Treating Your Customers Like…

I’ve always told my Customer Service people that I would like (love?) for them to treat each & every customer as if that individual was their Mother.

Good ol’ Mom.

Show them the same exact level of respect, care & concern that you would normally do for your own Mom.

But then one day, one of my people came up with an even-better example to use…

“Treat every customer as you would your Grandmother!”

I must admit…that was absolutely brilliant!

We all love our grandmothers, regardless of what we may call them…Nanny, Nana, Grandma, Grammie, MeeMaw, Yaya, Nona, etc..

And we always try our very best to do the right thing for them, taking into consideration their age, medical condition, mobility, English language skills, famiarity with modern technology & so forth.

We respect them for what they’ve been through, considering what they’ve done & experienced in life yet we realize that there may be some things with which they’re not familiar.

But we exhibit great patience & take the necessary time to explain stuff to them.

It truly is a very special relationship…and that’s the mindset I always sought with my people .& our customers.

(Note: They’re not the customers…they’re OUR customers!)

– It’s a bitterly-cold wintry day in NY. A customer calls, asking for the location & directions to your nearest branch or store.

Instead of routinely providing the requested information, wouldn’t you normally ask your grandmother if there was something that you could do in order to save her a trip out in this crappy weather?

– A customer calls for balance information or money owed on an account or card they have.

Go the extra yard & ask Grandma why she would need this information.

Is she expecting a transaction that hasn’t yet posted to the account?

Is she waiting for the result of a pending investigation or research item?

Is there a new addition to, or subtraction from, her account?

Does she realize that there are several other options available that could easily provide her complete account information?

Take the extra time & show the appropriate care & concern just as you would do if your grandmother had called you directly.

And even if she has a complaint, make sure to hear her out & not act defensively. Serve as her advocate as her issue is not with you personally & she really needs…and DESERVES…to fully understand the situation at hand.

What happened.

Why it happened.

How it can be corrected.

What can be done to avoid recurrences.

You hopefully treat your grandmother with kid gloves & that includes every aspect of your interaction with her, including willingness to help, searching for the real cause of an issue & your tone of voice.

As with anything in life, before you can be successful at whatever endeavor…

…YA GOTTA WANNA!!!

You must have the right attitude & mindset even before you take any action.

If you start interacting with your customer determined to help out your Nana, you know damned well that you’re gonna go about it with your utmost care, concern & respect.

You won’t be satisfied until @ unless she is.

And you’ll leave no stone unturned in your pursuit of her actually enjoying her conversation with you!

 

As always, thank you so very much for listening!