Keep Customers Happy: Show Them You Care

68% of customers who stopped doing business with a company did so for one reason: they felt like that company didn’t care about them. If you show your customers that you care, your company will shine. You might even attract some of your competitors’ customers! It’s really not hard to show customers that you care, but it takes consistent commitment. Here are five ideas that will get you started building a customer-focused business.

Three Steps to Welcome

What a conversation! A British gentleman working in global logistics, his American entertainer wife who recently became a mother, an Australian event coordinator and me. Four different cultures - and different points of view. We talked about the service we received at retail stores, banks, restaurants, hotels and airlines around the world. We each had very different opinions about what constitutes 'good service'.

Long Forgotten? Stir Old Accounts Back to Life

Once a company has the benefit of receiving a customer's business, it makes no sense to close the account simply because the customer has not ordered from you in a while...even a long while. Unless there is substantial cost to keeping an account open, you should allow the customer to return at anytime, and welcome them back with enthusiasm.

Laundry Unlimited 'Bounces Back'

When things go wrong, don't hesitate to spend money setting things right. It isn't money spent at all; it's money wisely invested.

We Are Really Sorry For You, But...

Generosity is a good service policy whenever your customers need help. If they need help twice, be generous twice. (No one loses their mobile phone twice on purpose.)

Don’t Let Your Systems Drive Your Customers Crazy!

Customers are often frustrated by standardized and inflexible policies. This may cause your customers to fume in frustration, but the rest of your staff and system may quietly conspire to silence the voice of complaining customers. You have to make an effort to really listen.

Tweak Your Customer or Tweak Your System?

The purpose of your staff and system is to serve your customers better. When customers make requests outside normal procedures, your job is to tweak the system, not the customer.

Give a Gift That Gives Again

Giving a 'free gift' to your existing customers may be appreciated, but may also become expected. Giving them a free gift to share with someone else can be a unique surprise for both.

Push Into the White Space

The next time your structure or system says 'no', 'cannot', or 'we don't do it that way', take another look. Think outside the box. Push into the white spaces that surround you. Don't be content just doing it right - find a way to do it better!

The Positive Power of Competition

Vigorous competition may be the best thing that ever happened to customer service. It wakes people up and makes them serve you better.

If We Implement Them All, You Have Not Succeeded

To keep your culture vibrant and evolving, you must consider ideas that are well beyond what makes sense right now. You must look ahead today, look beyond tomorrow and look 'over the horizon' for the future.

What does a Thank You Cost? What is it Worth?

Two simple words: Thank You can make your day and someone else's day much brighter - but they can also be good business builders.

Get to Know Your Customer Laws - Getting In The Way Of Customer Service

Most professions now have; Know your customer laws, but are these laws adversely affecting customer service? Are know your customer laws causing professionals to ask too many questions of the customer that the customer wishes to keep private? You see, due to all the spyware, identity theft and privacy issues in the news

Service Encounters of the Third Kind

What makes a company successful over the long, long term? What characterizes the service relationship between companies and customers who do business together for decades, even generations? How can your company stay close to your ...