By Deb Bixler
In any home business or direct sales business, just providing good customer service is not enough in a very competitive economy.
You need to encourage your team members to take their customer service from bland and average to spectacular.
How do they do that?
5 Tips For Over The Top Customer Service
Here are five things to do that will make your customer service stand out from the pack by turning indifferent customers into raving fans who will return again and again.
1. Create a positive experience from start to finish. Take a look at all aspects of your company to see how customers perceive their experience dealing with your business.
Did their phone calls get answered courteously and promptly?
Were they greeted with a smile and an enthusiastic hello every time you met with them?
Did you or a team member do everything possible to find answers to their questions?
Was every point of contact enthusiastic, energetic and incredible?
It is important to view your business from the other side and then improve any area that appears lacking.
2. Engage your customers and step into their shoes.
Listen to their wants and needs. Learn to empathize with their problems. They want to believe that you care about their desires. The direct sales business is all about customer relationships and sales consultants who can truly make connections will have the inside track on making the sale.
3. Think outside the box.
Doing the same thing over and over again is boring. It is also bad for business. Though customers are sometimes resistant to change, they do enjoy surprises from time to time.
Without making wholesale changes to your way of doing business, you can still offer little surprises that delight both repeat and new customers. Creativity, imagination and ingenuity are essential ingredients for successful entrepreneurs.
4. The customer is always right.
It can be difficult at times to acquiesce to the customer’s demands and requests. However, good customer service demands that you work with your team members to get them to truly understand that the customer is always right. If you offer more service, more empathy and more understanding than your competitor, your customers will notice.
5. A little enthusiasm goes a long way.
If you are not enthused about your business, how can you expect the customer to be enthused about your products or services? Deliver your customer service with enthusiasm and excitement. Make sure that your team members also provide customer service with the same levels of enthusiasm and excitement.
Customer service should impress and inspire.
It should be grounded in the fundamental belief that you have something wonderful to offer your customers and that they are intelligent and well-informed consumers. If customers are impressed and inspired, they will pull out their checkbooks, cash and credit cards to purchase your products and services.
If they feel that your service is bland and boring, you won’t be in the direct sales business for very long.
Deb Bixler retired from the corporate world using the proven business systems that made her a success working for others by incorporating them into her home business. In only 9 months Deb replaced her full time income with the sales and commissions from her home party plan business. Find her on Twitter: @debbixler.
