Customer service is an issue that many businesses really struggle to get a handle on. For some people it is simply serving customers quickly and politely, but in reality it goes much deeper.

In other posts I have talked about the importance of respecting your customers, which I believe is the starting point when it comes to delivering high levels of customer service.

Whilst you may respect your customers, the relevance of this is often hard to pass on to your staff. They will mirror you attitude towards customer service. That is why you have to make your views very clear and in my opinion, black and white. 

Most businesses will talk endlessly about sales to staff: is the business reaching its targets, how can sales be improved, how can more customers be attracted and how can they be encouraged to spend more with the business? The topic of customer service is often overlooked, generally because I feel that business owners aren’t really sure how to address more than a few very obvious customer service issues.

Customer service should be talked about a lot. It should be debated, it should be reviewed and it should be discussed at every opportunity. This can get a little boring and start to sound like a broken record so it is up to the person doing the talking to be a little innovative.

Buy a book on customer service with lots of great ideas on how to stand out from the crowd by offering exceptional customer service. Without meaning to turn this into a sales pitch, my third book called 101 Ways to really satisfy your customers is a pretty good starting point. It actually contains 121 very simple and practical ways to improve any business’ level of customer service. There are many other books available and most contain excellent tips.

Encourage your staff to make suggestions on how they feel your business’ customer service could be improved. Ask your customers for their feedback and recommendations. Talk about these recommendations with your staff and see if they can be implemented. By getting your staff and customers involved the concept of customer service becomes much more tangible.

In short, devote as much time to improving customer service as you do to improving sales and your business will grow naturally as it gains a reputation for offering excellent service. 

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In businesses that are overly busy this point poses a challenge. In businesses not so busy, it is unforgivable. Over promising and under delivering is the best way to lose customers as it breaks every customer service rule. Firstly you are building up the customer’s expectations, probably higher than they were initially, then you not only fail to meet their expectations, you fail miserably.

It is easy to get pressured into over promising and under delivering. In my industry, everyone wants marketing advice and strategies quickly, but the reality is they take time to prepare. A rushed strategy can be flawed and the end result disastrous for the business concerned. I specifically explain this to my clients at length and I have to be careful to make sure the timeframe I quote to deliver their strategy is realistic and achievable. Once committed, I will move heaven and earth to make sure the very best quality product is delivered on time.

It is better to set a realistic timeframe, one you can achieve, than one you can’t possibly achieve, which is guaranteed to end in tears for all the parties concerned.

There are of course many other forms of over promising and under delivering. One of the most obvious is food. We have all seen sensational television advertisements promoting mouth-watering meals, filling us with expectation, only to find the end product is a shrivelled, poor impersonation of what was on the commercial. Likewise, the advertisement may spout on about how your business is valued and how staff will treat you like celebrities, but when you pick up the phone the person on the other end treats you like anything but royalty. Some of this problem is due to the distance between the marketing people and the end product. But as a marketing person I have never had a brief that said to make sure you show our burgers looking soggy and unappetising. The key here is to be honest in your representation of your product or service.

Over promise and under deliver—don’t underestimate your customers intelligence. They know when they are being treated with contempt and they will soon let you know.

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One of the great advantages that small businesses have over their large corporate cousins, is the ability to form relationships with their customers. In a big firm, people come and people go, accounts are passed around the business, when customers call they rarely speak to the same person twice. Small businesses have a much greater degree of consistency that customers like. It is nice to be able to call the local butcher to place an order and he knows you, he asks about the family and your plans for the weekend.

As small business owners and operators we should all cultivate the building and developing of these relationships. Take a few minutes to get to know your customers and always use the personal touch for little ways that you can make a visit to your business memorable.

Sometimes it can something as simple as walking through the business talking to your customers, perhaps giving out a few treats or offering advice. I like to make my clients tea or coffee when they come in for an appointment. I often have to fight with my receptionist because she feels that she should do this task, but I enjoy making my clients a drink and I know that they appreciate it. It is a very small thing, but it is personal touch.

The personal touch can extend to small notes of thanks if a client or customer has some good fortune or a reason to celebrate. If in the course of a general conversation you find out that it is their birthday shout them a product of some sort on the spot. Be spontaneous and show the customer that you value their business and you value them as a person.

Some people struggle with spontaneity, but if you work at it, you will be surprised at how good it feels and how appreciated small personal gestures are. I also believe that it is important to encourage your staff to be spontaneous.

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I recently attended a presentation by Tom Potter, one of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs and the founder of Eagle Boys Pizza, a business with 150 franchises across Australia. It was interesting to note that Mr Potter still takes the time to physically work behind the counter in many of the Eagle Boys Pizza franchises he visits. His reasoning: ‘To make certain I never lose touch with our customers.’ A lot of business people could learn a valuable lesson from his example.

Personally I believe that anyone who sits on the board of a large company should spend a prerequisite amount of time dealing with customers at the coal face of the business. Too often large companies lose touch with their customers simply because the people making the decisions are too sheltered from the frontline.

In small business we often spend a lot of our time trying to get away from directly dealing with customers because it can be tough, demanding, frustrating and time consuming. I am certainly not saying that every business owner should spend forty hours a week behind the cash register but I do believe every one of them should be communicating with the customers on a regular basis. Depending on the type of business this may mean making a few phone calls each week, or it may mean physically standing on the floor.

I think we should take this one step further. CEO’s of every major company should be made to have to experience their business as any normal customer would. Imagine how quickly Jetstar’s service really would change if Jeff Dixon actually had to stand in a line for an hour and see and feel what it’s like to be treated as a Jetstar customer. I think the service would change a lot quicker.

From my experience, those businesses where the final decision maker interacts directly with customers on a regular basis tend to offer far greater levels of customer service than those that do not. Don’t be afraid to talk to your customers and to ask for their opinions—remember without customers your business would be a very lonely place.

If you want to be truly successful in business, never, ever stop communicating with your customers or most importantly of all, put yourself in their shoes and see what their experience with your business is really like.

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