Customer Care

7. Care Starts with Employees

Whether there are two of you or 20, everyone in your business has a role to play in customer care. It is not just the people in obvious frontline roles who need to be involved.

Your reputation can be seriously harmed by someone who is curt or offhand on the phone.

But real damage can also be done by the person who sends out the wrong invoice or who holds up completion of an order.

7.1 Lead by example and care for your employees.

If you do not, you cannot expect them to care for your customers.

• Reward excellent customer service.

7.2 Let your employees see how directly their efforts can affect the final product or service you provide.

7.3 Train your employees in the right technical and personal skills. This need not take long.

• A common weak point is answering the telephone. Whoever usually answers the phone should be trained thoroughly, to a high level of professionalism. At the same time, everyone in the company should be taught how to handle calls and take basic enquiries.

7.4 When one person has made a mistake, whoever is talking to the customer must take responsibility by apologising.

• Make it an iron rule that employees never blame others in the company.

7.5 Encourage employee suggestions and give generous rewards for good ones.

7.6 Sit down together and decide realistic standards to aim for.

• Avoid meaningless or unattainable targets.