How to be a 5 out of 5 in Outstanding Customer Service

Recently I had the absolute pleasure of having the BEST customer service experience I’ve had in years. I took my car to a new mechanic for a service. This is where I met Con & Marlen at Euro Automotive Services in Sydney. What was it that made it the best experience ? They cared! yes a long forgotten art in customer service. They went above and beyond my expectations. Lending me a loan car, taking my car into the mercedes dealer for parts. Taking the time to advise me certain parts were still actually under warranty. They actually cost themselves money to save me money, however would I ever go anywhere else? No, and I have told anyone who will listen how fabulous they are.

Think about the last time you received outstanding customer service. Not just good or reasonable or satisfactory, but outstanding. Whether it was at a restaurant, the office, your mechanic or in a department store there will be some key top quality service components that stood out. Try to distinguish what they were. Name them. Write them down. Some of the common answers people come up with include an appreciation of service that was:
• Cheerful (“nothing was too much trouble”)
• Helpful (“they went out of their way to help me”)
• Knowledgeable (“they either knew the answer or took the
trouble to find out for me”)
• Personalised (“they remembered my name / my kids’
names”)
• Attentive (“they remembered what I ordered last time and
suggested things I might like to try”)

Seems pretty simple, really. Well it is. What we’re talking about here is how much people like to be made to feel special – and all the ways you can do that which are easy and free. It does not cost you anything to put a system in place to remember and use your customers’ names, to be a friendly, helpful and knowledgeable expert in your field. It can be as simple as asking after their children or giving your customers a courtesy call to see how they are getting on with their new purchase.

What are some of the things you can implement in your business today in order to be delivering outstanding and memorable customer service? Well, I have learned to:

Over-deliver (do more than you say you will);

• Exceed expectations (by constantly changing / evolving / improving the ways in which you exceed expectations as your business and its process become more profitable and
sophisticated);

• Do the simple things well (customer service has slipped so far these days that even simple things such as regular calls to keep in touch and see if they have any complaints or concerns can really surprise them and make them feel valued); Look at all the simple things you do in terms of your marketing promotions and think about how you can make simple gestures stand out. For example, we receive so many impersonal Christmas cards from corporates and contractors they become meaningless. Something as simple as sending a handwritten Mother’s Day card or Easter card with a personal message would instead be memorable;

• Be a bit old-fashioned (in this modern age of text messages and emails, why not try something radical…and post a handwritten thank you card by snail mail. Most people only ever receive junk mail or bills by post nowadays (even birthday cards are often electronic now). I have found that a lot of people don’t even realise how much they miss receiving something lovely in the post…until the day they get a totally unexpected handwritten thank you card through their letterbox and it makes them feel like a milliond dollars. I have carried out this simple old-fashioned act of appreciation for years and it is something that many other top performers swear by.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 21 March 2009 23:08 )