Customer Service ? Without Good Service You Won't Keep Your ...

Without good customer service, a business usually enters a period of slow and painful decline. Customers are literally the life-blood of a business. However, that doesn?t mean that the customer is always right or has the right to bully you around or treat you poorly. Many customers do have an entitlement mentality. If you give them an inch, they will take a mile and then some. In order to retain the best customers and develop those relationships, make sure you follow these simple rules:

Ask Questions

Many customers don?t know exactly what they want, but if you ask them enough of the right types of questions, you can help them buy what they need and really want. Ask them why they want to do business with you, and what they hope to get out of your company?s products. Ask them why they haven?t tried using your competitor?s products or services yet.

If you?re handling service calls, asking questions first can help you sort out what the problem is and then work out a solution that is mutually beneficial.

Never blame the customer first. This happens more often than most businesses would like to admit, and the only thing it does is alienates the people you do business with. When you ask questions, make sure that you ask the customer how he or she feels. Many times, service calls are made by angry or upset customers. Ask them detailed questions about what went wrong, what they were doing at the time, when the problem first began, and what they want the company to do. Let them vent first before offering a solution.

Identify and Anticipate Needs

During the question-asking period, you?re going to start formulating ideas about how to solve the customer?s problem. Get inside their head and become part of the conversation they are having with you. All too often, a customer service representative is looking for a way to get the customer off of the phone or looking for a way to reduce the service cost to the company. By doing that, you can?t anticipate the solution to the problem. You might even be able to make suggestions to the customer that he hadn?t even thought of.

Be A Good Listener

Don?t talk. Listen. You should do most of the listening during any customer service call. The customer is calling you and usually looking for a solution to a problem. Perhaps she wants to buy something from you. Perhaps she wants service on a broken piece of equipment. You won?t know if you are constantly cutting off a customer mid-sentence to offer a solution to a problem you don?t yet understand.

Make Customers Feel Appreciated

Some customers don?t feel appreciated. Even when there is no problem to be solved, a great customer service strategy is to periodically send customers ?thank you? notes, thanking them for being customers. You could do this immediately after sale or periodically throughout the year.

A ?thank you? note may also be effective when a customer hasn?t purchased anything from you recently. That note may just remind the customer how good of a company you are. Very few businesses bother to thank their customers these days. Here?s your chance to be a different kind of company.

Be ?On Their Side? Without Lying To Them

Customers always want to feel like you understand their problem. When you are ?on their side,? they feel like you?re there to help them instead of argue with them. Even when a customer is angry, you should try to ?be on their side.? However, you don?t have to bow in to a demanding customer with an entitlement mentality.

Some customers are unreasonable. You can still be on a customer?s side without lying to him about the situation. If the company is in the wrong, admit that. In fact, it might be helpful to find a flaw in the company and point it out to the customer. Likewise, be firm and point out any errors the customer may be making. Tell him that you understand his situation, it?s awful that your product failed at an inopportune time, and that you want to replace the broken part as soon as possible.

However, don?t be afraid to tell him the truth of the situation when he may have been the cause of the failure. If he voids the warranty, let the customer know this. Otherwise, you?ll go from being ?nice? to being a ?chump,? and that?s not fair to you or to the rest of your customers who treat you fairly.

Guest post written by Liz Goldman and brought to you by sunbirdfx.com?

chipper jones chipper jones dancing with the stars cast mickael pietrus heart transplant the international preppers