Customer Service Customer care means getting personal
| Customer care means getting personal |
| Written by Cindy Payle | |||
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Managers and experts in the customer service field are redefining customer care by moving away from traditional practices toward a more sincere and personal relationship with their clientele, and as a result are managing to retain existing customers and attract new customers. This is not a call to embrace your customers or offer free foot massages, but if you find the eerie glow of the global competition stage beginning to cast an appealing light on these absurd ideas, you are probably not alone. So how do we define customer care and how can we offer our customers the best service in order to retain and expand our clientele? According to Business Link customer care is about; how well your product or service matches customer needs, the value for money you offer, your efficiency and reliability in fulfilling orders , the professionalism, friendliness and expertise of your employees, how well you keep your customers informed and the after-sales service you provide, in a nutshell. The list may seem daunting but the good news is these principles are familiar to most managers and if you run a business you are probably implementing some, if not all of these practices already. The bad news? It’s not enough. Johnathan M Tisch author of ‘chocolates on the pillow aren’t enough’ emphasizes the need to go above and beyond the standard practices in customer service and connect and interact with customers on a personal level. Based on 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry Tisch says the secret to retaining a customer for life is to ‘make them feel special’. Tisch reminds us that customers are bombarded with information and overwhelmed by marketers constantly vying for their attention. The only way to set your business apart from the competition is to relate to your customers on an intimate level. Jay Shapiro from Gaebler Ventures reiterates this sentiment when he writes “because technology has automated so many aspects of our business lives there's a very real danger of us losing the ability and indeed the will to keep things personal. When it comes to customer service, there's nothing like the personal touch for keeping connected to your clients.’ So how can we get personal? The answer seems to lies with writer Dan Brown in his article ‘Ten ways to improve your customer service ‘. The very first business pointer ‘stay in contact with customers on a regular basis’ summarizes the core message of the article and is central to the definition of getting personal which starts with making contact, and keeping the lines of communication open. A similar discussion on Yahoo takes the definition of customer care one step further as one blogger writes that customers should be viewed as friends and treated accordingly. ‘So in answer to your question about making Customer Care more "user friendly", the key word is friendly. If you've got a friend, and you want to keep them, you communicate with them regularly. You discuss things back and forth. If you're being diplomatic about it, you sometimes agree to disagree, but you at least show some respect for what the person believes. If your friend is going through some hard times, you do the best you can to support them by listening and offering advice.’ This view challenges conventional perceptions as it sees customers as more than a walking money bag or potential sale but aims to establish a mutually beneficial relationship. ‘When customers feel that you treat them like royalty, they don’t want to take their patronage elsewhere, even if your competition is offering them a lower cost‘writes Brenda Harris on the Business Blog. Therefore sincere customer care which leads to customer satisfaction, should be a key component of every business strategy. http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1074301416&type=RESOURCES http://www.gaebler.com/How-to-Best-Serve-Your-Customers-Ten-Top-Tips-Part-1.htm View more interesting videos at Skills-Universe Share this article 
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