Did you know that it’s National Customer Service Week? Because this week is devoted to recognizing the importance of customer service, it’s an ideal time to review how committed your team is to providing outstanding customer service.
Studies show that a customer’s interaction with your staff makes up about 70 percent of the reasons why they return to your business. This means that your product or service accounts for only 30 percent of your ability to keep customers happy. That’s a rather eye-opening statistic.
The time to address customer service is not after you’ve received numerous complaints. It’s important to proactively evaluate your current customer service levels to identify gaps and pinpoint areas of excellence. Does your team know how to best interact with your clientele, and to address both their procedural needs and their personal emotions?
In many cases, the demands of a heavy workload can squash the best of intentions among your staff. Prioritizing workload based on customer needs greatly simplifies the task of providing good customer service. Customer-centric prioritization is one of the skills that should be included in a good training regimen. Likewise, a focus on improved communication skills is key to keeping team members aware of customer concerns so they can be addressed in a timely manner.
This week is the perfect time to brush up on customer service skills for your whole team and renew your commitment to happy clients. Because if your business doesn’t do a good job of servicing your customers’ needs, your competitor will!
John Males is Founder and President of Fathom Corporate Training. With more than 20 years of experience in management, sales and negotiations, he helps clients increase employee satisfaction, lower turnover, increase revenue and raise profit margins.
