HOW TO DELIVER GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE

Caring for Customers
1. Great Customer Service Begins With You
Simply put, the most inspiring leadership is by example. If you show indifference to your customers, your employees will mimic it. If you are enthusiastic and courteous, your troops are more likely to be so as well.

2. A Culture of Customer Service Must Be Codified
Start by hanging on the wall a set of core values, 10 or fewer principles that include customer service ideals, suggests Susan McCartney, Maggiotto's colleague at the Buffalo SBDC. "Share them during the training, have employees sign them, and evaluate employees based on the values," she says. "But don't call them rules."

Employee training on customer service precepts should be intensive: written materials, verbal instruction, mentors, and on-the-job demonstrations all ought to be part of the coursework, says McCartney.

3. Employees Are Customers, Too
Companies renowned for their customer service -- the online shoe retailer Zappos, for example -- treat employees as they would have their employees treat their customers. "Employees take on more responsibility because they know they are appreciated and an important part of the team," says the University of Missouri's Proffer. "People who don't feel like they're part of the bigger picture, who feel like a small cog in a big machine, are not willing to go the extra mile."

Not every business can afford to shower staff with generous pay and benefits, but not every business has to. Small companies, says McCartney, can show "intense interest" in employees, in their welfare, their families, and their future -- what McCartney calls the family model. It's also important to recognize an employee -- publicly -- for a job well done. Some companies also offer incentives for exceptional customer service, but if you can't spare the cash, you might throw an office party or offer another token of appreciation. When he was a manager at cable provider Tele-Communications Inc., for instance, Proffer personally washed the cars of notable employees.

4. Emphasize the Long Term
Short-term sales incentives can sometimes undermine long-term customer satisfaction. Prevent that by building short-term programs atop an ongoing program that rewards broader improvements, says Paula Godar, brands strategy director for Maritz, a sales and marketing consulting firm based in St. Louis. Moreover, winner-take-all incentives "can drive a lot of unhealthy competition and disengage the rest of the sales force," says Godar. "We've improved sales performance by much greater percentages when we've improved the performance of the large group in the middle of the bell curve."

5. Build Trust
Use your customer's name whenever you can. And sometimes you have to give to get. In his book The Knack, Inc. columnist Norm Brodsky relates how he won a sale against long odds by venturing his time and expertise to help a prospect cut costs. "I was showing him not only that we could help him save money but that we cared about saving him money," writes Brodsky.

6. Listen
"The best salespeople spend 80 percent of their time listening, not talking," says Marc Willson, a retail and restaurant consultant for the Virginia SBDC network. Ask open-ended questions to elicit a customer's needs and wants. "Once they've identified what they're looking for, use their words throughout the process," suggests Proffer. "That way, they've sold it for you."

If the prospect is "just looking," don't press further. But be discreetly nearby. "Straighten the racks, or dust something," says Willson. "You need to be within earshot or eyeshot, because every retail sale involves a re-approach."


7. Sometimes It's the Little Things That Matter
Small gestures that anticipate customers' needs or attend to their comforts -- such as offering a cold glass of water on a hot day or a children's area with toys -- go a long way toward winning them over.

8. If You Can't Help a Customer, Point to an Establishment That Can
And saying "You might try Smith's, on Main Street" won't make nearly as strong an impression as confirming that Smith's has the item in question and giving directions to Main Street. "This is the ultimate in customer service," says Tom Maydew, regional director of the SBDC in Pocatello, Idaho. "That customer will be back."

9. Show Your Appreciation
One important element of retaining customers is communication. Willson suggests a personalized thank-you note after a deal or sale -- "If Nordstrom's can do it, everybody can do it" -- and even a follow-up phone call a month or so later. In a retail business, loyalty programs or rewards cards drive repeat business (as well as help you collect information about what your customers are buying). Many businesses send out birthday and holiday cards; Proffer prefers marking the anniversary of a client's or customer's first purchase.

10. Treat Your Best Customers Better
If your company relies on a relatively small number of clients to provide a disproportionately large share of revenue, it makes sense to devote a disproportionate amount of time and energy to serving them. (Think of airlines and the escalating benefits in their frequent-flier programs.)

Some luxury retailers and services practice "clienteling," by which all of the activity around every customer -- every conversation, every visit, every transaction -- is logged with contact management software. Most businesses need not go that far, but it's well worth keeping your best customers informed. You might, for example, keep track of their preferences and let them know when new merchandise arrives that they are likely to be interested in. You might also organize appreciation days just for those clients, or invite them to private pre-sales in advance of the public.

written by the staff at inc.com