IMPROVE YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE

Age Is No Barrier To Being Polite

Many stores employ juniors (15 , 16 years old) and fail to train them in the basics of good customer service.
If a customer asks you a question , comments on the store , or engages in any sort of communication , reply to them , answer them , acknowledge them.
Don't just stand there look at them and ask for the money.
Employers should spend the time training the staff and they will reap the rewards of repeat customers.
Failure to acknowledge the customer will result in your business being a "one stop shop' where one stop will be enough.

Stay Where The Service Is Good

I recently went to Sydney and stayed at the Crown Plaza Darling Harbour and could not fault the visit.
The room was spotless as was the rest of the hotel.
The staff in the hotel were exceptional from checkout to the restaurant to the door staff and truly made the stay a pleasure.
Hotels could get take a lesson from this hotel especially in these economic times.

Sometimes The Customer Is Right

If a customer has a valid reasonable complaint about your business or service then agree with them.
The customer will be happy to see that the business wants to resolve the complaint and that is good customer service.

Airconditioning - Too Hot ,Too Cold , At Least Turn It On

In these harsh economic times we all look at cutting costs.
However one thing we should not be scrimping on is customer comfort.
It needs to be comfortable for customers and staff alike and turning off the airconditioner in the middle of summer only drives customers away or makes you a one stop shop , the customer will only shop once.
Turn on the air conditioner , the customer does not want to shop in a sweat box , and you do not need to sweating in your store.
Climatic conditions in your store are a key aspect of good customer service.

How About A Decent Table

On a recent trip to Sydney I had dinner in a cafe ( quiet busy ) and was so glad I did not get this table.
Your tables and chairs represent your business and they should be clean , straight and of a quality that enhances your business.
This cafe did not understand.

Swapping Internet Providers - Be Careful

Recently I helped someone change their ISP from Chariot to TPG ( their decision not one I would have advised ).
They were promised that they would be able to keep their Chariot email address upon switching and bear in mind that Chariot are now owned by TPG.
Did not happen and an apology was offered by TPG , too late for that.
When setting up the router the password that TPG supplied was incorrect and we were forced to ring the TPG help desk only to be told by a recorded message that they were too busy to answer the call and we were to ring later.
Upon ringing later and getting through , TPG told us the correct password.
This whole exercise is not a great example of customer service.

It's 2009 Shouldn't We Have Television We Can Watch

On a recent trip to Sydney I stayed at the Menzie's Hotel , one of Sydneys famous Hotel's.
I had a few problems while I was there but one that amazed me was the poor television reception at the Hotel with Channel 10 totally unwatchable due to a sound problem on the television.
I reported it and was told that it would be looked at.
Three days later when we left it was still broken.
Poor reception and poor sound on a television in 2009 in a major city is beyond comprehension and the fact that the hotel appeared to do nothing about it does not represent good customer service.
Go back to your customer and say look we cannot fix it at the moment and we apologize for this.
In 2009 it's not that hard.