Customer Service - What do you see?

Everyone remembers a bad customer service experience. You could deal with the same company for years and maybe they provide fantastic service - they really go above and beyond. But what do you remember? If you said "the one time they screw up", you'd be right.

I came across this article - Your Customer Does Not See - and it really makes sense. It talks about doing all the right things but it doesn't get noticed by your customer. However, when you mess up once, they do notice that. How do you deal with that? Well part of that will be in being consistent. Have a set of policies and procedures that describe how you deal with each possible situation. That takes a bit of effort and certainly no small investment in time. But a happy customer is a customer for life, so in the end it has to be worth it.

Go the extra mile. Don't just flick off a quick email. Pick up the phone and talk to your customer. It is easy to miss the tone of an email and take it the wrong way but when you have someone on the phone, you can much easier deal with whatever the situation may be; put the fire out if you need to.

But probably above all else, make sure you listen to your customer. Ask them what they want, then shut up and let them tell you. If what they ask for isn't possible, it's OK to say so - you should never promise something you can't deliver, after all. In this case, explain what they want isn't possible and why. But really importantly, you then need to provide an alternative solution to the problem. Never just say no. Say not like that but this way will offer you some value.

I had a poor customer service experience recently with a web hosting provider. I had a technical issue that I understood and believed I knew the fix for. I logged a support case with the company and gave them all the relevant information so that they could come to the same conclusion. Instead, they answered some question that I didn't ask. I replied to them and got a response from a different agent. This guy also responded to some other question. I went through this several times, with several different agents over several days before I called and spoke to somebody who quickly escalated it to a more senior agent, Lo and behold, the problem was resolved almost immediately. The moral of this story? As the service provider, make sure you read and listen to what your customer is saying. Don't read the first line and assume you know the rest - or even assume you know more than the customer.