“The Customer is Always Right”

Whether you are communicating with a customer service representative in person or over the phone, the term “the customer is always right,” has lost its meaning. It once served as the guiding principle for dealing with customer inquiries and complaints. Though it did not literally mean the customer was right and the company was wrong, it kept civil the interaction between company representatives and consumers of goods and services by compelling the representatives to see the issue from the customer’s perspective.

.Hiring Practices

Your customers judge your business by the people you hire to work for you. From the sales person behind the counter, to the cook in the kitchen, you must do your hiring with your customers in mind. In addition to experience, appearance and personality are key factors to consider. You can definitely expect someone who is not concerned with appearance to show little concern for his work, your business or your customers. The same holds true for personality issues. When hiring someone who will even remotely be interacting with customers, the person must be articulate, affable, courteous, considerate, intelligent, patient and self-confident. Expect the interviewee to display some degree of nervousness during your interview. However, extreme nervousness is an indication of a lack of confidence. When dealing with customer issues, confidence equates with competence. This elicits a positive response from customers making it easier for them to accept not “always being right.”

Always check references when hiring new employees.

.Benefits

An employee’s attitude toward his position directly relates to the value he places upon your customers and the way he responds to their needs. Trying to avoid paying bene...

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...recipients of this honor.

.Technology’s Victims

Another Customer Lost

Credit: Business woman expresses her anger while on her cell phone. image by Andy Dean from Fotolia.com

As companies grow, they lose the personal touch, allowing automation to replace people with “menus”. When calling a company to make an inquiry or register a complaint, the customer listens to a menu from which to select the desired service before getting lost in an endless succession of menus offering scripted responses that usually do not apply to the reason for the call. The customer eventually hangs up in frustration and seeks out a business employing “live” people to respond to inquiries. The savings gained by companies who replace people with machines are lost with the gradual drifting away of customers. The next Civil War will be fought between consumers and automated businesses.