Hey! I Am the Customer!

Those of you who are like me and are in the customer service field know that it can be a stressful and demanding job. We had an infomral meeting the other day at work that discussed how to provide exceptional customer service and I wanted to share the main points with you.

Attitudes, Motives and Values all play a big part in customer service and this discussion struck a cord with me and has halped me to provide a better experience for each customer that I speak with every day. First, i want to define each of these.

My attitude is the way I think and is reflected in the way I carry on in my work and relate to others. It's also evident in times of stress.

My motives are the reasons why I do things. I may work hard because it makes me feel good or maybe because I want that promotion that is up for grabs.

My values are inner guidelines that direct my behavior or rules by which I live my life. A person's behavior is almost always consistent with his or her values and they will not do things that conflict with them.

So, what do these things have to do with good customer service? EVERYTHING! Customer service isn't just painting a smile on your face and performing plastic tasks. People can see through these easily and quickly. They are thinly vieled attempts at being nice.

VALUES DRIVE OUR ATTITUDES, MOTIVES AND BEHAVIOR

Three things that you should be sure to think to yourself at every customer interaction are:

1. "You're the customer - you pay my salary!

2. "There's something about you I like."

3. "You make my job possible."

When these are values of yours you will automatically make the custopmer feel important. You can choose to focus on what you like about a person or on something you don't like. It's your choice!

I decided to post this not only because of the meeting I had at work but also because I experienced the exact opposite the other day at a business. As a person in the field, it is easy to see mistakes that other customer service personel make and crituiqe them.

I took my nephew to a local video game trading store located near my home. As we walked in the person behind the counter was on the cell phone speaking about some sort of ball game somewhere. Now the fact he was on the phone did not bother me. What did bother me was that he did not acknowladge our presense in any way, even though he walked by us numerous times. He could have simply waved or nodded his head or even simply stated "I'll be with you in just a moment." But there was nothing. So, after about 5 minutes, we left and went to Game Stop down the road where we were greeted immediatley even though the store was packed. Which store do you think i will be going back to? The one that greeted me and let me know they appreciated the time I took to come into their store that's who!