Stationery Magazine Blogs

Customer service is all around us. Most of us engage in customer service activities of some type during our normal daily routines at work. All of us encounter customer service when we go to the shop, call a company on the phone, or visit a business's web site.

However, simply being exposed to customer service doesn't mean you understand how to do it well or how to evaluate whether you are receiving an acceptable level of customer service.

Excellent customer service is every employee's responsibility. And more important, the major responsibility for creating a customer friendly atmosphere begins with the manager. Not only are you responsible for teaching excellent customer service skills, but as their manager, you must practice what you preach and be a role model for your employees. Without positive examples from you, they're not likely to improve.

Customer service is crucially important to the success of your business

Whether or not your employees work specifically as customer service people, as the manager of your business, you must instill in all your employees one key thought and direction: If you're going to create a positive and productive working environment, everyone must speak and relate to customers and potential customers as if each person were their pay packet.

Your staff should seriously consider the fact that if customers don't return to your business and make further purchases, there will be no business. And obviously, if there's no business or if you're forced to reduce the size of your business, many of your staff may lose their jobs.

So just what is exceptional customer service?

Simply, it's a positive way of relating to people that lets them know you care about them, their actions, their purchases and the buying process, no matter how expensive, intricate or involved it is.

Acknowledge and welcome every customer as they enter your store, even if it is as simple as a smile. This helps the customer feel welcome in your store and puts them at a certain ease. Your main goal is to have each customer leave with a smile on their face and a feeling of having been well taken care of by you and your staff and for having purchased just what they needed or wanted.

Customers wont just keep coming back if your prices are right. If you want your customers to come back again and again, you've got to satisfy them by making it easy. The last impression a customer will remember as they leave your store is how helpful the staff were and how satisfied they are with the product and the experience of making a purchase.

These satisfied customers will return over and over due to the attitude, politeness and willingness to assist that your staff express. The unsatisfied customers will not.