How do you answer the phone when a customer calls? How quickly do you get back to a customer? Do you call because you need to? Or do you sometimes call just because? So much of customers service is the approach...and that is what Gerry and I sat on the front steps of Dawn & Jeff's house the other day discussing. What are the small things you can do so that our customers know how much they mean to us?
- Call back right away! The days of "I'll return your message within 24 hours" are over. It's ok if you don't have the answer, it's ok if you don't have a lot of time. But it's not ok to put customers off. Give them a quick call to let them know you care. One day, I need to write up the story of how I learned this lesson the hard way...Mr Bothika, thank you. Kurt Burger, thanks for not firing me.
- Enter ALL customers as contacts in your phone. Seriously. If I don't have someone loaded in my phone as a contact, I won't call them. Take 30 seconds and do it now. Make it easy on yourself to be a good communicator. And when your customer calls, answer the phone by saying hello to them, "Alicia, great to hear from you! How can I help you?"
- Call for no reason. This is one of my favorites. Once all your customers are on speed dial, it's easy to give them a quick call when walking through their home under construction. How fun is it to share the excitement of their granite tops that were just installed that day? Share the joy with them as it happens with a quick call.
- Mix it up. Call, text, email, facebook...get to know each customer and how they like to communicate...and then do it. We are all different. Respect that.
