Customer service can excel with these 5 steps

#1: Put Yourself in The Customer’s Shoes

Staff should be trained to listen effectively and to pick up clues from their customers to learn how best to respond to their concern or problem.  Customers are just people like you. It’s wise to see them as such, even when they might be abusive or extremely unhappy. You might consider team training where certain scenarios are practiced to help with training in this area.

#2: Build Relationships

Help staff think about helping a customer just as they would if it were a member of the family or a friend. How would they speak? How would they act?  Every conversation with a customer should be viewed as a chance to deepen the relationship, not just solve a problem.

#3: Be Generous

Train your customer service staff to be as generous as possible when a customer brings up a problem.  Give them leeway to solve the customer’s complaint to an extent beyond what might be expected. This generosity will be repaid in customer loyalty.

#4: Be a Winner

Your staff should always be looking for ways to make a bad customer experience into a win for you and the customer.  That should be the question they ask themselves constantly: how can this be a win?

When a customer is being unreasonable, train your staff to think about turning the situation into something that benefits the company or that staff person.

#5: Foster a Good Company Culture

A positive working environment is going to reflect well on the customer service your staff provides. Therefore, make sure your company culture is the best it can be. This includes things like making sure your staff has access to training that will make them good at their jobs, that they can advance in their careers, have all the tools they need to do their jobs and that you’ve given them the authority to handle customer complaints on the spot when necessary.