Do Business Well

1. SERVICE IS ABOUT PEOPLE: HIRE THE ATTITUDE, PROVIDE THE SKILLS

If you want to offer your customers 5-Star service, look for the desire to please others in the people you hire. Here’s a fact: you cannot change people’s attitudes if they do not want to change. If you hire people who do not have a genuine love of others, you’ll never give it to them. And you will be stuck with non-performing employees who try to drag everyone else down with them. The wrong people won’t deliver the right service.

On the other hand, we believe in hiring potential champions and turning them into real ones. Once you’ve hired the “Right Stuff”, then train them well. Give them the skills both through formal and on-the- job training. Ensure they thoroughly understand your company’s mission and values. And give them the authority and responsibility to perform extraordinary acts of service excellence. Once again, we can’t overemphasize its importance, so recognise and reward great service lavishly. This is the one area of your business that will pay out immediately. And the best thing of all - it requires very little capital expenditure. If your people hire out their hearts, your customers‘ minds will follow.

1. LISTEN TO YOUR STAFF, TALK TO THEM AND, SOMETIMES, DO WHATEVER THEY SAY

One of your advantages as a small-business person is that you will be very close to frontline staff. You will be able to talk to them, encourage them, motivate them, inspire them and learn from them.

That’s right - make your frontline staff your customer service advisors. After all, they are the ones who interact with your customers every day. We promise you that turned-on frontline staff will be a massive competitive advantage. They will be full of great ideas to serve your customers well. You just have to give them a chance to let these issues out. So plan weekly “Customer Service Pleasing Sessions”. Just one day a week, open your business an hour later and get your people’s opinions. And, once again, reward and recognise with abundance.

1. TEACH YOUR CUSTOMERS HOW TO BE GREAT CUSTOMERS: In many instances, customers may not know how to buy correctly from you. Or they may not know how to get the most from your business. One of the biggest favours you can ever do for your customers is trainthem how to maximise the benefit they get out of you. Very few companies take the time to teach their customers. The few that do are the few that are succeeding at the expense of their competition.
2. GRAB EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO LET YOUR CUSTOMERS KNOW HOW MUCH YOU ARE DOING FOR THEM BEHIND THE SCENES

Customers do not know what goes on behind the scenes. They take it for granted that everything will go the way they want it to go. Even when you go above and beyond the call of duty for them, they may not know how much effort you invested in meeting their needs. So tell them. But don’t tell them in a boastful way. Just let them know the lengths to which your company will go to keep them happy. You’ll be amazed at the positive response you’ll receive.

10. IF YOU WANT OUTSTANDING SERVICE, YOU MUST MEASURE AND MONITOR ITS DELIVERY CONSTANTLY! Service can be measured. There are a range of simple systems and yardsticks by which you can track your progress in this vital area. In fact, if you don’t pay scrupulous attention to the measurement of your service delivery, you won’t deliver great service. Period. What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get done. So think about your business and the benchmarks for service excellence in your industry. Is it returns? Is it repeat purchases by customers? Is it the number of times a product comes in for repairs? Is it customer performance evaluations? Is it the cleanliness and hygiene of your store? Is it the quality of your displays? Is it the number of smiles on your customers‘ faces? Is it regular surveys that track your performance versus the competition? Is it turnaround time or customer waiting time? Whatever it is, identify the most important benefits desired by your customers and measure how well you deliver these benefits to them.

1. MAKE IT FUN, MAKE IT URGENT, MAKE IT A CHALLENGE!! Customer service winners love to compete. They love the excitement that comes with a challenge. And they love the prizes that come with victory. So how can you implement fun customer service competitions within your company? How can you motivate your people to go the extra inch in delighting your customers? What targets can you set them that are ambitious but achievable? And what prizes can you give your people for outstanding performance?

Honour your Stars. Have regular ceremonies where awards are handed out and exceptional performance is recognised. From the very beginning, create a culture of celebration within your company. Ensure that your own people encourage each other to perform. So don’t just have awards for the Number One performers. Establish group incentives where everyone wins if company targets are achieved.

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