Customer Service is Simple But Not Easy

Photo Courtesy of Pixaby

For far too long, a lot of people have touted the notion that providing excellent customer service is easy and commonsensical.  It’s no big deal and simple to do.

When played by professionals, a game of darts looks effortless, solid and relaxed.  To the untrained eye, seemingly, all one has to do is throw a dart at a target, hit the board and if you’re lucky, the dart will land in the bullseye (but no big deal if you miss, you just earn fewer points).   Seasoned dart players will tell anyone that darts is a game of skill that requires constant practice; it is considered a game of marksmanship.

No.  Providing outstanding customer service is not easy.  Just like with the game of darts, customer care requires having a basic grip on knowing your customers’ wants and needs, maintaining a sturdy stance on customer philosophy (not policy) and having an inimitable technique to win the game of customer satisfaction.

If customer service was easy, more companies would deliver better service and there would be fewer complaints and fewer negative reviews on social media.

Many companies claim to have great standards of service in every single customer interaction but I wonder when in a 1/365 chance of checking identification for travel for example, how many airline companies would notice a birthdate and say, “happy birthday!” to a passenger/customer?

The simplicity of customer care, however, is making available a product or service that functions the way you promised and being respectful to all prospects, customers, clients, employees, vendors and suppliers as you deliver it.  The simplicity of customer care is more than “being nice”.  It is an emotion that is embedded in all of an organization’s goods and services and rests within a code of high ethics and integrity.

Customer care is the job of everyone in the organization–from the C Suite to the Receptionist Desk–every person must ensure that customer care is ongoing, deliberate, proficient and delivered with thoughtfulness.  Caveat: employees will have a difficult time delivering amazing experiences if the company leadership hasn’t clearly defined what it is and explained its impact on their corporate culture.

Develop the technique and strategy that works best for giving those amazing customer experiences to every customer every time and make it a great day.