Extraordinary Customer Service

Remember when you were young (at least those of us who are old enough) visiting your neighborhood store to get a cold drink and some chips after school, and the clerk knew you by name? Today you’re lucky if you can find someone who knows where anything is. Customer service (with most companies) just is not good enough anymore.

This brings us to the opportunity. Let’s call it "Extraordinary Customer Service." Here are seven ideas and tips I hope will help your business establish and maintain an ongoing climate of Extraordinary Customer Service.

1. Define what extraordinary really means - Knowing what exceptional service entails is essential to establishing the procedures and the corporate DNA with which to achieve it. So, delineate what extraordinary means in your business. Is it keeping appointments on time or making certain that telephone service reps always say "please" and "thank you"? Your goal is to know exactly what will move your service beyond merely "good enough."

2. Ask if you're not sure - If you find it difficult to pinpoint what extraordinary service really is in your field, call some of your customers. They will certainly let you know. See what’s important to them. Connect with the person that handles most of your customer complaints or merchandise returns. Ask this person to identify topics that are frequent issues of dissatisfaction.

3. Allow your people to be extraordinary - Talking about it is one thing, but actually carrying out extraordinary customer service is impossible without the necessary personal empowerment and procedural flexibility. One policy or solution does not fit all people nor does it fit all problems. Positive communication and purpose to serve the customer - not to simply serve the policy - is what is important. Policies should be designed to serve and enhance customer relationships so that those relationships bring your company profits. If a policy or procedure doesn’t accomplish this, your people need the freedom to do what is needed without fear of negative repercussions. The more you explore the possibilities up-front the more solutions you can develop for the various possible scenarios ahead of time.

4. Share information - Share valuable information about clients and customers with your entire organization. Customer buying habits, particular needs, interests and other data can be stored in your customer management system stored in a central location and easily shared. Don't keep it a secret. Sharing the information with your employees lets them know your organization is running on all cylinders. It also helps them promote these products or services to customers. In other words, don't keep critical customer information close to the vest.

5. Share the commitment - Treat your staff like customers. Adopt a servant leadership attitude. Servant leadership is an approach to leadership development, coined and defined by Robert Greenleaf and advanced by several authors such as Stephen Covey, Peter Block, Margaret Wheatley, Ken Blanchard, and others. Servant-leadership emphasizes the leader's role as steward of the resources (human, financial and otherwise) provided by the organization. It encourages leaders to serve others while staying focused on achieving results in line with the organization's values and integrity. As your staff sees you serving them and others in your organization, that kind of DNA, in time, will transfer to your entire organization.

6. Don't expect magic overnight - Exceptional service takes time to take hold in an organization, particularly one with lots of people and departments. Review your progress monthly.

7. Mistakes are going to happen - Don't pretend mistakes are not there. Don’t play the blame game. People need to have the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them without negative consequences.