CUSTOMER SERVICE, with a few notable exceptions, remains poor.  Companies that fail to meet customer service expectations will be driven to the wall, here's a few tips that could save your company from the corporate graveyard.

"I was your customer UNTIL I WAS OFFERED BETTER VALUE..."

Sound familiar?  Here's a strategy that could help

  1. Find significant differences between your product and those of your competitors
  2. Add something new - make small innovations to reinforce the differences.
  3. Clearly explain the differences to the customer
  4. Specify the differences, preferably in writing
  5. Set a monthly target to list more differences

"I was your customer UNTIL I WAS GIVEN BETTER QUALITY..."

Quality isn't what you think it is.   It's what your customer think it is.  So, to provide excellent quality, think like your customers.  And ensure that they know how to operate your products and apply your services in their own environment.

  1. Satisfy the customers perceptions of quality
  2. Exceed the customers expectations
  3. Don't settle for second best
  4. Add small details that could enhance the customers pleasure

" I was your customer UNTIL I RECEIVED SUPERIOR SERVICE..."

In exchange for becoming a lifelong customer, they demand superior service.  So find out all you can about the customers to service them better.  Make effort to  get your customers back. 

  1. Nurture special relationships
  2. Invest time in your customer
  3. Follow up lost sales
  4. Deliver more than you promise
  5. Deliver the truth

"I was your customer UNTIL I GOT BETTER RESPONSE..."

We live in a world of instant everything, so to keep your customer happy, you have to keep up with the pace, or get out of the race.   So create partnership with your suppliers, distributors and customers.   Whenever  possible, keep them informed at all stages of products or service development.  Use every means possible to respond quickly to requests. 

  1. Accelerate your response rate
  2. Give your suppliers, distributors and customers an interest in your business
  3. Speed up response times
  4. Be specific
  5. Shorten the chain
  6. Wake the customer up!

"I was your customer UNTIL I FELT MORE AT HOME..."

You'll be more likely to get and retain your customers if you treat them as an individual.  In brief, make them feel comfortable and important.

  1. Encourage everyone in the company to establish friendly relationships with the customers
  2. Make your factory a showroom and a laboratory
  3. Make it fun, invite them to a theatre!
  4. Involve yourself in the customers business

"I was your customer UNTIL YOU LOST YOUR UNIQUENESS..."

Create uniqueness by giving them what they want, not what you think I should want.  Provide a service that separates you from the crowd.   And before you make any promises, ensure that you can fulfil them.

  1. Create elements of uniqueness that set you apart from the herd
  2. Ensure that everyone understands the difference
  3. Practice your uniqueness every day
  4. Tell the customer that you care
  5. Sell the promise that only you can fulfil

"I was your customer UNTIL YOU BECAME INCONSISTENT"

They don't just want service.  They insist on consistently good service.  Service they can rely on. 

  1. Give the customer control
  2. Dress the same, behave the same, offer the same
  3. Own and duplicate the experience
  4. Deliver the same result every time
  5. Define your role in giving  control.   Then work out how each person is going to assist you in offering control

"I was your customer UNTIL YOU STOPPED LISTENING"

Become an obsessive listener, and act on what they tell you.  You cant do this from behind your desk.  So get up and go out to wherever the action is. 

  1. Get out from behind your desk to where the customer is
  2. Become accessible
  3. Provide quick feedback
  4. Act on what you hear
  5. Speak the customers language

"I was your customer UNTIL YOU FORGOT ME"

As a customer, their you company's only real asset.  So don't forget them.  Make them a valued member of your team.   Since they're paying for the bill, give them what  they want, by seeking their input in production.

  1. Make them a member of your family
  2. Send them information
  3. Keep them in the know
  4. Emphasise the service bookends
  5. Motivate and train

"I was your customer UNTIL YOU CUT YOUR COSTS"

As surveys show, most draconian cost-cutting exercises achieve little or nothing - except the deterioration of customer service.   Rather use expenses to build sales:  the surest way to build profitability.  

  1. Add, don't subtract
  2. Build sales to build profitability
  3. Focus on enhancing revenue, not containing costs
  4. Use your initiative
  5. Create an idea bank

 

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