A Few Thoughts On Customer Service
(Creating A Repeat Customer)

Good customer service is essential to any business. You can offer promotions and lower prices to bring in new customers. But unless you get some of those customers to come back, your business will not be able to sustain itself in the long run. Good customer service is about getting customers to return and sending them away happy enough that they will relay positive feedback about your business to others.

If you�re a good salesperson, you can sell anything to anyone once. But it will be your customer service that determines whether or not your business will ever be able to sell the person anything else. The crux of customer service then is forming a relationship with the customer. Listed below are key areas in your business that will help you to examine whether or not you are building that proper relationship with your customers. 

• Answering the phone. Answering the phone is simple but very important. If someone is not available to answer the telephone, obtain call forwarding, get an answering service, install a voicemail system or hire the staff that�s necessary to answer the telephone. We all know that callers prefer to be greeted by a live person as opposed to an automated system. However, automated systems, such as voicemails, continue to gain acceptance provided the voicemail system is properly set up and calls returned promptly.
• Don�t make promises unless you will keep them. When a customer telephones your business and you make a promise to the customer, it�s extremely important to carry out the promise.
• Listen to your customers. Allow the customer to state the particular situation that gives rise to their call. Do not cut them off. Hear their point of view and respond accordingly.
• Deal with complaints. It�s true that nobody like to hear complaints, however, all complaints must be heard and they must be acted upon. In many instances, the customer does not necessarily seek a solution to the complaint that is financially favorable to them as much as the recognition of the fact that their complaint will receive attention and that there is a rational basis to the resolution.
• Be helpful, even if there may not be a profit to be made that day. There are numerous situations that arise each day when communicating with customers where essential information or some other item may be given to a customer even though it does not result in profit at that time. It has a way of building and bonding your  business with the customer.
• Training your staff to always be helpful, courteous and knowledgeable.
• Give something extra. It�s not so easy but I know of a store that does picture framing; and every picture that gets framed receives a small package of picture hangers before it leaves the store. It�s a small thing but the business owner knows that each customer will need a picture hanger to hang the picture.

In conclusion, if you follow these customer service guidelines on a daily basis, your business will become known for superb customer service and will automatically create that bond with the customer and provide the business with the assurance that everything that can be done is being done to build repeat business over time.

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