Are You Guilty of Customer Service Sins?

We all have had bad customer experiences. According to Hug Your Customers author Jack Mitchell, a mistake or customer service shortcoming is an opportunity to surprise and delight customers, because so few companies care about turning an error into a hug. Mitchell defined any act of customer kindness as a hug. When errors occur, does your showroom create hugs or send your customers packing? A few things to consider, courtesy of Rick Houcek’s 2-Minute Monday Motivator, to create hugs.

• Put your customer service policies and procedures through a smell test. Before implementing any customer service act, ask 5 to 10 of your existing customers if it makes sense. Does it make your customer feel value or abuse?

• Consider establishing a customer service council comprised of customers that you meet with quarterly or twice a year to review what you do and provide ideas to help make what you do better.

• If you are changing policies that affect customers, let them know in advance.

• Train every member of your staff to understand that customers are responsible for their paychecks. They should be treated accordingly. Make sure every member of your team understands how to respond to every imaginable customer question and issue.

• If you don’t have customers that are happy, you’ll soon have no business, no referrals and no revenue. But you will still have bills to pay.