What good customer service can do for YOU
Getting up-close and personal
Let me tell you a story.
A friend of mine worked as a manager for a small restaurant beside a school. It was quite out of the way, the location was the very definition of obscure, but he successfully managed it and made some money for himself. It started out slow, but every day, more people dropped by. Lines of cars were parked on the street. People from offices 2 kilometers away found themselves having lunch in a modest little restaurant in the middle of nowhere. How did he do it? Well, he got the best chef he could find, hired the friendliest waitresses, and served food with a smile.
He would personally chat with his customers, telling them little tidbits of information about his recipes, his financial woes, and his troubles when he was just starting out. Obviously, he was doing something right. To provide the best customer service, you need to make sure of one thing: that your customers are happy with your products and services. If you’re successful in doing that, they will drop by more often, buy more, and drag their friends to do business with you as well.
The benefits of mingling
There was a lot more to it than that of course, he made genuine friends with a lot of the people who frequented his restaurant. He made them feel involved with his successes, which made them feel like helping him. To those people, he wasn’t just the manager of a restaurant, he was a buddy, a friend they could talk to. They would often give suggestions openly on how to improve his restaurant. He did all of that by treating his customers like how he would treat his friends. And it worked for him quite well.
So what can good customer service do for you? It makes your clients happy, and a happy client will tell more people about you. That’s free marketing right there.
Related Articles:
- How to deliver the best customer service
- Why am I not making sales?
- The Zen of Price Negotiation
- Shaping Your Client Base
- How to win clients like a pro (even if you’re under 20)
It’s funny that you mention this now. I just wrote a story about an awesome customer experience I had at Starbucks the other day. I know, some people hate Starbucks because it’s big and corporate. But, I’ll tell you now, the way they made me feel that day was like I was part of a neighborhood helping each other. It makes me addicted to that store even more than I am for their products alone.