Monday, February 4, 2013

Are you a customer service Rock Star?



When we think about Rock Stars, we think about superstar performances. We get excited and enthusiastic, telling everyone how delightful the experience was.

How can we create the same energy and excitement for our customers?

Here are few ways to become a customer service rock star today:

Everyone is a VIP

Everybody likes to feel important. Treat everyone like a VIP. VIP stands for- Very Important Person. Mary Kay Ash, the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics said it best, “Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, Make me feel important.”

A customer is our best friend. How would you treat your best friend? Making people feel important and appreciated for their business is so critical now adays that I think some places take it for granted. 

First impressions are lasting impressions. Without making that customer feel important, the memory is lost forever.

Remember their name

Remembering someone’s name is another forgotten virtue of customer service. Everyone likes to hear their name. Dale Carnegie in his most influential book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, said “Become genuinely interested in other people. Smile. Remember that a man's name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in the English language.”

When you use the customer name, you communicating their worth. You are essentially communicating on a personal and unique level to that person by using their own name. It goes along way because the customer feels you took the time to remember them as a person, rather than another number.

Connect and relate

Maya Angelou poet and author said, “People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.”  That’s the best way I can describe connecting and relating with the customer. If you engaged and took the time to listen and connect on a genuine level, they will come back for more and more. Why? It’s how you made them feel. You created an emotional connection that adds value.

Surprise and Delight

Being a customer service rock star is like magician. You have to know when to use your bag of tricks to WOW someone today. I call it Surprise and Delight. Maybe it’s the AHA moment. These are moments that the customer service rock star goes the extra mile to deliver the unexpected.

You created a memorable moment for the customer and they rave about it to everyone they know. Chip R. Bell, a customer service author and consultant said, “Customer delight comes from doing the little things that customers don’t expect but will certainly remember.”

A warm farewell

Too often we assume that the customer is satisfied once the customer experience is almost over. As a customer service rock start, the last interaction has to be just as memorable and important as the first one by reassuring the relationship with the customer.

This is the golden opportunity to hear the customer feedback. Make your customer feel comfortable to share their experiences with you and also wish them a warm goodbye. Above all, thank them for their being a customer. Walt Disney said,” Good bye may seem forever. Farewell is like the end, but in my heart is the memory and there you will always be.”




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