Introduction
What is Customer Service? Why is it important to a business?
Service needs to be the highest priority of everything that a business does, or exists to do. Yes, businesses provide goods or services, they may even have some built-in purpose-driven aspects to how they do business. Yet the primary reason a business exists is to serve its customers. We know...you want to work for a company that has a great product or even a really attractive culture, but if that company isn’t serving it’s bread-and-butter customers, then they’re not truly useful.
We see companies regularly come out with product improvements and new-fangled ways to target and attract new customers, while ignoring their current customers. Sometimes, they even provide less incentives to their regular customers than they do trying to attract new customers. This will inevitably leave a void for competition to step in.
Customer service is about continuing to make improvements that serve the needs of the customer first. Customer service is about seeing to it that a disappointed customer is understood and even catered to. This is not just to placate them, but also to see to it that what went wrong can be a lesson for how to handle the next customer with a similar problem. Ideally, the knowledge gained from dealing with this person will actually remove the problem for good by enacting better accountability and procedures. Customer service, in short, is about continuing to find ways to make things right--for goodwill and for the growth of your business.
Most importantly, serving a customer means not making them wrong.
What does this have to do with being a Professional Assistant?
We’re talking about SERVICE to the customer that creates an attractive, effective business. It’s a MUST that you understand that your job is about serving.
We don’t mean any humbling, servile, lowly work where you cow-tow to others more important to you. We mean taking seriously the work you do because you know that what you’re doing is a perfect fit for what is needed. That means that you serve the business and the entrepreneur because it serves YOU to do so. It’s the most simple and straightforward relationship. You benefit from everything you give. For example, when you make the life of the entrepreneur easier, you are also making it easier for the customer to want to do business with your organization. The service you bring to everything you do creates a true atmosphere of purposeful business. In short, it’s also job security.
Why should I pay attention to this?
By getting closer to what the customer wants and needs--and helping the business fulfill those needs, you find ways to enhance your role almost naturally. It’s the little things we do that make the biggest impact--listening and finding solutions to ongoing problems; offering a way to respond to a customer dilemma; creating new pathways for customer satisfaction--these are all ways that you can offer to collaborate on new business solutions.
Being involved in any way with serving the customer will be another pathway to helping the mission of your organization to be realized. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and think about what things would keep you loyal to any company.
What else should I know?
Everyone you come in contact with must be considered your customer, including:
the individual you work directly for
the employees (peers) you work with
any/all outside individuals or vendors with whom you engage.
That being said, the function of customer service, organizationally, is to handle customer communications--of priority, complaints. The customer service function can issue refunds, communicate to find solutions to problems they are having with goods or services, provide help with technology, and handle questions about billing.
Of course, the above is a rough description, and these functions vary from company to company. No matter WHAT your company does, specifically, as part of the customer service function, it must be seeking to insure loyalty and increase avenues of problem resolution and engagement. No organization that has worked hard to gain loyalty wants to risk losing it--so it’s important that everyone who plays a part in the customer connection is clear about how to handle customers.
Some examples of problem customers are: the distressed customer, the unhappy customer, and even the slightly crazy customer. Each of these “types” require specific communication styles, but, also, an ability to remain calm, listen and speak to what is the most important need or thing to be addressed during any given interaction. This takes skill.
This section will include lessons on:
Being Professional
Your “Voice”
Speaking for the Entrepreneur
Being Responsive
Service
“Is the Customer Really Always Right?”
The final lesson(s) of this, and every, section will be:
Problems you may encounter, along with suggested Solutions based on our experience
Resources that we have found useful, that you might also use to your advantage.
Highlights of the Section
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