience for the customer.

9. Ask the right questions. The right questions can lead to positive relationships. They can also reveal the problem that needs to be solved and build trust between the company and the client.

Customer Service Innovation: How to get there

In a recent blog post at Creativity At Work, they highlight ten ways to stay in the game when it comes to service innovation and keeping your customers at the center of the customer service strategy.

The ten reasons listed were:

1. Approach Service as if you were the customer -- See what part of your business customers are having the most trouble relating to, or the most difficult part of the shopping process you put them through. Fix those parts of the process.

2. Create a process map and identify service bottle necks – What are the steps, processes and people that a customer comes to your business? If you see the whole process, and identify the troubled points, the whole company can see what they can adjust to make the service better.

3. Work backwards from the ideal state to a solution. Find where you want to be, and work from that solution down to fix the service in your company. If you start a beginning point, it’s very easy to get off track and not end at that solution.

4. Benchmark to establish standards and reference points. See what other companies are doing to measure and make their service better throughout the company. Strive to be like those best companies.

5. Copy the innovations of industry leaders: Customers look for consistency when shopping with companies. See how other companies are finding and keeping customers through the consistency with their services.

6. Measure and monitor current levels of service: Survey the customers to find their levels of satisfaction, and this will also show where the company is not pulling their weight in certain categories of service.

7. Solicit ideas from employees: Brainstorm with your employees to find out what they know the customers to want. They’re in constant contact with the customers and could have a potential solution to that one thing you’re having trouble with.

8. Solicit ideas from your customers: It’s your customers you’re trying to please, so find out what you could do to make them happy through market research, customer surveys and other means.

9. Seek an outside perspective: Look to other who have no idea of the situations your dealing with. Their clear view could help you find the solution.

10. Employ performance tools like a Balanced Score Card: Find a way to link your service measurement to your company strategy. This process needs to be measured in order to know if you’re making progress.

The Customer Experience

In a recent blog post at Customer Think, Mei Lin Fung tells a story about her friend’s customer service experience at Whole Foods. The outstanding customer service will gain Whole Foods more business through the customers word of mouth communication than any advertisement for the store ever will.

It is very important that a company always pays attention to customer at every touch point. With this story of the manager helping the customer personally find a recipe not available in the store, and then finding all of the ingredients, it shows that the manager truly cares about the customer. It is important to have employees who have respect for the customer, other employees, and have a genuine belief in the product.

A customer will come back into your store because of the treatment they receive from the employees. It’s critical to know that you have this touch point taken care of.

The Best Advice

In a recent article at Fortune, the sit down with 25 of today’s powerful people in the business world and ask them for the best advice the ever got. Here is some of the advice that I found interesting:

Michael Bloomberg is the Mayor of New York City and founder of Bloomberg LP.

The advice was, first, always ask for the order, and second, when the customer says yes, stop talking.

Charlene Begley, President and CEO, GE Enterprise Solutions

Spend a ton of time with your customers. Especially when you're new, the first thing you should do is go out to customers and ask them how you compare with competitors, how your service is, what they think of your products.

Alan Mulally, President and CEO, Ford Motor Company

The best advice I ever received was to have a point of view about the future that focuses on the customer. Have a point of view. Focus on the customer.

The customer is such an important part of every business. Every action must be taken into consideration, and all should focus on how your customer will like your latest move, action or product. You’re doing business for the customer. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received on appealing to your customers?