The challenge in business writing is first to understand precisely what ideas need to be conveyed and, second, to convey those ideas in clear and creative ways.
Here are two articles I wrote to emphasize the importance of businesses focusing on the customer.
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Mining the Mother Lode
Many veins of gold run through your business, waiting to be mined. One vein is made up of your products and services. Another consists of your employees. But the mother lode, the vein of all veins of golden value, is your customers.
You can have the finest products and services in the industry and the finest employees around, but without customers you are nowhere. The value of your business is directly proportional to the number of customers you have, their satisfaction with what you offer, and their readiness to return for more.
That’s why it’s amazing that countless businesses, large and small, fail to appreciate the crucial role that customers play in their success. They show their lack of appreciation by ignoring their main tool for extracting maximum value from their mother lode: customer service.
Great customer service begins with committing your business to making your customers feel that you hold them in high regard and care about their needs. This of course starts with providing them the products and services they want, when they want them, at a reasonable price. But it goes far beyond that.
A four-step process can lead you to great customer service. First, announce your commitment for all to hear. Make sure all your employees understand that your—and their—objective is to make customer satisfaction a priority throughout the company. Tell your potential customers the same thing in your marketing material and ads. Become known for what you want to become, the epitome of a customer-focused company.
Second, create strategies detailing how your pro-customer policies will be enacted. How are customers to be greeted in the store, online, and on the phone? What specific steps will salespeople take to insure that customer contacts are respectful, friendly, and targeted to the customer’s needs? How are customers to be treated in regard to complaints and returns? Pick the brains of your finest people to develop these strategies. Identify customer service champs in your operation and solicit their input. As you develop your program, set it down in a customer service manual.
Third, implement the program. Hire and train customer-contact people who are naturally well equipped to carry out your strategies. Seek employees who are intelligent, friendly, and outgoing. Create a training program teaching them how to enact the strategies in your manual. Use role-play to help them practice. Have them work for a week or two alongside customer service champs to see how it is done.
Your fourth step is evaluation and follow-up. Provide easy ways for customers to give you feedback, whether kudos or complaints. Institute a customer service employee of the month program with a plaque and small stipend or gift certificate. Schedule regular sessions where your people can discuss customer service questions or issues and do further training. All of this helps impress on your employees that you are serious about customer service.
By instituting this four-step program, you will mine your most valuable vein, the mother lode. The terrific thing about this particular vein is that the more effectively you mine it, the bigger and richer it gets.
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Customer Service Champions
Your customer service champions have two indispensable qualities. They understand that customers are the lifeblood of your business, and they are excellent at relating to those customers. If you’re fortunate, you’ve got lots of these champs out on your front lines, dealing on a daily basis with the people who pay your bills. Whether in the store, out in the field, on the phone, or online, they know how to make your customers feel that their needs are uppermost for your business.
Some customer service champs seem to be born that way. Others have a lot of raw potential but may need considerable training. To help you locate, hire, and train your customer service champs, here are five defining characteristics.
Customer service champs empathize with the customer. As shoppers and clients themselves, they appreciate great customer service, and they know their own customers deserve nothing less. Whenever they are dealing with customers, their focus is on them, understanding their wants, anticipating their needs. When a satisfactory transaction takes place, they feel not only their own pleasure, but the customer’s.
Customer service champs know their products and services backwards and forwards. When asked a question, they provide a clear, concise, informative reply. If the product is a new car, customer service champs will have detailed information about all of the car’s systems on the tip of their tongue. If the service is financial management, customer service champs will have extensive knowledge about how varying investment strategies would fit with the client’s objectives. No matter what the product or service, these champions are always doing their homework.
Customer service champs are honest and sincere. Certainly, there are people who sometimes get by with being deceitful with customers. But it can also come back to bite them. Customer service champs don’t buy into deceitful practices. As appreciators and purveyors or great customer service, they know that its foundation is honesty, which they practice consistently.
Customer service champs go the extra mile. They make sure that requested information gets to the customer in a timely way. They don’t forget to call or e-mail when a desired product arrives. They seek out customer feedback. Such attentiveness achieves two things. It makes the customer feel special, and it makes your business appear professional. And that’s the kind of place where customers like to spend their money.
Customer service champs are excellent communicators. They understand that good communication begins with listening attentively to the customer. They speak clearly and intelligently in responding to customer requests for information. In dealing face to face, they understand that communication is not just a matter of words, but of clothing, stance, facial expressions, and other body language. They strive always to present a professional, friendly, helpful, and respectful demeanor toward customers.
Customer service champs are one of your veins of gold. Find and train these guys and gals, support them, and reward them. They make you and your business look great every time!
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