Customer Service Means Everything

Author: Jim Kukral Category: Creative Thinking, customer service Tags: customer service

Thursday
Apr 17, 2008

How’s your customer service? If it’s bad, you’re probably not very successful. It means… everything to your business… and your brand.

This video talks about my views on how good customer service is essential to your success. And I’m not just talking about “customers who buy stuff”. You may not sell anything. How you deal with people who read your blog, or who watch your videos, or who interact with your brand in any way… those are customers. Believe it. Everyone you interact with is your customer. You are always selling, indirect or direct.

Got something to add to this discussion? Leave a comment below or hey, send me a video about it and I’ll post it here!

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Comments

Missy

April 17th, 2008 at 3:48 pm

Hi—Jim:

I just had an incidence today on eBay. I recently sold an item, and received an email from buyer, that he was dissatisfied with them item and wanted a replacement. as i am a fairly new seller, i first freaked out and said, :oh my god my carrer at eBay is finished. Im abit over dramatic, so that might have been an over reaction.

But i though about it for awhile, and then decided to shoot an email to said buyer, and let him that i wanted to work things out with him, and handle things between us. as we both have 100% feedback, and dont want any negative scores.

We were both accommodating to each other, we both reached a mutual agreement, and this situation which could have turned out badly, turned out not half bad for both parties.

Good customer services requires:
1.) Action
2.) Speed of Action
3.) Mutual Benefit
4.) Closure

Found this groovy post through… what else? lovely Twitter.

Missy.

Missy’s last blog post..Top 5 Nutrients Vegetarians Need to Feel Groovy

Darla Dixon

April 17th, 2008 at 3:57 pm

Wow…I haven’t had the guts to really come right out and say “hey, it’s not cost effective for me to have you as a customer.”… I would be more likely to recommend that the person deal with an artist who would better suit their needs…basically saying the same thing…but maybe you didn’t mean that you LITERALLY booted a customer like that?

Also regarding the one person who will always complain, no matter what. Oh yes, they are out there. You could give them a gold brick and they’d complain that they don’t like what’s carved in it! There is nothing to do but feel a bit sad for people who live that way.

But I do welcome useful criticism and even complaints, because they are really useful to get better in all areas. I don’t just mean in the completion of artwork, but to give better service, even down to how I package portraits when I go to ship them. I try to ask as many questions as I can after the fact, to see what I could improve.

I actually made a squidoo page - http://www.squidoo.com/dealingwithdifficulties - on how artists can deal with “difficult” customers, because I had a client who really caused me to have literal nightmares. It could have caused me to quit before I had even begun my art business! So I made the page so that other artists wouldn’t let one bad apple send them to the brink either.

Today, I wouldn’t struggle on with a client like that one. I have a complete satisfaction guarantee and I mean it. I would just refund her money like that (snaps) and move on to a client that I could please.

Darla Dixon’s last blog post..Article and Artwork of Shaun Blue Published on Christian Science Monitor

Rachel Honoway

April 18th, 2008 at 9:30 am

Hi Jim -

Great topic - I couldn’t agree more! My roles have always centered around marketing, but one of the top priorities on my list has always been customer service.

Companies really should focus on retention, re-purchases and creating a customer base of raving fans that become evangelists for the product, service, content, etc. It seems, though, that many companies are focused on new customer acquisition and minimizing costs, which usually means just saying “bye-bye” to customers who are less than satisfied.