Service Untitled

I talk to a lot of people that work in, write about, and/or care greatly about customer service. They may be the people I interview, co-workers, friends, or whoever – but I talk to and work with a lot of people who are “into” customer service. There are a few interesting things that come out of this.

I realize that I am not alone.
The best thing about talking to other customer service people is I realize I am not that weird. They also think about customer service, how it can be applied, how it can improved, etc.

I look for good customer service.
Every time I go to a store or hear about someone’s experience with a product or a company, I think about it as a customer service experience. I was at Macy’s the other day and it took a while for someone to help me. I went to Nordstrom and it also took someone a while to help me. However, Nordstrom recovered and I received apologies from two separate people at least three different times. They were very helpful and did a great job. I was initially unhappy, but Nordstrom did a great job at recovering. I looked at this as a customer service experience and it isn’t something that many people would notice.

I am often disappointed.
Unfortunately, I am forced to deal with companies that do not provide good customer service. There are lots of companies out there that don’t seem to care about customer service or simply cannot do it. It is even more unfortunate when every company in the industry or my available choices are all the same in terms of the lack of quality customer service they provide. People I talk to and work with often feel similar.

I try to provide great customer service in everything I do.
Another thing that I happen to do as well as the other people I talk to and work with try to do is provide great customer service in everything I do. Almost every email I sent has a link to my blog with the text “Customer Service & Customer Service Experience Blog” right above the link.

The pressure is on to provide great customer service when scheduling an appointment, answering a question, fulfilling a request, or whatever it might be. If you work for a company that is known to provide great customer service, you happen to do the same thing. It is tough, but it’s worth it and I believe people know the difference.

I expect others to provide great customer service.
I often find myself expecting others that I deal with to provide great customer service. This may be as simple as returning a phone call or being available when I have an appointment to talk to you or see you, but I do have fairly high expectations. Not everyone can meet these expectations all the time, but I find myself expecting people to do so.

When hiring employees, seek employees that try their best to provide great customer service in everything they do. Potential employees with this mindset will usually become superstar customer service employees. People who try and be nice and attentive in everything they can be trained to become superstar customer service employees. Remember about hiring the smile? It applies here, too.

Plus, you should also try your best to provide customer service in everything you do. Be nice to co-workers, customers, and employees. Be nice to sales people at stores. Return phone calls and emails in a quick and professional manner. Just be nice – it pays off.