I recently had a conversation with someone about customer service. His thought was that it just does not matter, people want the cheapest price and don’t care about customer service. I laughed out loud, that’s the craziest thing I ever heard. Today people demand the highest levels of customer service and payment has nothing to do with it. Whether they are paying $5.00 or $5,000.00, customers are demanding great customer service.
Now is the best opportunity to shine because so few even care to deliver the very basic service. If you’ve read any of my customer service articles here on the blog or in our newsletter Plumbing / HVAC Marketing Profits then you will know that I think it’s all about the little things that make the difference.
But if we dig a little deeper we’ll understand the meaning of what customer service can do for a company. Great customer service builds companies. Building strong relationships with your customers not only keeps them as customers but turns them into customer evangelists. As an example I recently had a client of ours refer us to another company. The referral turned into a new customer, and because we have a referral program we asked him to select a gift for his personal use. His reply was that he didn’t want anything, he just wanted to help us out. He loves our company because we provide him with results and great customer service.
But don’t think for a minute you can provide below average results and try to cover it up with great customer service. That may work for a very short time but it’s not a long term plan. There has to be a balance of delivering results and providing great service. You MUST have that equal balance, anything less is a failure. Results without service may work in the short term but when a problem occurs, then you'll find yourself in a situation trying to fix a problem with a customer you have no relationship with.
Next is bad customer service, sadly I find bad customer service to be common in many industries today and it’s sad. Bad customer service is not tolerated by anyone and rightfully so. If someone spends money with your company they should receive good service. If you want to really stand out then provide great service.
Here are the 3 keys to great customer service
1. Amaze Everyone
Get the word GOOD out of your mind when it comes to customer service, and think AMAZING. Try and amaze every customer every time. Even if it comes at a cost. If it costs a few dollars to make someone happy that’s fine, because that happy customer has the potential to make you hundreds if not thousands more down the road. Always be amazing.
2. Balance Your Product With Your Service
Sounds strange, but understand this one clearly because this is make or break stuff here. You show up for a service call, your plumber does the job he fixes the problem yet he was short with the customer, rude at times and just a plain dud. Yes the problem was fixed but there was nothing else to be remembered by. Technical skill, excellent. Customer service, terrible. This is bad for a number of reasons including what if something goes wrong with the job a day or two later? The customer calls back mad as hell and complains about everything. On the other side of the coin, if something goes wrong with the job and the experience with the customer was amazing and you have a nice relationship, because of that you find that you have a more understanding customer.
3. The Internet Has Changed Everything
The Internet has created a very load voice for customers who feel they have not received what they paid for. Ignore it if you want but if not taken care of this can be a very bad rat trap for your business. Then again, amazing customer service combined with the Internet can make for a wonderful thing.
It’s easy to provide amazing customer service simply put yourself in your customers shoes. It goes back to the little things my grandma use to tell me. Treat others they way you would like to be treated. She really knew her stuff.
