Bad customer service is the quickest way to make your potential clients angry. You can have the slickest advertisement, rank number one in Google, but if your customer service is bad, you will have a long way to go to get to a successful business. If your customer service stays bad, you might wind up out of business. So what exactly is bad customer service anyway? If you have to ask, I am glad you are reading this customer service article. Hide a camera in your store. Observe what your customer service employees do. If you see them doing any of the things in this customer service article, retrain them immediately.
1. Not listening to the customer. This is a biggie. Customers come into your store prepared to buy something. Even if they are just window shopping, they are getting ready to buy something. If your company is online, your customer may already know exactly what they want. For crying out loud, LISTEN! Don't try to sell the customer something unrelated to what they asked for. Don't try to sell the customer something more expensive than what they asked for. If you want to compete in today's marketplace, you have to listen to your customer. They don't have to take bad customer service from you anymore. They can go online and blast your company to thousands of people. Avoid this by listening to your customer's needs.
2. Upselling the customer too soon. If your customer hasn't bought anything yet, don't try to upsell them. You should only upsell your customer AFTER the purchase. The reason for this is quite simple. Your customer has already said yes once they make a purchase. You risk losing the sale altogether if you try to upsell the customer before they buy anything in the first place.
3. Arguing with the customer. I shouldn't even have to put this one in here, but I've seen this happen entirely too often. Even if the customer is asking for something you don't have the authority to do, don't get into an argument with that person. It's a lose-lose situation. Even if you "win" the argument, you might lose that customer plus the person that's watching the argument. If you feel your temper about to explode, try to remove yourself from the equation as soon as possible. Ask another co-worker to help or ask one of your managers to come help.
Bad customer service is not something you want to be known for, especially if you rely on the Internet to market your business. News travels fast online. It seems like bad news travels even faster. Now I know it's nearly impossible to please EVERY customer. Make it your goal to provide good customer service to as many people as you can.
