Principles and Practice

Good customer care has to be genuine for it to really work. If every person working in your business is committed to providing excellent customer care, that’s half the battle won.

Always put yourself in the customer’s shoes, after all, you buy goods and services too, how do you prefer to be treated?

A customer-focused business will:

Make ALL customers feel welcomed, respected and valued (see Understanding your customers’ needs)
Place the customer’s needs at the heart of business practice
Give staff training and encouragement to deal with customer care issues and complaints in a consistent and confident manner
View customer complaints as valuable feedback
Provide services at a time and place that suits customers, making premises accessible and offering a range of communication methods eg face-to-face, telephone, textphone and online.

Making the customer feel valued:

Avoid leaving customers unattended
If you have to leave a customer unattended, use eye contact and a smile to let the customer know you have seen them and will come to them
When you are able to attend to the customer, be sure to apologise if you’ve kept them waiting
Give the customer your full and undivided attention, (ie don’t look over their shoulder at the queue behind or up at the clock!)
Take pride in your job – this attitude will communicate itself to the customer as clearly as if you had put it into words
It may be the 100^th time you’ve been asked the same question, but don’t forget it will be the customer’s first time of asking
If you’ve promised to do something – do it! If there is a problem or delay, keep the customer informed

Above all, WANT to help. If you want to you will!