Providing great customer service to stay ahead of competitors

Customer service can be difficult to explain, and difficult to understand. The people who know best what customer service is, are the customers themselves because they are the ones who know what they want and expect. Providing good customer service can make all the difference to every company out there.

The thing to remember is that good customer service is not necessarily the product but the person dealing with the customer. How many times have you been to a restaurant where the food was fairly ordinary but the waiter/waitress more than made up for this by their attentiveness and personal service to you? The same way a really good meal in a beautiful restaurant, can be totally ruined by the waiting staff not providing the level of services you expected. I once read an article by a top chef who said even the most delicious lobster isn’t good when service is poor, because poor service leaves a bad taste in your mouth. 

Building a rapport with the client is the difference between providing good customer service and excellent customer service. Introducing yourself, shaking the client’s hand, making eye contact, will help to make that person feel important. When you have finished dealing with them, perhaps provide them with your business card, with your direct details on or some sort of promotional merchandise that will make them remember your company and everyone likes a gift!

Providing good customer service over the telephone can be the most difficult to achieve as the customer cannot see the person who is talking to them and whilst the employee on the phone may have all the product knowledge there is, if they talk in monotone quiet way it can come across as uninterested, whereas if they are too loud and talk fast, this can come across a little bit brash and ‘over the top’. Again by introducing yourself, answering the call promptly and reaffirming the customer’s requirements at the end of the call you can make all the difference between the customers' perception of whether it was good customer service or not.

If your company provides good customer service to your customers then in effect you have made them a demanding client. A demanding client/customer is not a bad thing because they will be disappointed if they go elsewhere and do not receive the same level of service they have come to expect from your company. Therefore a demanding customer is a customer who will return to your company and will then increase your business.