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Customer Service Information |
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How to Easily Increase Your Profits
Do you remember the last time you went into a shop and the person 'serving' raced over to you, greeted you with a lovely smile, heaps of enthusiasm and said, "Welcome to our store, what can I help you with today?" And then listened attentively to what you had to say? Doesn't happen very often does it? In fact, while I was writing this, I couldn't recall when I had experienced it. I'm sure I must have yet it would have been so long ago, I can't remember. Let me tell you what happened this week? I belong to a well-known trade exchange which I have found very useful for my business. I wanted to purchase a suitcase from a particular store which usually takes trade dollars. From time-time the store will limit the use of trade dollars if they have reached their maximum for the month. Anyhow I quickly discovered this wasn't going to be my lucky day. I walked in and the assistant who was sitting down behind the counter (and remained there), didn't smile. She barely acknowledged me with what looked like a scowl. I had interrupted her reading time. (She was so busy, there was no-one in the store). I then politely (yes I can be polite sometimes) asked her if they were accepting trade dollars as I wanted to purchase a suitcase. She turned around to the owner who was sitting behind her doing some bookwork and repeated my question. The owner stayed seated, didn't look up and told her assistant "No". The assistant then relayed to me that "we are not accepting trade dollars at the moment, but we have good deals for cash". She remained seated all that time. I didn't answer and walked straight out the front door with my cash sitting in my purse. No matter how good their "cash" deals were going to be, if I was going to spend my hard-earned money anywhere, it definitely would not be with them! The 'Colour- blind to service' Copy Centre I had spent thousands of dollars with a printing company over a couple of years. A couple of times I was told by one of the staff, when they've been snowed under "Mary's too busy to speak with you at the moment, I'll have to get her to call you back when she's got more time". It was the same company who sent me a Christmas card with an invoice inside it! Whenever I had to pick up my order, the business owner would whinge about how hard business was?any wonder why? Needless to say I didn't remain with them. The 'Cant' do that' Café We went to a local café which we hadn't been to for a while and I was told by the waiter that "no, we can't do that". I wanted a particular type of sandwich which wasn't on the set menu. I informed the abrasive young waiter that "yes, you can". That got him scared and the order I requested turned up within 5 minutes. Are Customers Important to Business? Of course they are. No customers, no business. Yet why are businesses deliberately driving customers away? It's ridiculous isn't it? It's The Business Owner's Fault That's right. The person who owns the business is the one who's responsible for the way their clients/customers are treated. They are usually too busy working in the business and have not allocated time to working on their business. They're often very disorganised and have no idea what is really going on. Call it what you want?personal productivity, time management, personal organisation are crucial skills everyone needs to know and apply to their daily lives. Otherwise you run around filling your day with activity, most of which doesn't help you achieve your goals. Five Ways to Improve Customer Service and Increase Profits If you own or run a business, here's what you can do: Treat your prospects and clients like royalty. Make every contact they have with you an enjoyable and memorable experience. Be proactive with your clients. Stay in touch. It is up to you to contact them regularly. Not just wait and react when they have a problem. Look after your own staff. If you look after your own people they in turn will look after the business. Praise, reward, and invest in their on-going development. Send them off to various courses and seminars on communicating, sales, time management etc. Even if you have your own internal people who do the training, it's important that your team hear from outside experts who are specialists in their field. They know what they are talking about. Continually invest time and energy into yourself. Lead from the front. Keep developing yourself. Get regular feedback. Ask questions. Ask your clients/ customers what they like about your products, services and people. Find out what they dislike. Get regular feedback internally from your people. Find out what works well, what doesn't, how can things be improved. The Final Word Of course to take action on these ideas, you have to plan for it to happen. So pull out your diary now and plan to make sure that your business continues to stay in business and becomes more profitable. About The Author Lorraine specialises in working with businesspeople showing them how to dramatically boost their productivity, reduce the stress and the mess in their lives and have more time for enjoying their life. lorraine@office-organiser.com.au
MORE RESOURCES: Changes at Social Security Administration may impact customer service, benefit payments, experts say CNBC AI wonât fix the real issue with customer service Financial Times How to address common customer service gaps TechTarget CSPI & Nutrition Action Customer Service Center for Science in the Public Interest Produce Wholesalers: Solving Customer Challenges Through Service Produce Business How SAP CX AI Toolkit Transforms Customer Service Operations Technology Magazine Monetary Gold Achieves Record Customer Service Improvement, Climbs to #3 in Industry Rankings PR Newswire Customer Service & Support Hillsborough County (.gov) CMA CGM Launches "My Exclusive CONCIERGE" Premium Customer Service LM - Logistics Manager How This Indiana Retailer Marries Celebration and Customer Service in His Store Gifts & Decorative Accessories Doxee, agreement with Generali Seguros for customer service. MarketScreener Camiral Golf & Wellness sets benchmark for exceptional customer service Golf Business News Tower of Fantasy promises better customer service, more social features, and even more sci-fi stuff Massively Overpowered Porsche placed first in 2025 J.D. Power Customer Service Index Study Porsche Newsroom What Your Business Can Learn From Southwest Airlines Business.com Centier Bank lands No. 1 on J.D. Power customer service ranking Northwest Indiana Business Magazine Certificate of Achievement â Sales and Customer Service (Online) Lake Michigan College Best General Contractor Insurance Investopedia Generative and agentic AI set to transform customer service into a strategic value driver for businesses Marketing Tech News Trumpâs pick to lead Social Security promises quick customer service fixes amid agency meltdown CNN Sky cuts 2,000 jobs as it moves more customer services online Financial Times Contact Us About Your Bill City of Clearwater Zomato Employee Layoffs: Around 600 customer service jobs cut without notice? Know reason here ET Now Revolutionizing customer service: MaestroQAâs integration with Amazon Bedrock for actionable insight Amazon Web Services BAM Forms Joint Committee with GPBM to Improve Bank Customer Service in Morocco - Morocco World News Launch of New Districtwide Customer Service Platform The School District of Philadelphia My Utilities Account City of Santa Clara (.gov) Customer Service Center apps.tampagov.net Zomato lays off 500 employees from customer service roles The Economic Times "Wynning" customer service, how Wynn Auto Detailing has succeeded in Madison County Richmond Register 311 - Birminghamâs Customer Service Center City of Birmingham, Alabama (.gov) Welcome to Riverside Public Utilities City of Riverside California (.gov) RBI to focus on customer service, financial inclusion says RBI Gov Deccan Chronicle Running our contact centers on Azure Microsoft Fulton County Recognizes National Customer Service Week Fulton County (.gov) Dutch regulator calls out Lucky 7 Casino for customer service failings igamingbusiness.com 354th FSS gains new Customer Service Portal eielson.af.mil 11 key elements of excellent customer service Business.com Social Security is telling its staff that customer service is about to get a lot worse Business Insider Customer service transformation Capgemini Unleashing the value of customer service Capgemini Small, locally-owned waste management company says top-notch customer service is its No. 1 priority. Beneath the Surface News Attorney General Bonta Demands Better Customer Service for Californians State of California - Department of Justice (.gov) Sales & Customer Service Lake Michigan College Fulton County Recognized as a 2024 National Customer Service All Star Fulton County (.gov) |
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