Exceptional customer service to drive revenue growth
Customer service as a tool to grow your business
Customer service is a phrase that many people use. I view customer service not only as providing excellent service but incorporating managing the customer’s expectations into the process. My staff used to laugh when I referred to a customer’s order as a project. To me, project management is part of my customer service philosophy. I like to think that I took a page out of Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos playbook, “Customer service shouldn’t just be a department, it should be the entire company.” I am not sure when I read that quote, but it enforced my belief in its importance.
Interacting with your customers
Part of the customer experience can be summed up by the Golden Rule, ” Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Yes it origins are religious but the concept holds true. Treating people courteously and with respect is as valuable to your business as providing a quality good or service.
Think about the following scenarios:
How do you want to be treated when ….
- you go to a restaurant
- you call call tech support
- you go to your doctors office
- you go to your mechanic
- you go to the bank
- you talk to your accountant
- you make a purchase be it a phone, computer, television or a car
How do you want to be treated?
Is it annoying when the person helping you is distracted or is on their phone?
Do you want the person to be courteous?
Do you want the person to be on time?
A significant part of customer service is putting yourself into your customers shoes. Be aware of how you interact with your customer regardless of the industry and in the end treating the person the way in which you want to be treated.
That being said it can be hard to be nice and courteous to your customers. People can be rude, nasty, having a bad day and they feel that they can unload on you because you are on the other side of the desk or the counter. Take a deep breath and as hard as it is put your best foot forward.
Project management as part of customer service
To be successful, I believe one needs to treat each order regardless of the order size or industry as a project with a start and end date. These dates are explained to the customer, which leads to managing the customer’s expectations. This develops a verbal or an actual physical contract where expectations have been set. Having the customer’s buy-in makes him/her part of the process. But most importantly, taking this step helps the customer understand some of the variables that go into completing a project.
According to a HubSpot article published in June 2022, 93% of consumers are more likely to become repeat customers at companies that provide an excellent customer service experience.
But as the Sesame Street song goes, ” … everyone makes mistakes, oh yes they do…” Mistakes happen especially in a retail environment, the question is how do you handle them?
Here are 3 tips on how to handle informing a client about a mistake
- The truth
- A real timeline
- The bottom line
By treating customer service as part of my business and treating orders as projects, my teams consistently overdelivered and met and exceeded customer expectations. My teams were able to obtain repeat business, which has been proven to grow a business. Repeat customers reduce the sales cycle by not requiring the sales process to start again. Remember that it traditionally takes approximately 7 touches to make a sale. A positive customer service experience through exceptional customer service ultimately improves a business the bottom line.
Customer service awards and testimonials
My commitment to customer service has been demonstrated throughout my career but especially while running my business where my teams received numerous online testimonials as well as earning awards and public recognition:
- 2017 Recognized by Chicago Magazine as one of the top 10 places in Skokie
- 2015 First Place Village of Skokie Merchant of the Year
- 2014 Third Place Village of Skokie Merchant of the Year
The real story of how I became the professional that I am today started a long time ago. Perhaps it can be traced to my mom saying you can attract more bees with honey that vinegar but from an early part of my career I realized that making the customer happy resulted in unsolicited emails and phone calls to my bosses that resulted in promotions and raises which made me happy.
Delivering a top level of customer service is something that I have taken pride in throughout my career. This page highlights some of the nicest testimonials of my commitment to customer service that I provided along with my staff over the years.
For over three decades I have kept the testimonials I received attesting to my customer service skills. From early in my career in the IT (information technology sector) to the almost two decades of owning the local candy store and now as I am Your Virtual Professional. There has been one constant regardless of the industry. That is my dedication to meeting and exceeding the customer expectation and creating raving fans that increased my revenue be it my salary or the businesses bottom line.
How I am Your Virtual Professional can help your business deliver award winning customer service
One of the goals of I am You Virtual Professional, is to help your company deliver award-winning customer service. I can work with you to create procedures to help raise your current staffs’ customer service skills, and then either conduct online training or create training videos that will help your teams deliver award-winning customer service.
Currently, I am writing a book on this subject and preparing to offer a online class on Customer Service Training.
