Excellent Customer Service | Show You Care
Care is the essence of all relationships with customers. Convince customers that you care for them by demonstrating care.
Nothing alienates customers more than feeling uncared for. Most customers are tolerant when things go wrong. What they are less tolerant of is feeling that nobody cares about addressing their specific problem. It happens on many occasions, for example when flights are canceled, when the new computer fails to work, or simply when someone does not call back. The customer feels that no one is really bothered. This can apply to telephone companies, utilities companies, banks, and many institutions. Suddenly the customer is dealing with a large, faceless organization where nobody seems to care about their individual problem. They feel insignificant and helpless as a result.
Along with mutual trust and respect, nothing is more important in a relationship with a customer than genuine care. As soon as customers feel they are not being cared for, they will defect in their masses. When people care they genuinely desire the well-being of others (in this case customers) and are prepared to devote all their powers and energies as well as time to securing this well-being. Care relates to every aspect of business, for example taking care:
✔ To ensure that the product is delivered on time and not damaged.
✔ To ensure that a customer’s problem is resolved quickly.
✔ To call back when promised.
✔ To be completely honest with customers.
✔ To communicate effectively with customers.
✔ To understand fully customers’ real requirements.
✔ Not to rush customers (or make them feel rushed), thus allowing them time.
✔ To ensure that customers do not feel exploited and thus receive value for money.
✔ To assign customers the highest priority, thus overriding lower-priority, non-customer-oriented tasks.
✔ To ensure that the quality of the product or service is the highest possible in the circumstances.
By taking care you show that you care. Customers can sense when a person cares or does not care. It is reflected in every facet of attitude and behavior: in eye movements, in words, in tones of voice, and in actions. It happens when a taxi driver bothers to open the door for a passenger. It happens when a counter assistant explains that she is having a problem at the till. It does not happen when a bank sends the same standard letter to all customers, irrespective of varying circumstances.
The sense of caring is a feeling, not a thought. You can only care for a customer if you genuinely care from the bottom of your heart. If you care more for something else, for example achieving your targets, or reducing costs, or getting home promptly at the end of the shift, this will show.
Care is reflected in everything you do for customers, while lack of care is not doing what, in the view of the customer, needs to be done. Customers will judge you by your demonstration of care or lack of it. They will know. You don’t have to tell them you care. All you have to do is show them that you really do. It is all-pervasive and permeates every facet of the business.
So the challenge is to answer the question “Do I genuinely care for customers?” and if so, “Do I sincerely show this to them?”
EXCELLENCE CUSTOMER SERVICE PRACTICE
At the end of every day spend five minutes with your colleagues and share stories of how each of you has cared for customers in the last 24 hours.
EXCELLENCE CUSTOMER SERVICE QUOTE
To encourage employees to care for customers, bosses must care for employees. How can you expect front-line people to care if they don’t feel cared for?
