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Great Customer Service, the Key to Longevity
No matter who you talk to, there is a story about the lack of good customer service, getting lost in phone mazes, rude clerks, lack of knowledgeable help, and the list can go on and on. People are crying out for a better level of service, are you ready to capitalize on this with your business?

Great customer service starts inside a business with how the owner, management and employees treat each other. This is called internal customer service, and this is where it all begins. How each person in a company delivers service to a co-worker is customer service; reports delivered on time, returning answers to questions quickly, covering phones while someone is making copies, arriving at meetings on time, etc. These are simple things that make the internal environment of a business run smoothly, and this reflects on how your company is represented by the employees. Think about it, if the internal environment of a company is in turmoil, full of sniping and hostility, what message are your people going to deliver to the customer when they pick up the phone or greet them at the register? In many businesses, the lowest paid and most ill treated employees are the face and voice of that business to the customer. If they are happy, treated with respect and believe in the company, they will represent you in that manner. Disgruntled employees make for disgruntled customers, and that's a scary thought!

Once you have your internal customer service nailed down, you're ready to take care of the customer.

Repeat business is the life blood of a business, and it's much more profitable to keep an existing customer then it is to spend the money to try and find a new one. You spend a lot of money to get someone to stop in to try your business or place an order, and that is a one time buyer. A person who buys two or more times is a customer, and that's what you want.

When you make doing business with your company a positive experience, you will get repeat business, and whether you are in retail, wholesale, manufacturing or are a service provider, the concepts are all the same;

• Treat customers the way you would want to be treated, honestly and fairly.
• Listen to what customers are saying, this will help you serve them better. (They tell you what they need)
• Listen to what customers are asking for, this is the best source for new product ideas.
• Solicit negative feedback, because when you correct a problem a customer has, instead of loosing them, they become an even more loyal customer. (The worst thing is loosing a customer when you didn't even know a problem existed).
• Design all of your internal controls and procedures to be as transparent as possible to the customer. Always think "this is what works best for the customer, now how can I make it work for the business". Eliminate the "stop actions" that inconvenience customers.