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Summer is only a few weeks away and many of us will be longing for a nice ice cream cone to help offset the sweltering heat.

Well, here’s another thought about summer:  Families will be vacationing and making lifetime memories which makes for excellent opportunities for businesses to showcase their BEST customer service skills.  NOW is the time to train/re-train employees and all levels of staff HOW to deliver amazing customer service and create memorable experiences.

Employees must go through technical and customer service training in order to be ready to anticipate and solve customers’ needs and complaints.  Here are a few skills that all employees must master to provide amazing customer satisfaction:

I love my work and the seminars I conduct for my clients.  Sometimes, the curriculum includes helping them to understand that “thinking outside the box” is more than a cliche.  It requires that they go several steps farther to deliver unique and customized experiences for their clients.

I teach them the importance of giving themselves and their staff permission to be different — decide HOW you will deliver the magic of amazing experiences everyday to every customer and NOT to be defined by someone else’s idea of customer service delivery.

So, you want to retain your clients and give them incredible service but your employees seem to be displaying lackadaisical energy?   Your responsibility as an executive or a manager is to inspire them, “get off the dime” and show them how to make things happen!  These ideas are worthy of consideration:

1) Motivate your BEST staff who display strong leadership skills and who demonstrate the ability to effectuate change for the benefit of the customer and for the company.

2) Make sure the right employee is working in the right position.  The wrong personality in the wrong position can doom sales and profits.  Don’t feel obligated to allow employees to work in a position for which they are not properly matched.

Some businesses pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to advertising and marketing firms to create enticing ads and slogans to attract customers to buy their products and services.  Obviously, this is a successfully proven method (otherwise the firms would go out of business), but I know of a company who hires marketing and advertising firms to address specific product needs  AND… through a special internal team, occasionally, conduct research that asks their customers what they value most in their company and what will make them become loyal to their brand.  Because we are limited to space in this blog, we will share only one example of what they asked customers:

“When shopping for products and services in brick and mortar or online, tell us what would make you more inclined to do business with us and become a loyal client.”

Here are a few responses from the customers:

From the customer’s point of view, the hallmark of a successful organization is the exceptional service it gives to its customers.

Customers want to align themselves with companies who are ethical and manufacture flawless goods and services.  They want to buy from businesses that have a passion for serving the client and giving them an amazing experience with every interaction.  They want companies to resolve their complaints quickly, proficiently and to never have to make that specific complaint again…in other words, learn how to resolve the problem and prevent it from ever happening again.