Know-How Exchange : Strategy

good customer service is the key. what you want to do is build long term relationships with each customer. trying to lure customer from a competitor is more costly than keeping the ones you have by satisfiying thier needs. satisfied customers come back again and again it makes thier buying task easier, satisfied customer bring in new bussiness.

in order to achive this you must get everyone in the bussiness to work together to provide customer value before and after purchase, loytalty programmes (like FlyBuys or KrisFlyer), responding to feedback,acknowleding concerns and chaining processes that are not in the best interest of the customer.

don't do what the backs did in new zealand when a new taxpayer funded bank came on the scene: the following is actuall conversation from a bank:

saying "give the customer what they want" seens simple, but lots of company don't do that, you must find a solution that similtaneioulsy safisfys the customers need and the companys needs.

It's funny how customer "service" is not always synonymous with "needs". Ironically, since most large corporations have cut back on their CS training for quite some site now, sales are up!

Sure, there is a percentage of consumers who demand certain attributes from a company's employee, but studies have shown, the people come back anyway. Why? because they don't come to the business for the service, they come for the product and prices.

For example, I HATE the staff at just about every McDonald's I go to. I cringe when I think of going there. So why do I go? I love the fries. Gotta have the fries.

Walmart is another nightmare. Once you find someone, if you can manage to break them away from their converstation with another employee about what they did last night, most act as if you are bothering them if you don't know where the toilet paper is located in their 50 million square-foot store. So why do I go back? It's cheap.

In certain circumstances, customer service can make or break a business, especially small start-up and tech driven services like webdesign, network IT/MIS, furniture refinishing, construction, etc. Now, this is not to say you should not listen to your customers. Too many of them complaining about the same thing may warrant a change in policy or product.

The truth is; people like to complain. It's natural. No company is going to be able to satisfy EVERYONE any more than a person can make everyone like him/her. So what do you do? Focus on your strengths, positive attributes, what REALLY drives people to you, be nice, and keep moving forward. Address each unsatisfied person as personally and professionally as possible, but don't change policy or fire a valued employee just to see a smile on one , hamburger buying, Coke totin', customer complaining about cold fries. Now if you discover 10,000 customers complaining about cold fries...it's time to do something about the fries!

There is a lot of CRM info at www.crmguru.com . Check it out!

Good Luck!