10 Tips for Outstanding Customer Service

Remember the 80:20 rule?

Outstanding customer service aims to go even better than that. You may not get everything perfectly right, but getting most of it right will be much, much better than the majority of your competition.

Ten Tips for Outstanding Customer Service

1. Be Your Customer - Walk in their shoes, listen with their ears, see with their eyes...

Encounter your business the way your customers do and experience what they experience. Stand in line, call your support center, report a complaint, check on an order. Soak up feedback.

2. Give Memorable Service

Make everyone's (yes, everyone's) life's mission to focus on the customer - even team members seemingly out of the line of fire. Remember the last moments of a customer's interaction with your business leave the most lingering experience.
Remember the last minutes of the conservation will be what is remembered- make it memorable!

3. Listen Hard to Complaints

Complaints are a wonderful gift - they're feedback of the highest order. Enjoy them and learn fast. A positive response to a complaint will be remembered and actually builds trust.

4. Enable Your People

Enable and encourage your people to give an immediate and generous customer experience. Allow them to directly solve an issue without lots of delay or paperwork.

5. React Fast

Make sure that you and your people work with pace and immediacy to solve customer issues. I'll bet you can remember the pain of a slow reaction from your dealings with other companies, right? Don't be like that - respond ASAP.

6. Have Product Available

Generally, you can't sell it if you haven't got it. Work your system hard and focus to get the product there on time. Check your other locations for stock.

7. Be Systems-Focused

Ask, "What would my customer think of this - would it give an impression of brilliant service?" If not, reshape the system fast!

8. Be Curious

Encourage everyone on your team to overhear, be politely nosy, ask questions and obtain feedback and information from your customers. Save it all in your CRM success system for others to learn from - grow that knowledgebase.

9. Research the Marketplace

Your experiences as a customer elsewhere can educate you about what to do, or not do, in your own business. Encourage your people to share what they learn this way as well, and implement the best into your business.

10. Have Fun

Have fun with customers - a pleasing personality goes a LONG way. Smile while on the phone with customers and it will come through. This builds relationships - you are in a relationship business, right?

There you have it: 10 tips for success, in an easy to use framework.

Will you take up the challenge to deliver outstanding customer service?