Improve Your Customer Service | Practice Good Manners
Ensure that the manner in which you serve a customer is good.
“Teaching your grandmother how to suck eggs” is not exactly good manners. While it might be obvious that the practice of good manners is necessary for good service, we all have recent experiences where this has not happened, where front-line employees have not bothered, have been disinterested, ignorant, or rude. Unfortunately, we live in a world where good manners are being eroded, where people don’t reply to emails, fail to call back, and occasionally fail to show up without explanation. Many people don’t even say thank you.
Good manners are as simple as being polite and courteous. It means treating all customers with respect and dignity. There is nothing complicated about this. It is the basis of any civilized society.
Here are some good manners and common courtesies:
Being punctual
Saying thank you
Making way for people
Opening doors for people
Answering letters promptly
Calling back when promised
Maintaining a good appearance
Offering to carry someone’s bag
Being polite and courteous at all times
Giving compliments whenever possible
Keeping people informed of what is going on
Refraining from interrupting people
Listening carefully to what people say (and paying attention)
Offering refreshments (even a glass of water) at the appropriate time
Asking people how they are (with many personal variations on this theme)
Saying please
Replying to all emails
Offering someone a seat
Extending a helping hand
Extending a warm welcome
Pouring tea for a customer
Offering to take someone’s coat
Saying goodbye when someone leaves
Standing aside to allow others to go first
Showing people to the door when leaving
Volunteering to do something for a customer
Turning off mobile phones in meetings
Never being rude to anyone (e.g., an unkind remark or a nasty look)
Ensuring everyone in a small group is introduced to one another
Even recently, when I was at lunch with a client, the waiters scored less than 40 percent on the above list. No doors were opened, there was no warm welcome, there was no offer of help with the menu, there was no interest in whether or not the meal was being enjoyed, and finally there was no goodbye on leaving. In fact, nobody noticed we were leaving. Then to cap it all—two weeks later as I revised this section—I recalled that I paid for the lunch and so far have received no thanks from the client.
Good manners are absent in many establishments for the simple reason that they get in the way of so-called efficiency and carrying out the jobs set by managers. Opening doors for customers takes time and can be at the expense of carrying out other tasks, so in the interests of cost reduction good manners are cut out. We risk a degradation of civilized behavior when companies put cost cutting before good manners.
The practice of good manners might appear grossly inefficient, but ultimately it is immensely rewarding. The payback is immeasurable. The core of good manners is respect for other people, and money can’t buy respect.
EXCELLENCE CUSTOMER SERVICE PRACTICE
Review the list of 30 good manners above and, working with your colleagues, revise it as you think appropriate. Then use it as a checklist to audit your practice of good manners with customers (internal and external) today.
EXCELLENCE CUSTOMER SERVICE QUOTE
Good manners are good for business.
