Unfortunately, many business owners, who have grown up with the mantra of customer service forget this because they have been branded with the words, “customer service”. Though great customer service is the number one goal, it is not the ultimate aim. Both the client and yourself have an ulterior motive, your product or service; they want to put it to use and you want them to pay you for it.
Many business owners forget this in the push for great customer service. Many companies now in fact are pushing their employees to provide great customer service at the cost of providing adequate access to the product that they are seeking. Let us use a store for example: The stores are all being geared to providing great customer service because of a discovery by some great sales people – customers tend to purchase from those they trust and have a good relationship with. Many business owners wishing to capitalize on this fact push their employees to provide greater and greater customer service. Because of this, store aisles, grounds, and product availability suffer constantly costing sales and angering customers who go off to find the product they need elsewhere. Chances are, while you’re paying attention to customer service alone, your competition has discovered a good balance, providing customer service while giving them adequate access to the product line.
A healthy balance is necessary in anything we do. It is one thing to provide great customer service, but if you do not have the product your customers need or they have to wait a good amount of time for you to find them the product, they will end up in the clutches of the competition. What you need to learn is how to divide the workload so that there are customer service employees and product specific employees in the operations centers (Place where customers are). They need to be constantly refreshing products while the CS (customer service) employees go about meeting and greeting your customers. One employee who knows where all the goods and services are or resources to them need to be designated, while the rest are taught what this employee knows. Each employee should have good product knowledge as well as customer service training.
By doing this, you not only create an environment of great customer service, but set a precedent for great customer service, product availability, and customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is greater than customer service because it shows that you have provided an acceptable level of service and had products/service/knowledge readily available to meet or exceed the needs of your client. Now, isn’t that the number one goal of customer service anyhow? It is great that you want to become a place where your customers come and their visit should be a memorable one. And it will not be memorable if all they did was come in and talk instead of getting what they needed.
One of the things you can do as a business owner is learn how to remove your emotions from the business and empower your employees to make decision based on what they see. Teach them how to recognize and cooperate in dealing with the customer and their needs. By doing this you not only create entrepreneurial minded employees who will go out and service your customers well, but will also create decision making customers who think like you. They will own the business and the responsibility of making your company’s vision of customer service a success.
In closing, even friends argue when they can’t get what they want or need from one another. They will go to other friends if you can’t provide their necessity. It is the same with customers who come to your business. Customer service must be synonymous with product availability or service availability; otherwise the latter is a failed effort. A business owner must not sacrifice their product for customer service or vice versa. Both must work hand in hand for the business to remain financially healthy and stable.
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