Develop Your Customer Service Skills IN 2022
Find out how to make your customers and their needs a primary focus, while at the same time developing and satisfying productive customer relationships. Improve skills for listening to customer needs, building bonds with those you’re helping, and turning challenging customers into true supporters.
Define outstanding customer service in 2022
We often get very different answers when I ask people to define outstanding customer service. That’s why I’ve come up with a universal definition that can be applied to any situation. Outstanding customer service is service that surpasses your customer’s hopes. To help explain this a bit more, it’s helpful to look at the differences between good, poor, and outstanding service. Good service occurs when a customer’s expectations are met. For example, if your customer expects you to be friendly, and you’re friendly, then you’ll have provided good service. The challenge with good service is it’s not very memorable. Let me give you an example. Imagine you walk into a room and turn on the lights. You probably won’t give it a second thought when the lights come on.
That’s like good service. It’s fine. It’s what happens most of the time, but it’s not very memorable. Poor service occurs when the experience is worse than the customer expected, such as being rude when a customer expects you to be friendly. Unlike good service, poor service is memorable because we tend to remember things that are different from what we expect. You’d definitely notice if you walked into a room, turn on the light switch and the lights did not come on. Outstanding customer service is service that exceeds your customer’s expectations. So if your customer expects you to be friendly, you might find a way to go beyond that by making your service more personal. You could try using their name, engaging in a little light conversation, or offering a genuine and sincere compliment. Now one challenge is customers often have different expectations. So customers could have the same experience and still rate it differently. Imagine an online clothing store has a mix-up in the warehouse and accidentally ships the wrong colour item to three different customers.
The customer service rep handles each calls the same way. –
Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Well, I’m going to help you do an exchange and get you the item you ordered. –
Now notice how each customer reacts to the same service. – An exchange! I was supposed to use this as a gift tonight. I can’t use this (stutters). – Well, an exchange would be great. I don’t know if there was a problem with shipping or if I just ordered the wrong colour, so I really appreciate your help. – No, this is awesome.
This is awesome. I really like it. I am keeping this one. I also want the colour I ordered, though. –
Okay, How do you think each customer felt about the service they received?
My suggestion is to treat each customer as an individual and try to understand their own unique needs
Ajay Mishra
The first customer felt he received poor service because an exchange wouldn’t solve his real problem, which was giving a gift that night. The second customer felt she received good service because she was just happy to get the issue corrected. The third customer felt he received outstanding service because he unexpectedly received an additional item he liked. One of the unique challenges of customer service is your customers decide how they feel. Sometimes they feel great when you don’t do anything special. Other times, they’re angry, even after you try your hardest. My suggestion is to treat each customer as an individual and try to understand their own unique needs. Here’s an exercise that can help. Think about the last three customers you served. How do you think they felt about your service? Did you meet their expectations? Were they disappointed in some way? Or did you manage to go beyond what they expected? Thinking about service from your customer’s perspective can help you identify more ways to deliver outstanding customer service.
Keep in mind, every customer has their own unique viewpoint I mean perspective.
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