Make sure that whoever is your company’s first line of defense is the right person for the job. Recently I was searching for a particular office whose address didn’t seem to exist. I walked into a random office and asked the person behind the reception window if she knew where the office was. She didn’t, but she promptly keyed the address into Map Quest and assured me that I was on the right track but in the wrong complex. I thanked her and walked out the door, marveling at that lucky company. If she was willing to go the extra mile to help me, somebody who obviously didn’t belong there, what kind of customer service would she provide to the folks who did belong there?
Providing good customer service is a necessity in an age of many choices. Who would you be more willing to do business with? The company across town whose friendly employee goes the extra mile or the one down the street whose employee is rude and unwilling to help? Insist that your employees demonstrate a customer-friendly attitude and watch your company grow.
The hardware company Ace builds its reputation on being the place with “the helpful hardware man.” Your company should be known as a place with helpful employees. It doesn’t matter which products you’re selling or the kind of the services you provide.
Hire customer friendly people. And if you must hire someone who relates better to nuts and bolts instead of people, don’t put them in people-contact positions. However, it may not always be easy to determine if you’re hiring a customer friendly person. If you need help in making a hiring determination, consider implementing DiSC in the hiring process. Using the Personal Profile System can help to understand what customer service traits and people skills a particular person prefers. This will help you spend your time looking for the best customer service person to fit that roll NOT wasting time replacing an already marginal front-line person with someone who can do the job!
Contributed by Diane Owens, contributing editor to NTG, a business development and training company. You can read more about this topic and others or join our free, online newsletter at www.quicktrainingsolutions.com.
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