There is only one boss, it is the customer !!!

Introduction to Customer Service

“There is only one boss, and whether a person shines shoes for a living or heads up the biggest corporation in the world, the boss remains the same. It is the customer! The customer is the person who pays everyone’s salary and who decides whether a business is going to succeed or fail. In fact, the customer can fire everybody in the company from the chairman (CEO) on down, and he can do it simply by spending his money somewhere else.Literally everything we do, every concept perceived, every technology developed and associate employed, is directed with this one objective clearly in mind – pleasing the customer.”

Customer Service in the 21st Century :

Ask any CEO of a company, president of a bank, manager of an office, minister or staff person and they will tell you HOW IMPORTANT the customer is for their operations and success. In meeting after meeting, heads of industry, the service sector, utilities, and government try to convince the audience how much they believe in customer service.

“It is our mission, it is our number one priority, it is our goal, it is why we are in business” often prove to be mere slogans. Unfortunately, these same “customer friendly” executives go back to their offices, de-employ office staff, fail to initiate a customer service improvement plan and send memos out saying customer complaints are unjustified and overblown.

Customers, buyers and clients want to pay a fair price for quality service or products, and feel satisfied they have paid for a service or product and received what they have paid for in return. They also want someone to take care of them. They need someone to understand their needs and help answer them. They need someone to hold their hands and walk them through a process.

Customer service starts with the ability to listen to the customer and find out through polite questioning what he/she needs or wants. Customer service and contact with a client mean that the customer will be heard and his/her problems will not go unanswered or ignored. It also means getting to know your client, his/her likes-dislikes, ideas, background, etc.

The other most important aspect to do is to listen to what the customer is saying. If people do not understand what is motivating the customer, they will not be successful in handling them.  

Develop a Customer Friendly Approach

One common point among all organizations that provide good service is the development of a system and attitude for promoting customer friendly service. By “Customer Friendly” we mean viewing the customer as the most important part of your job. The saying, “The customer is always right” is derived from this customer friendly environment.

Two critical qualities to the “Customer Friendly Approach”:

• Communication

• Relationships

The two main tasks of successful customer relation are to communicate and develop relationships. They don’t take a huge effort, but don’t happen suddenly either. Positive communication with your customer and developing ongoing relationship with your customers are perhaps the two most important qualities to strive for in customer service.

What Customer Service Means

Customer service means providing a quality product or service that satisfies the needs/wants of a customer and demand again. Good customer service means much more – it means continued success, increased profits, higher job satisfaction, improved company or organization morale, better teamwork, and market expansion of services/products.

Customer Service Qualities

                                            Customer Service = Accountability + Delivery

Professional Qualities in Customer Service

Professionals who constantly deal with customers need to strive for certain qualities to help them answer customer needs.

The professional qualities of customer service to be emphasized always relate to what the customer wants. After years of polling and market research, it turns out customers are constantly internalizing their customer service experience. What this means is they are grading your customer service during each transaction but you rarely know it. While there are a multitude of customer needs, five basics needs stand out:

• Friendliness – the most basic and associated with courtesy and politeness.

• Empathy – the customer needs to know that the service provider appreciates their wants and circumstances.

• Fairness – the customer wants to feel they receive adequate attention and reasonable answers.

• Control – the customer wants to feel his/her wants and input has influence on the outcome.

• Information – customers want to know about products and services but in a pertinent and time-sensitive manner.

We at TUV India know what our customer want most and what our company does best, we focus on where these two meet.