12 “No Brainers” on Treating Customers the Right Way

Posted by CSW Corp on Sep 15, 2011 in Blog, Featured, Portfolio | 0 comments

I am constantly amazed how polite, competent, and friendly customer service stands out. Does that mean I’ve come to expect poor or mediocre experiences with companies I pay money to for their product of service? I’m going to start keeping track over the next month or so and rate my experience as poor, mediocre, or excellent. If I’m smiling after I physically leave the brick and mortar store, or hang up the phone, or finish the email, or any other type of interaction where I’m the customer then I’ll rate the experience excellent. In the meantime here are twelve “no brainers” on how I expect myself to treat customers.

1. Professionalism is the highest of all ethical and business practices. Focus on what is best for the customer, company and employee. It’s just good business.

2. Regardless of your profession or current job responsibilities be the absolute best you can be. (That should be a slogan.)

3. Treat everyone with respect. Always be accurate and complete. If you aren’t positive of the information you are presenting, ask for assistance. Customers respect this.

4. Be honest. Be empathetic. Treat every potential customer as a lifetime customer.

5. Develop relationships that keep your customers wanting to come back.

6. It is always helpful if customers understand a little about how your business works. Share the process. Who should they contact if a problem arises? Without education they will go elsewhere.

7. If you want customers to come back, learn about them too. Listen and learn from what they have to say.

8. The key to great customer service is doing the right thing at the right time. Many times a company will make a change based on a customer’s experience. However, it is done long after the customer has moved on to a competitor and the customer never learns change was based on their experience.

9. Another key is to stay in touch. With so many varied communication channels available today, there is no excuse not to stay in touch with your clients.

10. A man named Gordon Selfridge (died in 1947) is credited with saying, “The customer is always right.”  Clearly, the customer is not always right but they always deserve to be treated as if they are important, their opinions matter, and their wants and needs deserve to be heard.

11. Customers deserve the maximum effort by the person serving them even when requests are not practical.

12a. Focus on what you can do not on what you can’t do.

12b. Focus on how you treat them not on how they treat you.

I’ve got lots more but some of them might require a little more thought than the 13 above (notice I gave more than the 12 you expected) which is #14 providing more value. The bottom line is after customers interact with your business are they smiling because you stood out as a great example of treating customers the right way?

Cindy Williams – CSW Corp.

Prior to joining CSW Corp, Cindy spent fourteen years as a top retail development
specialist for Chrysler. She coined the slogan, “We’re Better, We’ll Prove It” for
Chrysler’s national Five Star program and certified the first Chrysler Five Star dealer.
She is a proponent for increasing long term profitability through improving customer loyalty.