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hi thanks for joining us today we're answering the question what is customer service and why is it important the seven essentials to excellent customer service i'm david brownlee president of david brownlane associates and founder of smallbusinesstrainingprogram.com and the seven secrets to a million dollar business if you're a business owner or entrepreneur you know how frustrating it can be when clients are not happy with your product or service whether or not it's you or your company's fault especially with websites like yelp and angie's list google reviews customer service is more important than ever to get right it can literally crush your business if you screw it up within minutes hundreds thousands or even millions of prospective customers can see your company's bad reviews that's heavy on the flip side they can also see your good reviews which is what we'll focus on today providing excellent customer service that will exceed client expectations give you loyal customers with repeat business and eventually increase your revenues and grow your business in this video we're going to highlight seven essential elements to excellent customer service that will build that loyalty and repeat customers for you and your brand you can do this by putting these essentials to work in your business today so let's get started number one be aware of the three things every customer wants when it comes to your customer service your customers psychology plays a key role in how they perceive your company's customer service first your customers want to be heard they want to be heard all the time but especially when they have a problem with your product or service when they express their concerns or desires make sure you you and your employees understand this for example if you have a customer that's just heated and steaming mad just let them then a lot of times that's all the clan needs they'll get it out of their system and they'll love you again just for listening to them it's amazing second your customers want to be understood make sure that you or your staff ask questions and repeat and confirm your customers concerns or needs your company needs to fully understand your customers situation a lot of times miscommunication takes place and your staff is working to solve a problem that is totally off the mark and not addressing the issues your client actually has so you can see this is extremely important number three your client wants to be cared for they need to feel important you and your staff need to show concern for them and show an effort to solve their problem and accommodate their requests regardless if they can accommodate them or not depending on your company's policies they want to see the effort being made a lot of times you won't be able to accommodate their requests but the customer appreciates the effort moving on to number two of the seven essentials write this down s e c sec this is an acronym i came up with because it only takes a sec to do but it's so important in your customer interaction that it can make or break your sale and determine whether or not your customers will even come back you have to remember it s e c sec it stands for smile eye contact and comment make sure you write this down smile eye contact and comment smiles are contagious when you're greeted by a smiling representative of a company that appears happy and glad to see you and you know it's your ins instinct to smile back you're ready for your interaction with this company i mean even if you've had a crappy day and if the rep does it right you will smile back you may realize oh i'm grumpy and consciously wipe that grin off your face but your instinct is to smile back and even when you're angry you know we expect subconsciously to be greeted by customer service reps sales people servers and restaurants with a smile service with a smile we expect it although it's harder and harder to find that in companies right for example i fly a lot and with everything that's been going on with the airlines these days with budget cuts flight delays increased security et cetera those folks that work for the airlines from the front desk to the flight attendants aren't always the nicest people to deal with you know i get that they're underpaid and lack of job security etc but simple smile and greeting would make all the difference in the world right even if they say the right thing you know welcome to delta we know you have a lot of choices when you fly we're glad you picked us where are you flying to today you know they're the right words but with no smile it doesn't make you exactly feel warm and fuzzy inside does it okay you get my point but this is huge next make sure you or your reps make eye contact with the customer eye contact shows that you're ready to engage them and ready to help them in some way it shows you care about what they're about to tell you and you're listening to them make sure you use eye contact in combination with the smile you know because you don't want to freak anybody out you know just staring at them then you want to make a friendly comment to them it could be about the weather or lighthearted current events you know you can even compliment the client on either their clothing or some jewelry that you like etc but you know be sincere and fellas be careful with your compliments to women keep it classy and not creepy that's important the third element to excellent customer service is to listen to the customer remember your clients want to be heard and understood the only way to do that is to really listen to what they're saying acknowledge what they said and repeat it back to them so you're sure that you're addressing the right issue many times angry customers will stop pursuing further action on your part after they know they've been heard and that you care about them and their needs it sounds too good to be true but it is they sometimes actually feel guilty for causing you grief and will apologize to you at this point when that happens you know you're doing this right fourth the fourth thing is to empathize with your customers that they're you know when they're having issues really listen to what they're telling you and then confirm you understand what the issue is tell them i understand how you feel i understand where you're coming from whether they're right or wrong this will usually allow them to let down their guard a bit and calm down if they're really angry or dissatisfied even if you ultimately cannot deliver the exact outcome they're looking for by empathizing with them and their problem they're more likely to accept a more reasonable solution and that's best for everybody involved fifth create solutions for your clients issues and complaints consult your company policies invoices take a look at the customer's history whatever you need to do to come up with a solution form a lot of times you have to get creative and do things that you may not have thought of before if a client is so dissatisfied with your company's product or service that the only remedy is to give a full refund it will most likely be in your best interest just to do it i'm not saying you want to lose money on a regular basis but hopefully this occurrence is what is rare right and if it's not you need to make some serious changes in your organization you may need to hire a customer service training company to come into your organization and turn it around in fact a lot of companies turn to us david brownlee and associates for customer service training when they don't have an adequate customer service training program in place now when you hire us we will come in we'll assess your situation and custom tailor a solution for your business this is extremely important sixth clarify the situation with the client you need to make sure that the customer is a hundred percent satisfied once their issue has been resolved review the remedy with them then again gain agreement that the remedy is sufficient you don't want to provide a solution for a client bending over backwards you know from them thinking they're happy and then find out later through yelp or better business bureau that the client actually was not satisfied with your solution so clarifying the remedy for your client situation will save you a lot of grief and finally seven follow up with all your customers you want to make sure each of your customers had a great experience with your company your brand's reputation depends on it and can affect future business so even though more companies are starting to follow up with clients after the sale still most companies do not it doesn't matter what industry you're in they're missing out on referral business repeat customers and positive reviews you can follow up with a simple phone call asking them one or two questions about their experience that alone will send your customers through the roof with excitement i mean they'll they'll realize hey this company actually cares about me one of the three crucial psychological elements is that your customers need to feel cared for you know like we talked about earlier or you can send an email to them thanking them for their business it's easy to put a survey in there too but if they were dissatisfied with your company it may be too late to save the relationship so if you do a survey follow up with any clients that were dissatisfied immediately it's less personal than a phone call but if you've got a lot of customers and you know that it may make better sense for you to follow up with emails but i always suggest following up with clients with what's called a drip campaign via email after the sale anyway a drip campaign is an email they receive from you offering coupons discounts invites to special events and company news so you want to say you want to stay in the minds of your past clients for example your drip campaign emails can go out once a week they can go out once a month or even once a quarter offer them something of value or interest and if you provided them with excellent customer service they'll buy from you again and then they'll tell their friends and their family and their co-workers to buy from you too you can set up drip campaigns very easily now with bulk email providers like constant contact eye contact mailchimp and others they work pretty much the same way explore which companies you like best for more great strategies on marketing watch my video for essentials on how to market a company so let's recap what customer service is and the seven essentials to providing excellent customer service this will increase your customer loyalty and get you more repeat business and referrals one be aware of the three things every customer wants to be heard to be understood and to be cared for two memorize the acronym sec s-e-c which stands for smile eye contact and comment if you take away one thing from this training video this is it very important and three listen to your customers your clients want to be heard and understood four empathize with your customers confirm that you understand what they're feeling five create solutions for your clients issues and complaints six clarify the situation with the client make sure your client is a hundred percent satisfied with your remedy to their problems that they had with your company and seven follow up with all your customers with phone calls emails surveys or drip campaigns i truly hope you got great value out of this video and learned something today to help you gain customer loyalty referrals and great online reviews please leave a comment below and i will personally be answering any questions you may have for more information on how to achieve customer service excellence and grow your business visit dot small business smallbusinesstrainingprogram.com for personal coaching or customer service training for your organization visit .davidbrownly.com thanks again for joining us i'm david brownlee and we'll see you next time