Customer service is important for every business and I want to make sure that here at Genroe we’re delivering great service. But what is great customer service?
Having owned a business for 15 years I already had some of the answers but I wanted to find out what the experts knew; so I asked them.
I asked people who were either small business experts or customer service experts one simple question to really get to the heart of what they believe is important for customer service:
What’s your personal, number one, customer service must do?
The responses were great. Insightful of course, but also inspirational, challenging and actionable for businesses of all sizes.
Take a look for yourself.
| Name | Bio | Customer Service Tip |
|---|---|---|
Karen Beattie | Karen Beattie, Founder and Managing Director. The Growth Faculty @growthfaculty | "Immediacy is key" |
Kristine Chompff | Kristine Chompff, Marketing and Communications Manager. The CEO Institute @CEO_Institute | “Knowing your 20% of customers that give you 80% of your business and providing them with over and above service” |
Sean D'Souza | Sean D'Souza, Founder. Psychotactics @seandsouza | "Be personalised" "I, for instance, will talk about the fact that we're in the "future". When it's July 9 here in NZ while it's still July 8 elsewhere. Little things matter. A client wrote to me about a product on Info-products (our home study that's about to be released). He'd already bought an earlier version of it. Would he need to buy it again? I wrote back relating my new product to how Michelangelo would carve a second David. Would he do the same? This client was from Italy and I'm assuming the David scenario was closer to home than say, "The Statue of Liberty" So be personalised in your responses." |
Lisa Ford | Lisa Ford, Owner. Lisa Ford @Lisa_A_Ford | "Be reliable" "Do what you say you will do, when you say you will do it and do it right the first time." |
Annette Franz | Annette Gleneicki, Customer Experience Optimizer. CX Journey @annettefranz | "Understand/know your customer" "If you don't know who your customer is, what he's trying to do, what his preferences are, etc., it will be much more difficult to deliver the service he expects. Customers today expect a more-personalized experience; that can't happen if you don't know them." |
Shep Hyken | Shep Hyken, Customer Service Expert. The Customer Focus @Hyken | "Create Confidence." "Without confidence, you can’t expect to have customer loyalty. The customer’s experience must be consistent and predictable. The customer must “own” the experience." |
Flavio Martins | Flavio Martins, Vice President. DigiCert, Inc. @Flavmartins | "Think for the customer" "Truly serving customers means not only giving customers what they ask for, but thinking of innovative ways your products or services can be applied to solve the problems customers haven't yet realized they have." |
Brian Moran | Brian Moran, Founder. Brian Moran & Associates, LLC. @BrianMoran | "Deliver" "Deliver in a timely manner, on all of your promises to your customers. If something is wrong, fix it." |
Sian Phillips | Sian Phillips, Managing Editor. Tweak Your Biz @TweakYourBiz | “Be as helpful as you can " "Be as helpful as you can to your current customers as they are also your advertising channel for new customers." |
Bill Quiseng | Bill Quiseng, Chief Experience Officer. Bill Quiseng @billquiseng | "Think RELATIONSHIPS or Go Broke" "Most small businesses sell similar products at about the same price. Most businesses also are intent on offering prompt and friendly service. So what would differentiate one small business from their immediate competitor or from the big box retailer who could be selling a similar product at a lower price? The answer is to deliver a more personalized service by getting to know the customer and responding to the customer's specific needs for the product he is thinking about purchasing from you. In other words, "Think INTERACTION, not transaction/" |
Ramon Ray | Ramon Ray, Small Business, Infusionsoft, and Technology Evangelist. Smallbiztechnology @ramonray | "Proactively resolve customer friction points" |
Bob Thomspon | Bob Thompson, CEO. Customer Think @Bob_Thompson | "Be nice" "From our research we know that “friendly” is the word most often associated with excellent customer experiences. Yes, it’s important to be responsive. Of course customers want fast service. But customers are more likely to remember you if you treat them nicely." |
Doug White | Doug White, Founder. Doug and Polly @LetGoToGrow | "Matthew 7:12 – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." |
Over to You!
What’s your personal, number one, customer service must do? Drop us a comment and share with the community!
Adam Ramshaw has been helping companies to improve their Net Promoter® and Customer Feedback systems for more than 15 years. He is on a mission to stamp out ineffective processes and bad surveys.
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