Lucy Glennon specializes in customer service training and recruitment and hiring. She can be reached at 866.645.2047 or lucyg@hireguru.com or at the HireGuru.
CUSTOMER SERVICE – Have you been married long? If so, I want you to think back to when you and your spouse were first dating. How your heart skipped a beat when you answered their phone call. How you looked forward to his or her car arriving to take you out to dinner.
The longer you are married the more remote those days may feel. It’s not that there isn’t love, it’s just that the everyday-ness of the relationship has changed the response to each other. And yes, there may be some creeping complacency or even a feeling of being ‘taken for granted’. In fact, our most important relationships may be the ones that we nurture and attend to the least.
We see it in business relationships every day. Sometimes our best customers are treated like spouses, rather than someone to woo. Back when they were prospects, we were highly attentive. The response time to them could be measured in nano-seconds.
But as time goes by, we are trying to woo others and we (mistakenly) believe our present customers will wait until we have time to give them good service. It has been proven repeatedly that most people do not leave their present supplier because of price. They leave because they feel taken for granted and unloved. How can we put the excitement back into the relationship? Here are a few suggestions.
Make a list of any clients you think may be suffering from neglect and invite them on a ‘date’ to review the relationship. Please, don’t ask the typical: How are we doing? Ask them tough questions: Are we exceeding your expectations? If there was one thing we could be doing better, what would that be?
Be specific, and ask your customer to be specific too. This is not about getting strokes from a client, it’s about digging down and finding out if there are more issues with which you could be helping. Discuss any problems that have occurred and make sure the fix worked. When they share issues, don’t make excuses or minimize the issue; talk about solvability. Customers will guide you to the best way to service their account.
Finally, ensure you tell them how important they are to you and how much you appreciate their doing business with you. After all, you want to lay the groundwork for future dates!