Posts Tagged ‘Customer Service’

4
Jul

Small Business Customer Service

by Greg de Lima in Business

Customer Service for a small business tends to be somthing difficult but also something obtainable. There are a couple focus areas and these are key to keeping your customers happy, while not going bankrupt.

Telephone Kindness

There have been too many times when I have called a small business and I get someone on the phone who doesn’t want to be there. You’ve probably heard that you can hear someone smiling on the other end of the line, well you want to keep that mentality. I called one company and the guy said, "Now listen to me here". I almost flipped on him, NO! I’m the one calling, you listen to me! If you have a telephone rep saying that, get them out of your office now! I have since refused talking to any of the operators at that company and speak directly with the Customer Service Manager. So please, be kind on the telephone, don’t be sympathetic be empathetic. There is a difference. Your kindness over the telephone is a mirror of the kindness a person would expect while dealing with you personally.

Image: Starheadboy

Face to Face

Your body language tells a lot about how you’re dealing with the situation. Make sure that your tone of voice and your body language shows empathy with your customer, don’t pity them. Sometimes dealing with a yelling arguing customer is the most difficult thing, let them vent, and be in an understanding position of their complaint. At the same time however, you don’t want to seem like you don’t give a rat’s ass about their complaint.

Resolving The Problem

This tends to be a little more difficult. In the hotel and tourism industry, discounts and complementary rooms or items are all over the place. But in a small business this tends to be a hot route to losing money. Do your best to offer your customer the chance to try something new before others, or give them priority with certain aspects of your business. Discount their product or return if necessary, but offering minute additions to your services for no cost is always a good way to get them back. By giving them something small to make up for a major difference you’re keeping their business, while not losing hem or your money.

23
Jun

The New Life of Customer Service

by Greg de Lima in Business

United Airlines recently sent the vast amount of their staff to America’s most magical place: Disney World. The hopes for United was for them to overhaul their customer service program. But why does it take hundreds of thousands of dollars to send your employees to Disney just to over haul your customer service?
Having been an employee for two hotels, and having a small customer service background, I feel that they did the right thing, but they shouldn’t have let things get bad in the first place. If you feel that your customer service is going down, fix it before it is too late. You must deal with the problem from the source. The best correlation I can do for this, is Tony from Zappos. The CEO of Zappos is on Twitter. SouthwestAir is on Twitter. I think that you can use Twitter for means of communication far more expansive then people first began to take it for. My suggestion is that it is possible to find out what you need to do better, and break it down. Demographically and also as a broad subject in whole. Granted, some aspects cannot be changed. Delays, cancellations, etc. Shit Happens. But you should not have desk agents who have been there for 12 hours, and have dealt with rushy business people all day, dealing with more problems.  Keep fresh staff. Always keep people around who want to work, who want to show off and be exceptional to your clients. 
Upgrade
In the hotel industry we do this all the time! They don’t even have to be honors guests, or have a VIP pass or whatever it is. Pick someone, and Upgrade them. Give them business class, or give them first class, why? For the hell of it. Give them a reason to come back and fly with you. I have upgraded people into our highest suite, why? No reason, I thought they had a cool personality, or they were a cute girl checking in. Seriously, don’t ask questions, if the flight isn’t booked. Upgrade.
The Source
If you want answers, find them out from the clients. Send 2 people to your major hubs, and ask: What can we do better for you? Or: What would you like to see from us? The simple questions make people think about your company and give you a solid and instant feed back. Go to your customers, ask them, don’t go on word of mouth from client to desk agent, to manager, to others and up the corporate ladder. If you want to know what’s going wrong, go out and ask. I never hear anything about the CEO’s going out and doing anything, its always just what happens. I would like to see more from the head “honchos”. It makes it seem like they’re actually caring and want to do something for themselves and their company. 
So from me to you Big Companies. Stop spending your money to send employees to Disney, but go out yourselves. What can you do? What have you been doing wrong from the start?
Maybe it’s time for a complete overhaul.