Extreme Customer Service
Generic customer service won’t cut it online. What is generic customer service?
- Answering inquiries when you get around to it — if at all.
- Shipping at your convenience.
- Not paying attention to details.
- Not ensuring customers have the resources and info available to them to make doing business with you easier.
- Communicating as though you didn’t make it out of the sixth grade.
By operating in the above manner, you are nothing special and viewed in the same league as the majority. You need to be extreme and offer extreme customer service!
To stand out online you need to have
Extreme Customer Service and prove it!
Courtesy, professionalism, honesty and integrity are key. Now, I’m not going to blow smoke and tell you that by being honest and having integrity that’s all that is required. It isn’t. I can tell you from experience there will always be those customers where honesty or integrity are of no interest in lieu of just doing what you are told simply because you are being paid or offering the lowest price (regardless of quality).
In any business one has to realize that you can’t be everything to everyone. So don’t try! That’s part of offering Extreme Customer Service! Catering to your target market knowing what they want and giving it to them X10! Over over deliver!
Don’t dilute your efforts by trying to cater to the masses. Realize that those who do not value honesty and great customer service in lieu of cheaper prices and/or lack of quality or professionalism are those customers who most likely will not be profitable customers anyway.
A few examples of Extreme Customer Service …
- That you answer e-mails within an hour.
- You have your terms, conditions, FAQs and policy information front and center and available on your site.
- You have your products in stock and you ship that day if possible.
- You say what you’ll do and you do what you’ll say — without fail!
- If you make mistakes, you apologize; make things right and don’t make any excuses.
- You communicate is such a manner that your customers trust in your experience and knowledge — and desire to have them as a customer.
- You include an extra little freebie in with their order that is clearly packaged with care.
- You follow up to get their opinion about doing business with you so you can learn from their input and improve future experiences.
You get the idea…
If you are e-mailed about an order or receive a new inquiry, you jump on it with a professional and courteous response that addresses their inquiry — specifically. Templated generic responses won’t do here.
You make sure your customers know they are valued and appreciated by thanking them and using the epitome of professionalism and courtesy in your communications.
You take the extra steps and make the extra efforts to be THE company they want to do business with again in the future.
Online, more times than not, customer service levels are inadequate, sludge slow or plain old non-existent. Use that to your advantage to stick out like a sore thumb and reap the rewards — more business!
At your service,
Judith
You may also enjoy:
- Customer Service and E-mail Etiquette
- Top 10 eStore Mistakes
- 5 Order Confirmation Tips
- Customer Service Gives You an Edge!
- 5 Principles to Live By Online
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[...] that your water-downed version of customer service will suffice. Nothing less than Extreme Customer Service will do. Seriously! This is a rabidly competitive environment and if you are outperformed in this [...]