First-Class Customer Service: Your Solution | Business Consulting ...

Saturday, 02 June, 2012 16:23 Last Updated on Saturday, 02 June, 2012 16:25 Written by Rick Conlow

Our five Moments of Magic are strategies that help you deliver first-class customer service experiences. In my previous posts, I have discussed MENTAL PSYCHE and THE GREETING. Today, I will cover step #3.

#3. MEETING THE NEED

If a customer is unsatisfied or angry with anything that involves your product or service ? there is one reason: they have a problem that isn?t being solved. If there weren?t a problem, there wouldn?t be a problem, right? Seems pretty simple.

So, unless you identify what that problem is, you will have a hard time remedying what?s gone wrong. This step is about how to do that well.

Patience and urgency are ironically the balance you need to master during this step. Don?t rush into fixing what you see the problem to be, but rather, take your time, so that you solve what the customer perceives the problem to be. And once you know what it is, give the customer the impression that you will fix it ASAP! If you take a laissez-faire approach to their problem, you won?t impress your customer. And if you fix only what you think is wrong, you may waste time on the wrong thing. So, do it right, and do it right now!

How do you do this well?

1. Be a good listener. Hear and understand what they are saying.
2. Ask good questions. Dig deeper if you aren?t getting the information you need.
3. Help with sincerity. Be genuine and solely focused on them.
4. Take notes and summarize. Recap what you?ve heard the customer say, so that you can determine whether or not you understood everything accurately.
5. Take the customer seriously. Respect the customer, even if you see the problem to be minor. Customers can sense when you?re belittling their concern.

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This step involves a level of curiosity and creativity. You need to figure out how to find out what you don?t know, and then you need to brainstorm how you?re going to fix the customer?s frustration. It?s not about rushing to conclusions or solutions ? it?s about connecting with the customer, caring about her concern, and controlling what you can.

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