by Nora Carver

Created on: January 17, 2007   Last Updated: June 13, 2009

The key to a successful business is customer service. While we all strive to be considerate, conscientious and customer friendly, there are still going to be those few people that despite our best efforts are still dissatisfied to some degree with their shopping experience. What do we do?

One of the most important aspects of business is to never let a customer walk away dissatisfied. It is a statistical truth that word of mouth will hurt a business more than anything else ever could. Under no circumstances is it ever beneficial to a business to allow a customer to walk away angry or unhappy. A satisfied customer will on average tell five people about their experience with a business. A dissatisfied customer will tell everyone they know. This has an unconscious impact on the decision of the people being told as to whether or not they are going to use that business. Given a choice, customers will not choose a business they have heard bad things about. It happens more often than business owners would like to think.

The number one rule to remember in a business situation is that the customer is ALWAYS right. The consumer is the butter on the bread that makes the economical world go round. It is essential to remember that every single patron that walks through a business's door or contacts a business by phone is a repeat customer. Don't just aim for that one great sale, aim for return business. Return sales are the number one source of income for most business owners. One way to do this is to be personable as well as professional.

Many people will say that a personable representative of a company will make them return to a business, even if the first experience was not as satisfactory as they would have liked. Always be considerate of the customers feelings. When business representatives get into a rush and are trying to complete many tasks at once, they must remember to slow down, take your time, and think through every contact they have with a customer. Being rushed and short with a customer relationship makes the customer feels cheated, like not enough time was spent taking care of them and it feels impersonal. It doesn't hurt to strike up a small conversation with a patron if they are waiting for a service to be performed. No one likes to wait, this eases the tension of waiting and helps the time go by faster, it also opens the door to additional sales as it provides the opportunity to make the consumer aware of multiple services.

Try to satisfy customers

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