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Are You Building Relationships In Service

Have you ever called technical support and spent an hour on the phone? How did that make you feel about the company serving you? Customer service experience matters in building customer relationships.

Many factors contribute to your customers experience. Here are some of the things that matter in your customer service calls:

• Time on call. Each call will focus specifically on the challenge faced by a customer and resolve quickly to let them get back to work.
• Light positive music on hold. No sense them falling asleep waiting to talk with someone, it also makes the time seem shorter rather than dragging out necessary hold time.
• Automated account verification. Before even talking to a representative capture the customer number. This will also help flag accounts that need attention.
• Positive identification of caller. Before changing account details be sure the caller is who they say they are, use name and account payment information for verification, or pass key.
• Useful and relevant up-sell. Always offer the customer something else or a special not available anywhere else. This is a reward for calling on service.
• Polite and courteous staff. The operator will say their first name, smile when talking, and be willing to help anyway they can.

Call your own customer service at least once a month, review service calls, and follow up with customers. How did your experience make you want to do business with your company? Service is a critical factor to maintaining strong customer relationships, and easy to monitor with just one call.

© 2008 JWH Consolidated LLC, All rights reserved.

Justin Hitt helps business-to-business industrial and technology service firms turn business relationships into profits guaranteed. For consulting and coaching visit https://www.justinhitt.com/

By Justin Hitt at December 15, 2008 8:35 AM  Subscribe in a reader