Most customers are getting tired of hearing companies chant the “CUSTOMER SERVICE MANTRA.” Based on my experiences in the marketplace, chances are pretty good that most companies are full of baloney.
There are a great number of organizations out there who still don’t know how to spell customer service, no less how to deliver it on a regular and consistent basis. TOO MANY!
Allow me to clarify. You might be good at it – servicing your clients – now and then, when you feel like it. But how often is that? Based on my experiences: not often enough.
Customer service has nothing to do with “smile training” or reminding me to “have a nice day” in a monotone bordering on boredom. It is more than what you say. It is all about knowing which side of the bread the butter goes on and who makes your job possible. It is knowing where the money comes from and whose satisfaction level is key.
It is coming to work living and breathing the fact that without paying customers you could stay in bed all day with nothing to do but worry about your future eating habits. When a customer says jump, you say “how high?” When a customer wants “2” you deliver “2×2”. Get it?
If you wake up in the morning and the first thing out of your mouth does not sound like the noise “customer,” then you have some work to do.
I am often asked, “Mike, is the customer always right?” Of course not. The customer is often dead wrong. But, the customer always, always, always is the customer.
Until you decide otherwise.
If you don’t particularly care about how the economic system works, you can be right. Go ahead. Be right. Otherwise, work with the feelings and thoughts and buying habits of the customer. Until you hear otherwise, customers will continue to make the world spin on its axis.
Mike Marchev has lots more to share with you. Email him today to receive a Special Report titled, “THE BEST ADVICE I EVER GAVE TRAVEL PROFESSIONALS” at mike@mikemarchev.com Be sure to write the word “advice” in the subject box, and while you’re at it, include what you enjoy about reading Mike’s column.
