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Learning Superior Customer Service Skills
Is customer service a department in your company? Is customer service simply the title of an order entry department? Is customer service an empty shell, long on rhetoric but short on delivery? Does the term customer service actually mean anything, or is it a leftover expression from an era of days gone by?Superior customer service is indeed alive and well alive and working at many progressive companies, both large and small. Customer service is not simply a term or a department, but rather an attitude and a manner of doing business. It boils down to caring and adhering to the golden rule…"to do unto others as you would have them do unto you."Superior

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The next time you tell me that my car needs a new engine when all it really needs is a battery, and I point this out to you and you just say, "Oh well..."

The next time I get lousy customer service from you I am going to go out of my way to let the world know about you. I'm going to start a campaign of customer service unawareness that will have angry customers beating on your door with torches and pitch forks in hand.

I'm going to send emails to everyone I know and encourage them to pass them on to everyone they know. It'll be like that old shampoo commercial where I tell two friends and they tell two friends and they tell two friends and before you know it the entire world will know to avoid your business like the plague.

Then I'm going to build a website dedicated to telling the world about your lousy customer service, Paul. I'll register it with search engines and send out press releases and buy TV and radio spots that announce

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Q: I'm so sick of you so-called business experts always saying the customer is always right. This is my business, not the customer's, so I'm the one who's always right. Sure, they can have an opinion, but in the end it's up to me to decide who's right and who's not. And if the customer doesn't like it they can take their business elsewhere. What do you say to that, Mr. Business Expert? -- Paul W.

A: Ah, Paul, and I had such high hopes that we would be friends. Oh well, so much for that hope. The fact is, Paul, within the context of a normal business transaction, the customer is always right. If you can't accept that fact, you won't have customers for long.

Sure, the customer might also be unreasonable, demanding, obnoxious, totally insane, and argumentative, but if you are willing to take their money in exchange for providing a product or service, then yes, the customer is always right.

I agree that there are terrible customers that will beat you into the ground if you let them. They rant, they rave, and they demand more than they should receive. But guess what, Paul? If a customer crosses the line of reasonability you don't have to do business with them. Thank them for their time and then send them on their not-so-merry way. Let them become someone else's problem if they are too much for you.

I have invited customers to take their business elsewhere and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The truth is some customers can not be pacified and end up doing more harm to your business than good. Still, it's up to you to do business with them and if you choose to do so, you basically agree to put up with whatever they dish out.

Most customer issues arise from bad customer service. There is not a week that goes by that I am not confronted with bad customer service, provided by apathetic business owners and their disgruntled employees who don't seem to give a flip that I am not a happy customer.

As an entrepreneur I give my fellow entrepreneurs more leeway than most people when it comes to bad customer service. I know how hard it is to be in business and I know how busy the average entrepreneur is. Still, the entrepreneur who ignores the customers needs will not be an entrepreneur very long.

I am not an over-demanding customer, but I do expect to be treated with the respect due someone who is willing to pay hard earned money for a product or service. In the past year I have been physically assaulted by a car salesman who refused to back up the promises he had made to get my signature on the dotted line. I've given up going to a certain Mexican fast food restaurant because the spiky-haired kids behind the counter act like taking my order is a major imposition on their day and when I do convince them to sell me food, the order is always wrong. And a certain cable company is still billing me for cable service at a house I moved out of six months ago.

So don't preach to me about who's right and who's wrong, Paul, because I have enough customer service horror stories to fill your soon to be empty appointment book, and in every case the customer WAS right.

Tell you what, Paul, instead of continuing my regular customer service sermon let me take this opportunity to write an open letter to you and other entrepreneurs everywhere who share your point of view.

Dear Paul (and the rest of you jokers),

The next time I order your product and you swear on a stack of bibles that it will absolutely, positively be there overnight and when it doesn't show up for two weeks and is broken in a dozen pieces and I call you to complain and you just say, "Oh well..."

The next time you tell me that my house needs a new roof when really all it really needs is a few shingles nailed down and when I confront you with the truth of the matter and you just say, "Oh well..."

The next time you tell me that my car needs a new engine when all it really needs is a battery, and I point this out to you and you just say, "Oh well..."

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Go Where Your Target Audience IsIt's not good enough to reach a lot of people; you've got to reach the right people. Opportunities for advertising are many and varied, and choosing the right place to advertise is essential.Research the habits and whereabouts of your target market. Go where your audience is. Speak their language.Write a Headline That HooksThe headline should be full of punch. It should literally jump out and proposition the customer. In a world of limited attention spans, shorter is always better, providing you don't sacrifice clarity.Use “power words” in your headlines: New! Free! First! Adding punc

t will beat you into the ground if you let them. They rant, they rave, and they demand more than they should receive. But guess what, Paul? If a customer crosses the line of reasonability you don't have to do business with them. Thank them for their time and then send them on their not-so-merry way. Let them become someone else's problem if they are too much for you.

Dear Paul (and the rest of you jokers),

The next time you tell me that my car needs a new engine when all it really needs is a battery, and I point this out to you and you just say, "Oh well..."

The Art of Giving Great Service
Sales is tough to get right, and depends on retaining those customers, yet people do it badly and unprofessionally all the time. It's really not difficult to learn the art of good service, and if you get it perfect, you will see those rewards.Let's look at an example of service from my point of view:I usually buy a sandwich from one place only. I always go there, as I get top services and the sandwich is nice. I could go anywhere, but I choose to go to this place.Price has nothing to do with it. I can get a sandwich cheaper elsewhere, but the reason that I don't go elswhere is so simple, and it's scary that so many businesses fail to capitalise

t I am not a happy customer.

Dear Paul (and the rest of you jokers),

The next time you tell me that my car needs a new engine when all it really needs is a battery, and I point this out to you and you just say, "Oh well..."

Loyalty
There was a day when we gave people our business through a sense of loyalty.This loyalty was earned as repayment for a repeated positive experience,We are prepared to put up with the occasional lapse in the level of service we receive if we know that the overall intent is to provide us with what we want and that the normal level of service does provide us with exactly that.That was in the good old days when we could make the assumption that the service provider was in business to provide a service.Those were the good old days indeed.When the bank manager could look at your plans for expansion and give you what you needed because he

t a house I moved out of six months ago.

Dear Paul (and the rest of you jokers),

The next time you tell me that my car needs a new engine when all it really needs is a battery, and I point this out to you and you just say, "Oh well..."

Career Changes; AOL to Lay Off 5,000 Workers
We have all heard of people losing their job for something they have said in an e-mail sent out from their company. But what happens when AOL lays off 5000 people because they want to give away free e-mail? All those people are being laid off because of e-mail too. Sometimes beeng laid off may not be all that bad and if you work at some companies it is actually a blessing in disguise, as it provides new opportunities and a chance to work in a real company, with upward mobility and better benefits.Are the people at AOL upset because they are all been laid off? Of course they are but the shareholders and stockholders are demanding it because AOL is not makin

..."

The next time you tell me that my car needs a new engine when all it really needs is a battery, and I point this out to you and you just say, "Oh well..."

And when you come crying back to me, Paul, moaning that you have been run out of business as a result of my campaign of customer service unawareness do you know what I'm going to say?

That's right, Paul, old pal.

I'll just say, "Oh well..."

Note to readers: Have you experienced bad customer service? If so email me the details. Who knows, maybe we can hit the campaign trail together.

Here's to your success!

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Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy that aims to get the right products to the right place at the right time and in the right quantity. Lean manufacturing focuses on the reduction of the wastes that decrease efficiency and increase costs. These wastes include over-production, waiting time, processing, inventory, transportation, motion, and scrap. Lean manufacturing has been made popular by Japanese companies who have used these very effectively.

Some people have the nose for sticking into other people's business. Though some may find this annoying, it is one of the things that go with the job if the individual decides to become a private investigator.

Different people call their Customers by different names. If they don’t have Customers, they have Clients, purchasers, licensees, users, patients, members, franchisees, or buyers. Each of these words carries meaning to those who say them. And those meanings say something about the health and long term success of the enterprise.

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