Customer Service: Relationships Matter

Putting Customers First – Relationships Matter

Relationships with customers are one of the keys to any business.

Most of us have called a large company’s customer service line for help with a problem. It feels like a game of roulette: will the service representative that answers my call be able to help me? Will I be able to communicate with them – will they listen? What will their attitude be? Are they willing to help me?

Good customer service requires maintaining a positive, upbeat attitude and having the proper tools, knowledge and abilities to meet a customer’s needs. A great attitude without the ability to address needs is a waste of time. Equally, a super-competent, highly experienced service representative with a toxic attitude will annoy customers. Superb customer service is driven by the combination of competence and attitude.

Beyond having the proper attitude and ability, customer service is enhanced by establishing and maintaining solid relationships with our customers. Customers who know us, both as individuals and as a company, will prefer to do business with us.

“Building relationships” with customers sounds less than straight forward. Many of the things we do everyday are easy to list and easy to measure: “update Engineering hours spreadsheet” or “install new laptop for Joe”. What, exactly, does “building customer relationships” mean? And how is it accomplished?

Dozens of books and articles have been written about developing and maintaining customer relationships. The three steps outlined below represent my personal view of the process, and are necessarily condensed.

Build Trust. Trust is the foundation of solid relationships. Our customers (both internal and external) need to know that they can trust us and rely on us. Trust can be developed and maintained in a variety of ways:

· Be honest. Tell the truth in all situations, both negative and positive. Develop a transparent relationship wherever possible. Do the right thing for the customer and for the Company.

· Run to problems. When an issue arises, don’t ignore it, fix it. Proactively addressing issues builds customer confidence – especially if you notice an issue and fix it before they are even aware of it.

Perform. Another element of building a solid customer relationship is performance – delivering on the promises made to customers.

· Make commitments. Give customers clear deliverables and deadlines. Even if you can’t do everything they want done, tell them what you can accomplish and when it will be completed.

· Follow-through. Once a commitment has been made, make sure that you meet it.

· Exceed expectations. Go beyond your customer’s expectations by doing a better job, faster, and less expensively than originally expected.

Communicate. Obviously, the basis of all relationships is communication.

· Listen. Learn the art of active listening. Listen carefully to what your customer is saying, and then feed it back to them to confirm that you understand clearly.

· Inform. Proactive communication is important to all relationships, and especially important with customers. Keep customers informed of the items that pertain directly to them, whether it is a delivery date for a product or a software update for their computer.

Relationships can be compared to bank accounts. Building a bank account involves making investments. To build a relationship with a customer, we need to invest. Each time we interact with a customer is a chance to invest in the relationship. It takes time and effort to build a solid relationship, but the payoff is significant in customer trust and loyalty.

When our customers call, they shouldn’t feel like they are “rolling the dice”. They need to feel like they are calling a long-time, trustworthy friend. And the best way to make customers feel secure and confident in us is to invest in our relationships with them.