by Stephen Fortier

Created on: May 27, 2008

In today's market, customer service means everything! Frequently you can get the exact same product, whether it be a tangible item or a provided service, from multiple vendors. This also includes such things as medical care. It used to be that your insurance carrier dictated what hospital you must go to, which laboratory you must go to to have your blood-work done, or where you must go to have your annual mammogram. Now, most insurances are "fee for service" which means you, the consumer, can choose what facility to utilize for your care. For that reason, the only thing that separates one facility from another is the level of customer care each individual receives. The same holds true for clothing stores, grocery stores, even your local convenience stores. Everyone wants to feel important. If you walk into your local convenience store every morning for years for a cup of coffee and the daily newspaper and the clerk never says good morning; just punches a couple keys on the cash register, takes your couple of dollars and you walk out, you get the items you were looking for and that is about it. One day, for whatever reason, you decide to go to the convenience store just around the corner and the clerk greets you with a smile and a "Good Morning!" and when you leave he/she makes a quick five second statement...."Have a good day! Hopefully we'll see you tomorrow!"; you can bet dollars to donuts I will be driving the extra minute to the second store every morning to spend my two dollars rather than stop at what used to be my every morning convenience store. The friendly clerk that displayed excellent customer service just increased his/her store's revenue by approximately $500 per year.

There is one major principle to good, or excellent, customer service training. I include "excellent" customer service in there because good customer service does not cut it anymore. I can go into a company's conference room for a Customer Service Training class and charge the company thousands of dollars to convey one message. That message would be to use the T.E.A.M. approach to customer service. T.E.A.M. is an acronym which simply means Treat Everyone As Me. The name is self explanatory. Always remember to treat everyone as you would want to be treated. If you are reading this article to get tips on how to approach your own training sessions, now would be a good time to use audience participation. Give each person a script, one demonstrating great customer service and one giving

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>