Outstanding customer Service
Outstanding customer service is what sets your mot garage apart from others. If your customer service is poor you will lose out on repeat customers, even if you drop your prices. However, when you provide excellent customer service you should be able to increase your prices and still have a solid customer base. It is all about learning how to deliver exceptional customer service.
We have found the following points on the best ways to deliver top-quality customer service which will assist you in creating your own strategy for serving your customers.
- Be Available
Your customers must be able to contact you, or someone in your company who represents you, should they require service or have a question to ask. Offer many different ways for your customers to contact you: like phone, email, website and social media. Make sure all these communication channels are easy to manage; otherwise your level of customer service could take a dive. If you provide many contact points, but you don’t increase your resources and staff, you’ll be spreading yourself too thin. The result will be a decline in your customer service.
- Always Respond in a Timely Manner
Make it business policy that all emails and phone calls must be returned with 24-hours. If this is not something you can commit to, then you must determine what time frame would be manageable and be very clear with your customers that this is the time frame you work within. Customers are usually very accepting providing you’ve been clear with them from the onset, and you follow through.
- Listen to What Your Customers Have to Say
Customers are just ordinary people, and they want to be heard: sometimes all that’s required is that you listen to what they have to say. Don’t jump in and start defending yourself, your company, or your product – just listen. Who knows, they could have a valid point!
- Treat Your Customers with Respect
If you are trying to deal with an irate, rude, complaining or demanding customer, never lower yourself to their level of behavior. Continue treating your customers with respect, and in turn they will respect you. They might just be having a bad day and could well regret their bad behavior. Obviously it’s not ‘right’ that people disrespect you, but at the end of the day you’ll be pleased that you didn’t lower your standards and that you remained respectful.
- Never Argue with Your Customers
You’ll never win an argument with a customer: what this means is that, if you do win, you will have alienated the customer and lost their business forever. We all understand only too well that a customer is often wrong, but it’s not a good idea to start defending yourself: focus on what’s occurred and see how you can best resolve the situation.
- Honour Your Commitments
Do what you say you will do. If you offer a guarantee, then you must honour it: it you say you’ll respond to emails, respond to them. It’s irritating to anyone to be promised something and then not get it: it’s a sure-fire way to ruin a relationship.
- Do What You Say
If you’ve promised to call a customer on Monday, call them on Monday. It’s really very simple. If you want to earn the trust and respect of your customers you must follow through and do what you said you would. From a customer’s point of view we all know how annoying and time-wasting it is to be waiting for a phone-call, email, or visit from someone who (turns out) had no intention of following through.
- Focus on Customer Relationships – Not Sales!
For your business to enjoy long-term success you must cultivate long-term relationships. Sacrificing long-term relationships to make short-term sales dooms your business to failure.
- Admit When You’ve Made a Mistake
We’re all human, and we all make mistakes. One very valuable lesson on customer service is, when you do make a mistake, don’t deny it or try to cover it up. Admit your mistake, apologize, and do whatever it takes to make the situation right. Your customers will appreciate it, and no-one loses customers this way.
10: Train Your Staff
When staff members are properly trained to provide excellent customer service, they feel empowered to make on-the-spot decisions when dealing with customers. Make it very clear what their authority levels are, and ensure they understand completely the customer service principles that apply to your business. If you’re not sure they’re capable of doing the right thing, then you’ve hired the wrong people.
So, reading the above ten steps, how do you rate your customer service? If you’re lacking in any of the above you need to ramp up your customer service.
http://www.keeping.com/customer-service/excellent-customer-service/