Good Customer Service Skills | DELIVER AS AGREED
If you can’t deliver what customers want, all the rest is fluff. Ensure that you deliver according to your agreement with each customer.
The first basic of customer service is that you must deliver. You can smile as much as you like, you can chat away and build relationships, you can do fun things—but in the end if you don’t deliver the product to the customer at the agreed time the buzz will evaporate into thin air. It is like going to a restaurant where all the waiters are super friendly but never get round to serving you the meal.
This means that the product or service must be there when the customer wants it. Furthermore, it means that the product will be the one the customer wants, that the quality of stock picking is such that the customer does not get a skirt when ordering a shirt, and that the quantity is exactly right—two not one. In other words, it means virtually zero defects, or a “Six Sigma” approach to product quality and service delivery. There are too many stories of people having carpets laid that do not fit due to poor measuring and estimating, or receiving expensive furniture that has been scratched and damaged in the delivery process.
Given that our world is not exactly perfect, there will be occasions when things go wrong, when the delivery is not made or when what is delivered is not what was wanted.
There are two essential practices for dealing with these situations:
1. You must inform the customer of the problem before he or she informs you of it.
2. You must have a recovery plan to resolve the problem. For example, when the kitchen runs out of chicken (or the chickens have run out of the kitchen), you must have some imaginative recovery plan for how best to respond to customers who ask for chicken.
When a customer discovers a problem before you do, the damage has already been done. If you identify the problem first you can take control of the situation and put yourself in the best position to manage the customer’s expectations.
Here are some examples of little things you can do to ensure delivery:
✔ Assign top priority to delivery. Once a delivery commitment has been made, your top priority must be to ensure it is fulfilled.
✔ Flag all future deliveries to customers and double-check 24 hours before delivery that everything is in hand.
✔ Make a written note of everything you promise to a customer and review these notes regularly to ensure that you are delivering on your promises.
✔ When your promise to a customer is dependent on some action from a colleague, always politely check up that the action is taking place.
✔ If a truck breaks down, alert the customer that there will be a delivery delay, rather than having an angry customer call you.
✔ Similarly, if a consignment is held up in customs, inform the customer as early as possible.
✔ Ensure that the repair will be completed on time.
✔ Supply requested information to a customer within the promised hour.
✔ Mail the brochure today as promised.
✔ Process each insurance claim application within the specified two weeks.
Proactive communication is thus essential in ensuring delivery. Many experts would assert that a large degree of customer alienation stems from a failure to communicate properly. Being world-class means that not only do you deliver, but you take the extra little step of keeping the customer informed about the delivery.
EXCELLENCE CUSTOMER SERVICE PRACTICE
Every employee should be 100% clear about exactly what they are expected to deliver in the job; to whom it should be delivered (exactly who the customer is); when it should be delivered; where it should be delivered; and the quality standard with which it should be delivered.
EXCELLENCE CUSTOMER SERVICE QUOTE
Delivery is the first of 10 little things necessary to become world-class.
