by Mike Dale

Created on: February 25, 2007   Last Updated: June 13, 2009

Quite clearly, each industry has its own requirements and service offerings. Underlying these, however, are a number of key elements that will deliver the best possible service in any arena. Most importantly, they will deliver you happy, referenceable customers.

Key 1: the point of customer contact is critical.

Your customer phones to offer you a new piece of business or to escalate a problem that is causing them some concern. They are greeted by a disinterested voice that has no idea where you are or when you will be back in the office.

By the time you do return, the customer will be incandescent and/or the new business will have disappeared.

Make absolutely sure that the person who answers in your name shares your service ethos. They should take ownership, passing to an expert for resolution is fine, but the original owner keeps the issue until it is fixed to the customers' satisfaction. Now, it may be that you have struck lucky and have the best office junior in the world. You may even have employed super-temp. However you staff it, you must ensure that there is a friendly, efficient voice on the end of that phone.
Let us also remember email. Setting up a general enquiry email, info@service etc. is a good idea. It needs to be monitored regularly, no less than daily, and all enquiries sent a speedy acknowledgement. And, please, not an email auto-response. "Your message is precious to us" is like the speaking clock. Efficient but impersonal.

Key 2: never make excuses; make plans to resolve the problem.

We have all heard them. "There is a bug going around the office; he would have been with you by now but he is stuck in traffic/has a puncture/has broken down."
These, and similar excuses, are about as believable as the tooth fairy. What they will cause is anger and frustration. They will certainly not calm an angry or desperate customer.

Go to the heart of the matter. Admit the problem and suggest ways around it. Move an engineer, authorise overtime. Whatever it takes to show that you understand and can deal with the issue. More importantly, once the immediate crisis is resolved, review what went wrong, plan ways of ensuring there is some sort of mitigation of the problem next time, and then communicate this to your customer. Pro-activity wins confidence.

Key 3: never take on more than you can cope with.

Your customer comes to you with a problem. He has a major project that needs to be implemented urgently. Can you do it? The immediate reaction is to snatch his arm off.

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