Human service
Treating customers well is more important than anything else you do in business. They have the power to decide whether your company deserves to stay in business.
Customers are hard to find. It costs much more to get a new customer than to sell more to an existing one. That’s why keeping current customers happy is good business. When they are happy, they also bring new ones.
Every contact
Every customer contact or complaint is a chance. A chance to learn who your customers are, why they buy from you, and how you can make your product better. These few moments you spend talking with them shape their impression more than anything you do with marketing, design, or a new feature. Just be happy that they contacted you. Be interested in them and their work. Give them time. That’s how you earn loyalty.
Take the blame
Customer service usually starts when someone has a problem and they contact you. It’s hard not to fight back. But you need to take the blame. Tell them it's your fault. Say you're sorry. Let them know that they were right, and you were wrong. That's going to make the customer much happier. If you handle this well, the customer will be more satisfied than if they never had a problem in the first place.
Customer in power
When a customer feels they are in power, they behave better. Let them try freely. Don’t tie them up in contracts. Allow them to leave whenever they want. We don’t want your money if the product doesn’t fit or you’re not happy with it. Have a secure mindset. You can afford to lose a customer. This is long-term thinking.
Root problem
Most of the time, you can fix a customer’s problem quickly. But the harder problem would be fixing the root problem, why the customer contacts you in the first place. If you are committed to customer support and put real experts in, they can understand the root problem and get it fixed. By fixing the root problem customer support will never have to give the same answer again.
Speak small
We trust small companies more than big ones. Small companies are more human-scale. They are independent. We may know the owner and their family. We know that small companies can't afford to treat customers badly.
Big companies use corporate solutions and speak in corporate jargon. They write and behave like bureaucrats. There's nothing human about that. Don't pretend to be bigger. Speak and write like yourself. Use your real name and photo. Take personal responsibility. Tell them: “I’ll take care of this today”.
Different
There's very little difference in most products and services. Most are the same. And usually it's not worth making it one millimeter better. The customer won’t notice. The real difference comes down to how you treat your customers. What’s the customer’s experience when dealing with you — at every step? This will help you stand out. When others think it's not worth it, that's your chance. Taking customer service seriously, treating them like fellow human beings, is the best protection against competitors — and the right thing to do.
Real people
In a digital world, it's easy to forget that customers are real people, not numbers or data. An old lady in a senior home, trying to order a gift for her grandson. A father driving his kids to daycare while booking an appointment. These are real humans we need to serve.
We hate when customer service is run by bots. Even if a robot is better than a human, it's not enough for us. Fake empathy from a chatbot doesn’t work. We crave human contact. As a customer it's almost a luxury when there's an actual human who is interested in helping you. Someone who talks like a normal person, just trying to help.
Your job is to feel the pain with the customer. You may not even resolve the issue, but you can change how the customer feels. The customer senses when you care — and especially when you don't. This is the best thing you can do for your business.