Customer service - The lifeblood of any business

 
Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy - happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won't be profitable for long.

If you're a good salesperson, you can sell anything to anyone once. However it will be your approach that determines whether or not you’ll ever be able to sell that person anything else. The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers – a relationship that individual customer feels he would like to pursue.

How do you go about forming such a relationship? By remembering the one true secret of good customer service and acting accordingly; "You will be judged by what you do, not what you say."
Providing good customer service IS a simple thing. If you truly want to have good customer service, all you have to do is ensure that your business consistently does what you say it does.
Answering the phone and/or fwd. emails correctly is also very important.

Don't make promises unless you will keep them.
Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception. If you say, “Your … will be … on Tuesday”, make sure it is on Tuesday. Otherwise, don't say it. The same rule applies to client appointments, deadlines, etc.. Think before you give any promise - because nothing annoys customers more than a broken one.

Listen to your customers.
Is there anything more exasperating than telling someone what you want or what your problem is and then discovering that that person hasn't been paying attention and needs to have it explained again! Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem.Deal with complaints. No one likes hearing complaints, and many of us believe that "We can't please all the people all the time".
Maybe not, but if you give the complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one person and their situation.

A good problem solving is a crucial point that might position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service.
Not to mention that sometimes we can also solve our own personal complaints while solving a client complaint despite of our impartiality.

Be helpful - even if there's no immediate profit in it.
The other day I popped into a local watch shop because I had lost the small piece that clips the pieces of my watch band together. When I explained the problem, the proprietor said that he thought he might have one lying around. He found it, attached it to my watch band – and charged me nothing! Where do you think I'll go when I need a new watch band or even a new watch? And how many people do you think I've told this story to?

Train your staff (if you have any) to be always helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable.
Do it yourself or hire someone to train them. Talk to them about good customer service and what it is (and isn't) regularly. Most importantly, give every member of your staff enough information and power to make those small customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, "I don't know, but so-and-so will be back at..."
Lead the customer to the item. Better yet, wait and see if he has questions about it, or further needs. Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it. They may not say so to you, but people notice when people make an extra effort and will tell other people.

Throw in something extra.
Whether it's a coupon for a future discount, additional information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile, people love to get more than they thought they were getting. And don’t think that a gesture has to be large to be effective.

Jorge M. Correia
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140908145924-199873588-customer-service-is-the-lifeblood-of-any-business/