The more you know and understand the background and behaviour of your audience and their needs, the better you can prepare your approach to dealing with them.
Human behaviour is a function of the environment in which the individual finds himself. In business, striving to have our customers’ background information can help us identify their needs, concerns and inquiries.
Our competency in establishing this knowledge will be enhanced through effective communication skills, empathy/emotional stability and efficiency in handling difficult situations and customers. Customer service attitude is beyond initiating greeting and smiling to a customer. A satisfactory skill set must be attained to be an effective customer service representative that is meeting up with customer expectations.
Gaining, retaining and maintaining customers in a friendly working relationship, while at the same time maintaining a business-like relationship which brings about loyalty on the side of the customer, is a necessary skill needed by salesmen, brands and service providers who aim to control and dominate a market.
Who is a Customer?
Customers are the people that patronize us in our business and who go away with a positive impression of our firm.
A customer may pay for our goods and services but must achieve satisfaction for their expenses. The success of the four essences of marketing, i.e. product, promotion, price and place, is based on the continuous patronage of the customer.
A business is dependent on the customer. Therefore, an effective customer service campaign is brought on by delivering service excellence. It is the quality delivery of output. Customer expectations for patronage range from customer to customer, but on a general note, every customer requires the following:
Some Customer Expectations
- To be given awesome service because many are more likely to give a repeated business or referral after a good service experience. Likewise, many customers may stop doing business with a company due to poor customer service experience and failure to resolve their problems in a timely manner.
- Most customers make purchasing decisions as a result of the influence of visual factors in our workplace, website, staff appearance and approach. Many make judgments about a firm’s credibility based on these factors.
- Customers like it when you underpromise but deliver beyond expectation. However, reverse expectation is expected if it is otherwise.
- Sustaining valuable content and brands and presenting new ideas for customers enhance their experience.
- Consistency in driving and maintaining professional core values will be a measure of loyalty. Measuring satisfaction on customer journeys is more predictive of overall customer satisfaction than measuring happiness through each individual interaction.
- Pay a lot of attention to the few customers who may have complaints or observations because for every one complaint you get, there are more unhappy customers who have remained silent. Investing in a feedback mechanism is crucial. In this case, on-the-spot attention in resolving customer wants is advisable above the drop-box comment technique.
- Steady availability on speed dial paid or toll-free lines for making home delivery requests will draw your customers to you.
- Rewarding loyal customers through socially responsible perks will likely increase the volume of goods and services sold. Loyal customers are more likely to recommend a product, service or brand.
- Quality customer service forms the basis of the customer experience. Most customers’ main interaction with a business is through interacting with a business’ employee, either by visiting a store or by speaking on the phone. In essence, the company representative has the opportunity to deliver excellent customer service and thus create a great customer experience through proper motivation. If you take care of your employees, they will in turn take care of the customers.
TemiDayo Babatunde is an Associate of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations and can be reached via his LinkedIn (chatwitdayo@gmail.com).
No comments:
Post a Comment