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“The customer is always right.”

How many times have you heard that? What a load of crap. The customer is not always right. In fact, customers are very often just plain wrong. Some expect the moon and the stars but they want them for next to nothing. Others are ignorant about how a product or service works because they chose to be lazy, ill-informed consumers instead of doing their research up front. And still others just like to gripe for the sake of griping.

That’s not to say that customers are always wrong — not by any means. With social media making it easier than ever for people to share their opinions about companies, brands, products, and services with many, we’re seeing more and more grievances aired publicly.

I really can’t say there’s anything wrong with that. If your company screws up (which you undoubtedly will from time to time), the customer has a right to be peeved and it’s your responsibility to step up and do something to remedy the situation.

But what happens when you get one of the “gripers” or a customer that really just doesn’t know what they’re talking about? Here are a few things you can do to try to ease the situation without making a bigger mess of it.

1. Make the customer feel right, even if they’re dead wrong.

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Yes, the customer might be wrong. But one of the worst things you can do is essentially say “hey buddy, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” That doesn’t help them “get it,” it might blow up what was otherwise just a simple misunderstanding on their part, and you’ll probably piss them off pretty royally. And that just leads to more complaining… possibly publicly… possibly turning you into a villain against the poor independent consumer all because you couldn’t play nice.

Rather than “that’s incorrect,” try “I think their might be a misunderstanding. Let me see if I can help clear it up.” Instead of “it’s not our fault you can’t figure out how to use it correctly,” show them how. Come across as slightly humble and as helpful as you can be, and you’ll make the customer feel like a hero for getting their “problem” fixed.

2. Stay positive (at least on the outside).

Yes, you might want to pull your hair out when a customer can’t figure out how to follow simple instructions so they run to you with support requests. Sure, you might want to give them a piece of your mind as they yell at you or berate you because of their own ignorance. You might even contemplate getting out of any business involving customer service inquiries from time to time when you deal with the truly unruly type of customer. I’ve been there too.

But no matter how much they’re making your blood boil, keep that inside. There needs to be an “inner you” and an “outer you.” Inner you is the one thinking “Can’t you just use a f*ing brain cell or two like everyone else in the world???” Outer you, on the other hand, is the one saying “Let me see if I can help you fix this today.” Customers like outer you. And handling even a ridiculous customer complaint effectively and positively can turn an angry customer into one of your biggest fans.

3. Know when it’s time to walk away.

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Yes, it’s okay to walk away from an angry customer. You probably cannot fix every problem out there… especially if that problem is a customer who just isn’t able to use your product effectively. You can’t always afford to spend countless hours via email and phone support with one customer who might have paid just a few dollars for what you offer, just because they want hand-holding to figure it out.

In those cases it’s perfectly alright to say “enough is enough,” especially if you’re a small business owner or independent professional who doesn’t have all day to educate one client. In those cases — as rare as they might be — I’ve found it effective to simply offer a refund and pleasantly explain that you don’t feel you (or your product) are the best fit for them. If that happens, I would suggest referring them to another company that might better fit their needs. If they really aren’t a good fit for your company, they’ll often actually appreciate that referral, and I’ve found that those clients tend to come back later when they are ready for what I have to offer.

Dealing with customers who are just downright wrong about a situation can be incredibly frustrating. But that’s a part of being in business. Just don’t make the mistake of assuming anyone who’s unhappy with you is “wrong.” Many will be right, and you’ll do yourself a huge disservice if you let your ego get in the way of admitting it and fixing real problems as they come up. Happy customers help you grow your business. Always do your best to help them when you can, even if you really aren’t at fault.

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Companies are increasingly turning to the Web to reach their customer bases, in part to get in on the hype surrounding social media. Unfortunately though, using social media tools isn’t enough for effective PR or social media marketing. You have to use them well.

What does that mean? How can your company use social media “well?”

For starters, you need to keep it social. That means you should be engaging in conversations with members of your target market (whether they’re potential customers or existing customers–or users, visitors, readers, or whatever else applies to your company).

The Art of Conversation

Conversations equal two-way communication. When you blog, do you allow readers to comment? Yes? Good–that’s a start. But do you respond to them? Hopefully you do, but sadly many companies (or their executives doing the blogging) do not. They treat a blog as a platform for one-way communication–they talk at their readers instead of talking with them. Where many companies fail in social media is this little thing called “listening.”

Conversations don’t end with your company blog. Are you on Twitter? If so, do you actually pay attention to what most of the people you’re following are saying? (Or did you maybe only add them in the hopes that they’d follow you back and inflate your follower count for popularity’s sake?) Let’s say you really do have an interest in all of the people you’re following. That’s great. Now do you respond to them?

We have a pattern developing, don’t we? You can use blogs, microblogs, social networks, etc. to yap to your heart’s content, but if you’re not responding to your customers and taking part in conversations rather than just instigating them, you’re really missing out.

Fear vs Free Market Research

One of the reasons some companies hesitate when it comes to open conversations on the Web is fear. They’re afraid they may not like what they hear if they give those customers an open platform and actually listen to what they have to say. On one level it’s understandable–would you allow someone to come into your home and badmouth you? Not likely. So why should companies be open to it by allowing customers to potentially criticize them publicly, but in their “home” in the social media space (their blog, profile, etc.)?

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It’s free market research; that’s why. If anything, negative feedback (of the constructive variety) is far more valuable to your business than people oohing and ahhing over how great you are. If they compliment you, ask how you can make things even better. If they complain, calmly talk to them about the fundamental problems they have (something relatively minor and easy for you to fix, might be infuriating to your customers). Every company can improve, as can any website, product, or service. While not every complaint has to lead to direct action, actively communicating with your audience via social media tools gives you a chance to pick their brains about what they really think (and more importantly what they really want from you in the future).

Social Media is Like Chocolate: You Shouldn’t Overindulge

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How great is it to know that your customers are out there, ready and willing to share their thoughts with you to help you improve and grow your business? If you’re feeling the urge the rush out and set up a LinkedIn and Facebook profile, Twitter account, and new company blog all in one day, then reign it in a bit friend.

Overindulging in social media can be as bad for your company as completely neglecting it and the opportunities it offers. Why?

Let’s take a step back. Remember, the real value in social media is active two-way conversations. While you may be able to maintain those relationships on every social media tool early on, as your following grows on each it will become impossible. You’ll end up in a position where you can’t keep up with those conversations–where it starts to look like you’re too caught up in the fad elements to really put the focus on your customers. Don’t lose that focus!

This is speaking from experience as a customer, where companies have listened to personal complaints about them and made real changes (all via blogs and Twitter): there is no bigger attraction to a company possible than when they actually listen to what you say. When your customers know you aren’t just “hearing” them, but that you’re listening to their needs and concerns behind the words and are willing to act on them–that’s what social media is about (at least when it comes to business).

These days customers reward those companies that satisfy their needs and reject those that are not responsive to their needs and expectations. This article will take you through the process of setting up a customer service initiative in your company starting with an assessment of your current customer service approach, a determination of what your customers’ requirements are, creation of a customer service vision with customer-friendly policies, methods for dealing effectively with your customers, and advice for educating the rest of your organization to carry through your customer service focus.

• What is Customer Service?

Customer service is meeting the needs and expectations of the customer as defined by the customer.

‘ Meeting the needs and expectations of the customer ’ means you know what your customers want, what they expect, and you provide that to them on a consistent basis. And to know what your customers want, you have to ask them!

‘ As defined by the customer ’ is the key phrase because it says if the customer does not perceive you as offering good customer service, then you are not. The customer is the judge here; no matter how good your internal records claim you are, the customer is the only voice worth listening to. So in order to have an effective customer service initiative, you must know what your customers want, provide it to them on a consistent basis, and ask them how you are doing.

• Benefits of an Effective Customer Service Initiative

You and your organization can benefit from customer service in the following ways:

• Minimize stress; if you are dealing with customers directly, especially unhappy ones, there will be a certain amount of stress with each episode. You can reduce it if you have a systematic way for dealing with your customers.

• Higher efficiencies; when you focus your efforts on the areas that directly affect customer satisfaction, you can utilize your resources more efficiently. An effective customer service programme provides a plan for working on those areas most important to your customers and reduces the deviation which may distract you and your organization from focusing on these areas.

• Increased morale and satisfaction; when you are working on those areas that mean the most to your customers and to the success of your organization, then you will share a common vision and meaning with your entire organization.

• Survival; effective customer service becomes the cause of your staying in business. With growing competition, there are plenty of suppliers eager for business and the opportunity to satisfy customers. If you are not one of them, you may not stay in business for a long.

• Cost Effective; according to an authentic survey, it costs five times more to gain a new customer. The same survey also proves this fact that with just a 5% increase in customer retention, a firm can raise its profitability by 25% and in some cases as much as 85%. Similar studies also show the longer a company keeps a customer, the more money it will make. This happens because consumers spend slowly at first, but with succeeding years of good experiences, they will spend increasingly more.

• Customer Service as a Competitive Advantage

Fierce competition demands more and more innovations to differentiate organizations from one another. With technology available to virtually all organizations today, traditional feature and cost-benefit advantages no longer offer for a sustainable competitive advantage. More and more companies are turning to quality of service to make themselves prominent from their competitors. They are talking to their customers to determine what is most important to them and how they can further add value to them.

• STEPS TO A CUSTOMER SERVICE INITIATIVE

Each organization’s customer service plan must be customized to suit its own needs, but, more importantly, it must satisfy the needs of its customers. There is no hard and fast rule for an effective customer service programme; each one will have its own distinct differences. However, there are some common steps that you need to consider when setting up your programme. They are:

a. Assessing Your Customer Service Quotient

In order that you establish an effective plan to focus on customer service, you need to know where you start from. Following is a self-assessment that, when completed honestly, will begin to point out opportunities for improving your customer service efforts. For each statement, rate how well you or your organization satisfies the condition. Use the following scale:

1 : Never
2 : Hardly ever
3 : Sometimes
4 : Usually
5 : Always

Note: If you are a one person office, answer it from your own perspective. If you are an organization with several employees, answer it from an organizational perspective.

Our Culture

• We’re committed to do whatever it takes to create satisfied customers.

• We try to do things right the very begininge.

• The owner provides the leadership philosophically and by example that customer service is important.

• Serving our customers’ needs is more important than meeting our internal needs.

Total Score divided by 20 = ___%

Customer Alignment

• When we sell, we aim for a partnership approach.

• In our collateral materials, we don’t promise what we cannot deliver.

• We know the features and benefits that are most important to our customers.

• We design new products/services based on info provided by our customers.

Total Score divided by 20 = ___%

Error Reduction

___ 1. We review customer complaints.

___ 2. We constantly ask our customers for feedback.

___ 3. We regularly look for ways to eliminate errors based on customer input.

___ Total Score divided by 15 = ___%

Using Customer Information

• We’ve determined what our customers expect from us.

• We frequently interact with our customers.

• The entire organization knows what is important to our customers.

Total Score divided by 15 = ___%

Customer Outreach

• We make it easy for our customers to deal with us.

• We aim to resolve all customer complaints.

• We encourage “wowing the customer.”

Total Score divided by 15 = ___%

Qualified and Empowered Staff ( answer only if you have a staff )

• Employees are respected.

• All employees have a good understanding of our product/service.

• All employees have the right tools and skills to perform their jobs well.

• All employees are encouraged to resolve customer issues.

• All employees feel that customer satisfaction is a responsibility of their job.

Total Score divided by 25 = ___%

Improving Products/Services and Processes

• We constantly work to improve our processes and products.

• We network with other groups to learn from their strengths and weaknesses.

• When problems are identified, we quickly try to resolve them.

Total Score divided by 15 = ___%

Source: Adapted from Forum Corporation’s Self-Test for a Customer-Driven Company

Now evaluate how well your organization focuses on customer satisfaction. Note the areas where you score high and those where you are low. The low scores will suggest opportunities for improvement. List three areas you need to improve:

B. UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS

• Sources of customer information -Often organizations claim to know their customers’ requirements, yet they’ve never taken the time to do a real thorough analysis. Sure, they probably know their customers’ general requirements, but do they know what is really important to their customers, how they measure up relative to the important factors and how they compare to the competition in the areas most important to the customer? In most cases they don’t and won’t unless they collect this information in a formal, systematic manner.

• Your own organization – Without looking too far, you’ll be able to uncover potential areas of customer dissatisfaction by reviewing your key operational data. Check on the status of backlogs or stock outs. Chances are if these are significant you may have some customers that are not happy with your delivery cycle time. Review your “Returns and Allowances.” If they are high, then your customers may be unhappy with the product they purchase–either the quality is inferior or they felt the product was misrepresented and not what they expected at all.

Another place to look is your internal reject or yield rates. If your rejects are high or your yields low, you can bet that some bad product is leaking out to your customer. Even if you inspect the product before shipping it to the customer, tests have shown that inspection isn’t 100% reliable–some bad product will sneak out.

Now consider a service company–maybe even your local telephone company. Customers are typically concerned with the turnaround time for performance of service. The telephone company could review its internal records for the average turnaround time. If it’s excessive they probably have some unhappy customers. Another measurement to look for us the number of times they must re-do a service. Customers expect you “to do it right the first time.” If you don’t they become unhappy.

And don’t forget your employees as a valuable source of information on customer requirements. They interact with customers constantly and probably know a great deal about their likes and dislikes. If you are a one-person organization, then you are the one dealing with customers. You know what’s going well, what needs fine-tuning, and what needs a major overhaul. Begin your search for customer data in-house. Most likely you’ll uncover some things that you can fix immediately, which will make your customers happy and get you started on the right track.

Review your internal data to pinpoint potential problem areas for customers. Also, gather your employees together and get their inputs on your customers’ satisfaction level. Assemble a list of strengths and weaknesses, but don’t get bogged down in the details. You’re looking for a few areas where you can begin making improvements.

Customers – You should start with a review of customer complaints and inquiries. If you don’t have a systematic way of collecting these, you should develop one. Both are good indicators of opportunity areas. However, don’t limit yourself to just complaints and inquiries. Studies show that only 2-4% of dissatisfied customers ever complain. If you’re only looking at complaints, you’re missing the other 96-98% who have problems with you.

Surveys and focus groups are two of the most popular methods for gathering information on customer needs. Surveys are written questions given to individual customers; focus groups are oral questions administered to groups of customers. Both must have clear and specific goals up front in order to be successful.

A broad questionnaire or focus group session provides you with a lot of information, but it’s usually too general to be of any value. Objectives must be clear and questions specific if they are to provide results that can be acted upon. Although focus groups and surveys are similar in what they want to accomplish, one may be more suitable than the other, depending on the application.

Surveys are relatively simple and economical to administer and can reach large amounts of customers, but the information can sometimes be limited since it is a one-way exchange of information.

On the other hand, focus groups take more time and effort, are often more expensive to administer and may not be as far- reaching as surveys, but their interactive nature may produce clearer feedback. The best results are found when combinations of both techniques are used to identify customer requirements and expectations. For example of a survey, you may want to refer to the module How to…Measure Customer Satisfaction.

Review customer complaints and inquiries. Identify the top three requests and compare them with the list you created from your internal data and employee inputs. Do you find any overlap ? Any surprises ?

• The best kind of customer data–More is not necessarily better when it comes to customer data, but getting the right kind of data is critical. Following are the key characteristics of good customer data:

Ongoing–One thing is certain, change is going to happen. Your customers may change; their needs may change; the environment may change (e.g., the competition gets tougher regulations change); and most certainly you will change.

As you improve, your customers expectations will likely rise, too. To respond to these changing needs, you’ll need to constantly assess your customers. How often you assess your customers will depend on your business, its sales volume, and the relative value of its product or service. For instance, a fast food restaurant that sells thousands of hamburgers a week may survey its customers continuously while a large equipment manufacturer that sells only a few pieces of equipment each month may survey customers once-a-year.

Specific–In order to make the kind of improvements your customer will appreciate, you’ll need to have specific feedback. While general inputs may give you an overall tone of the customer, you can only respond to specific feedback. For instance, rather than “The length of time that I have to wait in line is satisfactory”, try instead “How much time is satisfactory to wait in the line ?”

Timely–If you’re working with old data, it may no longer reflect customer sentiments.

Focused–Organizations have limited resources. While the problems can be overwhelming, you can realistically work on just a few. If you try to do too much, you might not do anything well.

Weighted (according to importance)–This will help to narrow down the list of opportunities to just the few on which you should concentrate. You can rate the relative importance, but it will be much better if your customer does it.

Competitive comparison–You should always know where you stand in comparison to your competition. If your customers are willing to provide you with that feedback, take it. And you won’t need a separate survey, either. When you ask your customer to rate your performance, ask them to rate your competition as well.

C. CREATING YOUR CUSTOMER VISION AND SERVICE POLICIES

• The vision–In order to transform your company into one that values customer satisfaction, you must establish a customer-centered vision for your company. So what is a vision, exactly? According to Richard Whiteley of the Forum Corporation, a vision is … a vivid picture of an ambitious, desirable future state that is connected to the customer and better in some important way than the current state.

In other words, your vision is what you want your organization to become, what you want it “to grow up to be.” And a client-centered vision is one which takes its direction from the customer.

A vision has two critical functions that it performs. First, it serves as a source of inspiration that rallies the organization around a single unifying purpose, which in this case is the customer.

The second duty a vision performs is that it guides decision-making and aligns an organization so that all functions work towards a single goal. In the business world, there are rarely black and white decisions to make, but there is an awful lot of gray.

With a vision that spells out what the organization wants to become, it provides direction needed to make better decisions. Afterall, an employee who knows where the business wants to head is more likely to make decisions that reinforce that goal.

So how do you create a vision? It’s really quite easy. Vision statements need not be elaborate. For instance, Ray Kroc’s vision for McDonald’s was “Quality, Service, Cleanliness, Value.” Keep your vision short and concise so that your organization is clear on the meaning.

Many companies make the mistake of trying to create journalistic masterpieces. The only problem is that they tend to be so long, no one in the organization really knows what it means. The hard part in creating a vision is deciding what you want your organization to be in the future. Some advice on how to get started is:

Imagine it’s ten years from now, and you are reading an article in a magazine about your company. What successes have you had? What can you attribute the success to?

Think about what is important to your organization. List the top five of these.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What is most important to you as a customer?

Close your eyes and visualize your organization in the future. Describe in detail what makes up that picture.

You now should have a good start on your customer-centered vision. Take a few moments and write it down.

• Establishing customer-friendly policies–There isn’t anything that makes a customer angrier than someone saying, “I’m sorry, that’s our policy.” In many cases policies exist because “that’s the way we’ve always done it before.” Take an inventory of your organization’s policies. Do they facilitate customer satisfaction or do they only erect barriers and cause customer frustration? If you’re having difficulty identifying these “unfriendly” policies, review your customer complaints and assessments.

A quick scan of the feedback is sure to direct you to some of these “unfriendly” policies. Now segregate your “friendly” and “unfriendly” policies into necessary and unnecessary groups. Immediately, throw out your unnecessary “unfriendly” policies. You don’t need them and they are most likely frustrating the heck out of your customers. For example, if you own a commercial cleaning service and “You don’t do windows,” get rid of that policy immediately.

Businesses hire you to clean their premises, and if there isn’t a health or legal reason for not cleaning windows, you better think about cleaning them. Otherwise, they’ll find someone else who will. It’s certain that you will have some “unfriendly” necessary policies that your customers may not like, but that you are legally bound to have.

You can’t do much about these except make them as “friendly” as possible. For instance, if you’re cleaning healthcare facilities, and your insurance company restricts you from disposing of certain medical wastes, inform your customers of that and the reasoning, but do investigate if there is some sort of compromise you can make, say, dispose of it once it has been properly contained. Keep your “friendly” necessary policies and strengthen them even more if you can. Finally, create more unnecessary “friendly” policies where possible. This might be offering your “extra special clean-ups” on a 24 hour basis. Use customer friendly policies as a competitive edge and keep your customers coming back for more.

Now, take a few moments and, together with your customer complaint and feedback data, revise your policies so that they are customer-friendly. Are there any additional “policies” that you can institute that would further differentiate you from your competition.

D. DEALING EFFECTIVELY WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

Now, once you’ve established your customer-centered vision and created customer-friendly policies, you are ready to sharpen your skills necessary to deal effectively with your customers. These skills can be segregated into two areas–communication skills and problem-solving skills.

• Communication skills–How you communicate to your customers is just as important as what you communicate. Following you will find some behavioral skills that will communicate to your customer that you are an organization that values their business.

• Greet your customers–”Put them at ease and make them feel comfortable!” When your customer or prospective customer first walks in or telephones you with an inquiry or order, make him feel welcomed. This sets the tone for the rest of the transaction. If this is the first time with this customer, this is when first impressions can help or hurt, depending on how well you make your customer feel within those first critical moments. If favorable, he’ll continue talking, browsing, or ordering. If unfavorable, you may have lost a customer forever.

• Value customers–”Let me know that you think I’m important!” Customers want to feel special, and to make them feel special your attitude and behavior must say, “You’re the customer–you pay my salary. You make my job possible.” When you value customers, your sincerity makes them feel good about you and your organization. A customer-focused organization is not in business to deliver a product or service, but, instead, is there to enable people to enjoy the benefits of its product or service. The difference is demonstrated by the temporary employment agency that is in business not to fill in job vacancies with temporary personnel, but rather to help their customers enjoy the benefits that their service provides–immediate placement of highly skilled individuals. The difference is subtle, but the effect is not!

• Ask how to help your customers–”Find out what I want!” You’ve already gotten a “head start” on that by reviewing customer complaints and other feedback, but it is important to make each customer encounter one that makes them feel special. You do that by trying to understand their needs each time you deal with them, not just their overall needs, but their needs at that particular moment. A desire to genuinely understand your customers’ needsor wants will provide you with the edge you’re looking for. Now, how do you do that? Simply, find out why they came in or contacted you–”So what can I do for you today, Mr. Jones?” Then ask open-ended questions to further understand their needs–”Are you looking for any special features in a briefcase? How often will you be using it?”

• Listen to customers–”Please listen to me and understand me!” Listen totally–to your customers words, their tone, their body language. According to a UCLA study on communication, 7% of our communication is verbal, 38% is tone of voice, and 55% is nonverbal. Listening totally will enhance your understanding of what your customer really needs as well as make them feel valued.

• Help customers–”Help me get what I want!” Customers don’t buy products and services for what they are, but, instead, they buy for the benefits that the products and services offer. That’s why you must be customer-focused rather than product- or service-focused. Don’t waste your time explaining your product or service features. Explain how your product or service benefits them–how it satisfies a need, solves their problems, or gives them extra value. Instead of “Super Duper Carpet Cleaner offers the latest in stain-resistant technology, “you should try “Super Duper’s newest technology continuously repels stains for up to 20 years so you’ll never have to clean your carpets!”

• Invite customers back–”Let me know that I’m welcomed back anytime!” This is about last impressions. Thank them for coming in or contacting you. Tell them you’d like to see them (or hear from them) again. Then, try to do something that makes them want to come back (or refer you to a friend or colleague)–maybe a discount off of their next appointment for referring a friend. The interesting thing about last impressions is that’s how your customers will feel about you until you have a chance to interact with them again. If you do it right, your business will surely reap the benefits.
Adapted from: Hey, I’m the Customer by Ron Willingham

Now, make two columns. List each of the communication skills in the left-hand column. Think about how you can improve each in your business. In the right-hand column, write down what you are going to do, post it so you (and your organization) can see it, and begin doing immediately.
Communication Skills What We Can Do

1. Greet your customers
2. Value customers
3. Ask how to help customers
4. Listen to customers
5. Help customers
6. Invite customers back

• Problem-solving skills —- Problems will always occur, but taking responsibility for these problems can turn a negative customer into a positive one. Studies show that if a problem is resolved quickly, 98% of your customers will buy again and even tell colleagues that they had a positive experience! However, the longer the problem drags on, the more frustrated a customer becomes, and the less likely he is to be satisfied. So how do you resolve problems quickly? Read on for a process to help you do just that!

Understand the problem–”Try to understand my problem from my viewpoint!” First, “get the facts, Jack!” Listen nondefensively. Then, repeat your understanding of the problem back to make sure it is accurate. For example, your customer is having a problem with the juicer that you sold her. You listen to her problem nondefensively, probing her for more information, then say, “As I understand the problem, the juice that is extracted does not have any pulp.”

Identify the cause of the problem–”Take enough time to understand what caused my problem!” After you understand the problem, you’re ready to identify possible causes of the problem. First, you should find out what happened (“I made the orange juice according to the enclosed instructions.”). Next, you need to find out what should have happened (“There should have been pulp in the pulp reservoir.”). Then, find out what went wrong (“There wasn’t any pulp in the reservoir, or any place else that I could see!”).

• Discuss possible solutions–”Explore possible solutions with me!” At this time you should suggest possible options (“You may nothave the model that removes the pulp from the juice, maybe the wrong instructions were enclosed, or maybe the juicer has malfunctioned.”) Next, you should ask your customer for ideas (“Do you think it is a malfunction or is the wrong model/instructions enclosed? Do you have any other ideas?”). Finally, agree on a course of action (“Let’s first check the model numbers to make sure that the instructions are for your juicer.”).

• Solve the problem–”Solve my problems, and you’ll enjoy my loyalty forever!” Now it’s time to remove the cause or take corrective action (“Ah ha! The model numbers don’t match. The instructions are for our higher end model that doesn’t extract the pulp separately, but feeds it into the juice automatically. Do you want to keep this model, and I can send you the appropriate instructions? Or would you prefer the lower end model with a cash refund for the difference?”). Now, ask your customer if he is satisfied with the resolution (“Have we solved your problem satisfactorily? Is there anything else we can do?”). Finally, the kicker–offer something to the customer to compensate him for his troubles (“And for your troubles–we’ll be sending you a bushel of fresh Florida oranges that should arrive at your home next week. Again, I’m sorry for the problem this has caused you, but thanks for letting us resolve it.”) Source: Adapted from Hey, I’m The Customer by Ron Willingham

Write down this four-step problem-solving process. Commit it to memory and post it so that you can use it the next time you run into problems.

E. EDUCATING YOUR STAFF

Now that you’ve learned to assess your current customer service condition, understand your customers’ requirements, create a customer-centered vision, establish customer-friendly policies, and deal with your customers more effectively, you need to educate your staff (if you have one) on how to carry out your customer service focus. This will involve two steps, which are communicate and train.

• Communicate your focus–Schedule a meeting to roll out your vision for your organization and to explain the reasoning behind your customer service focus. Make this meeting mandatory for successful, you need to get your staff’s full cooperation and buy-in. Afterall, the vision and policies must become theirs, not just yours. At the end of the meeting, determine the next course of action with responsibilities and timing noted.

Important to note — This should not be the only time that you talk to your staff about the importance of a customer focus. You must work it into your daily routine, your regular meetings. It must become the basis for your entire business. And you must demonstrate by example–”Walk the talk!”–to reinforce the fact that things are going to be different from now on.

• Training–In order to achieve your customer-centered vision, your staff must be properly trained to do so. As mentioned earlier, some of this training can be incorporated into existing meetings. It’s important that you do include some training in your regular meetings so that it becomes a part of your normal operations. However, you’ll find you’ll need to schedule an incremental amount of time to train personnel in problem-solving and communication skills. Again, so this isn’t the “boss’s program,” suggest that a team of volunteers determine the organization’s training needs and outline a suitable approach. Then, have them present it to the rest of the organization in an upcoming meeting.

Now you’re off to transforming your organization to one that is customer-centered! Good luck and have fun in the process!