Do you want your company to provide outstanding customer service? Well, all you have to know is the alphabet! Here are some alphabetical tips to providing high quality customer service...and it's easy to remember! As easy as ABC!

A - Attitude: Maintaining a positive attitude is critical! Positive people set the tone for those around them, and uphold a positive image of their company when interacting with their customers.

B - Balance: Striking a balance between your professional life and personal life is imperative to your success!

C - Compassion: This one really goes without saying...compassion is essential to all customer service interactions!

D - Demeanor: Always display your best, professional customer service demeanor when dealing with your customers.

E - Empathy: Your customers want us to do more than just provide our regular customer service, and actually understand how they are feeling. Inject your customer service interactions with some empathy!

F - Fun: Let loose! Customers enjoy dealing with staff that displays a light-hearted attitude. Yes, it is possible to be professional and also have fun.

G - Grace: This is especially important when interacting with irate customers, but applies to all customer service interactions. Remember to conduct yourself with grace!

H -Honesty: Be honest with your customers at all times. If you are unable to assist them, be honest and transfer them to someone who can.

I - Innovation: Constantly improve on your methods and work on advanced solutions. Be innovative!

J - Jovial: When on the phone or live chat with a customer, remember that they would rather deal with a happy representative, not a representative who is just indifferent. Why not elevate their mood while alleviating the problem?

K - Knowledgeable: Be knowledgeable about the company you represent, and all of its products and services. This way, you will always have the answer to every question!

L - Loyalty: Outstanding customer service not only keeps your clients happy-it also creates loyalty. Your goal is to maintain their loyalty!

M - Multitask: A good customer service representative is adept at multitasking! They must be able to take phone calls, help a customer via live chat, and generally be able to perform their daily tasks while helping their clients at the same time.

N - No: While the word "no" may not be the best thing to say to a customer, sometimes it needs to be said. Replace the word "no" with a phrase like "I am unable to, but what I can do is..."

O - Organized: Organization is very important, because you won't be able to assist your clients if you can't even find the answers! Make sure that your workspace is always organized.

P - Personable: Project an agreeable personality, and reach out to the customer. Always remind them that they can contact you for assistance at any time, and I assure you-they will!

Q - Quality Service: Pride yourself on providing quality service, and your clients will pick up on it. Never settle for providing less than the best!

R - Responsibility: As a representative of your company, you will ultimately have to assume responsibility for some issues. Simply take responsibility, and offer solutions to fix the issue.

S - Satisfaction: Make sure that you're taking customer complaints seriously, and using them towards bettering your product or service. This way, you can help increase customer satisfaction!

T - Trust: Without trust, you have no customers! They depend on you to deliver exactly what you promise, and it is up to you to help build client trust every day.

U - Understanding: Always try to understand what the customer experienced when helping them with a problem. This will help you, help them.

V - Versatile: Be ready to adapt to any issue at a moment's notice! Even if you have dealt with smaller issues all day, you should always be prepared to deal with a disastrous one!

W - Welcoming: Welcome customers who are new to your product or service with a friendly phone call, and your extension should they have any questions or require assistance.

X - The X Factor: Just when you thought there wouldn't be anything for "X"! Here is an excellent book, about boosting your productivity anOn many days it seems like customer service just ain't what it used to be. I don't know about you, but I far too frequently encounter rude sales staff, rude waiters/waitresses, rude cashiers, etc... However, one man inspired me to find stories and to write an article on inspiring customer service. 

The man who inspired me is a bus-boy (I'm guessing in his 40's) at a Coney island, in Warren, MI; he has long straggly hair pulled into a pony-tail, some skull tattoos, a do-rag on his head, and he was the most polite person in the entire restaurant. When he approached our table he said, "please excuse me (and he actually meant it!), may I clear your plate for you?" I replied, "you certainly may - thank you!" He smiled and while taking my plate said, "thank you, have a nice day." I replied to my father, with whom I was having lunch, "WOW - he breaks a lot of stereotypes doesn't he? He's probably the most polite bus-boy I've ever seen!" As our conversation continued about this man's service, I watched him as he traversed around the restaurant and every single table he approached received the same outstanding service. He absolutely made my day! Imagine how pleasant every experience could be if more people employed his customer service techniques - polite, respectful, and sincere!
 
Every person who has a "customer" has an opportunity to make a difference and to create memories that will motivate their customers to keep coming back. In the spirit of having a positive attitude and in honor of customer service week (October 6-10, 2008) the following are two popular outstanding customer service stories:

The Hero

This man has been called a hero. There has been a book written about him entitled, "The Richest Man in Town." He was 70 years old and he received a "Hero Award," from the retail store for which he worked; this award is very rarely given to people in his position. You may or may not have ever heard of him... his name is Marty Martinson.     
 
Marty never made much money, he lived in a double-wide trailer, and he wasn't well educated. Marty was kind, respectful, compassionate, and humble. Marty, in fact, was a cashier at a Wal-Mart in Billings, South Dakota. Marty had a firm belief that every person deserved to be treated with kindness and respect.

Marty spent about two minutes on average with each customer, yet he always inspired. Marty asked questions, gave firm handshakes, and showed a genuine caring attitude toward every person in his checkout line. He touched not only their hands with his hand-shakes, he also touched their hearts. Customers kept coming back and Marty's line got longer and longer, because more and more people wanted to continue experiencing Marty's special touch.
 
Johnny the Bagger

Johnny was a 19 year old bagger in a grocery store. Johnny also happened to be a person with Down Syndrome. Johnny attended a training class on customer service where he learned the importance of putting one's personal style into interactions with customers. At first he didn't think there was anything different that he could do because he "was just a bagger." But, then he had an idea...  Every evening after dinner Johnny read a "thought for the day" and when he didn't like what he read, he would make up his own. So one night, Johnny's father helped Johnny put a "thought for the day" quote into the computer and he printed several copies of the quote, cut them out, signed the back, and brought the stack of quotes to work that next day. When Johnny was bagging groceries for each of his customers, he slipped a piece of paper with a quote into the bag and said, "Thank you for shopping with us."
 
After a few weeks, Johnny's checkout line was at least three times longer than all the other lines. The store manager called for all the back-up cashiers he could find, but a most peculiar thing happened... nobody wanted to leave Johnny's line! As he was trying to urge people to move to a shorter line, the manager heard over and over again, "No thanks, I'll wait for Johnny" or "Nope, I'll stay here, I want Johnny's thought for the day."
 
Customers who only stopped by sporadically started shopping more often, just to get Johnny's thought for the day. Not only did Johnny's personal style of customer service inspire his customers, he also inspired other employees in the store. For example, when the floral department employees had flowers with a broken stem, they would find a little girl and give her the flower.
 
Lessons to take away

The stories of the bus-boy, Johnny the bagger, and Marty provide reminders about how simple, sincere actions can have a positive impact on customer service. Let's get back to the basics of customer service - it doesn't have to be extravagant, it doesn't have to be an expensive formal program. It does have to make people want to come back, to continue donating, to continue visiting, to bring their friends, to buy your products and services, or to make donations for your non-profit organizations. Some things to remember as you deal with your customers (internal and external), your clients, your students, your volunteers, your donors:

Positive attitudes returns positive results

Smile - it just might make someone's day

Always be respectful, especially in the tough situations

Put your personal finger print on customer satisfaction

What you say and what you do matters

Every moment counts - make them good moments

It's not your position that matters most, it's choosing what matters most that counts

Great service comes from the heart 

Customer Service is not a department, it's an ATTITUDE!

Do you have the right one?