What is good customer service? It means doing your best to satisfy customer needs. If you think about it, it is really about relationships.
Some thoughts on what customer service means..
- Responsiveness – Make sure your accessible. Answer the phone, respond to email inquiries in a timely manner
- Deliver what you say you can -Only make promises you can keep, say what you can do and then do it.
- Be helpful if there is no immediate profit-Years ago I backed out of my sister-in-law’s driveway at the cottage and I hit a boulder partially buried and heard an awful sound on the passenger side. My cool sister-in-law, LaVerne, stepped out the passenger door to survey the damage. She said, “it’s nothing”. Then she opened the back door and I saw this long 12″ wide x 6 foot long piece of plastic moulding which she flung into the backseat. I had tore the plastic moulding from the entire length of the car. I thought as she got back in the passenger seat, that sure looks like something. Actually, seeing her easy going response, I didn’t react. The first and probably only time I didn’t react! This story always sticks in my mind as there was no fuss, no muss and no stress. Just love LaVerne! So back to my point, I ended up taking it to a local body shop thinking this is going to cost me. Well, I took it to a local body shop that had just worked on my car a few months before this for an insurance claim. He looked at it and arranged to fix it and told me not to worry about it. Needless to say, over the years, I was a loyal customer taking any auto body car repairs to that shop. Unfortunately the ownership has since changed hands.
- Make complaints opportunities-If you pay enough attention to complaints and resolve an issue and handle the situation well, it can become an opportunity. People will remember how you fixed their problem especially if it was to their satisfaction..
- Knowledgeable and Skilled Employees- Make sure someone skilled can actually fix your dishwasher! Now that’s a story I will get into later.
- Take extra steps-Instead of saying something is in Aisle 14, maybe stop what you are doing and take the customer there. Make the extra effort. People will remember this.
- Throw in something extra-A coupon, a smile, dishwasher pods with your new dishwasher. I did get that today!
Medical care is a service and patients are customers. So good customer service is really important in this field because health is important to all of us. If you get bad service or a Dr. Dick, not only will there be complaints or errors made, it is generally bad for business.
Good medical care should include a thorough review of the patient’s chart, double-checking prescriptions to make sure they are the right ones, listening to concerns and not rushing through appointments or procedures. If you are really sick or an anxious Annettie, you may need extra time and good customer service would be to take that time. This is what I am expecting for my next Oncologist appointment this Friday. I just hope I get all the information required to make an informed decision. Being the customer, if I don’t get the info I need, I won’t be happy and it may delay my decision on next steps.
Now why am I writing about customer service? Well, because I have some important decisions to make about my cancer treatment plan and I have a lot of questions. I hope I get good customer service and I do expect I will as it’s been good so far. The other reason I am writing about customer service is because I interacted with various individuals in the customer service field today and thought about what makes good customer service.
Finally my new dishwasher arrived and was installed!! The installers commented on how brand new my old dishwasher looked. One of the young men said the power junction looks burned out. He said, that this often goes and can easily be fixed. He further suggested we should try to see if the old dishwasher works with the new power junction from the new machine. Low and behold, it worked! All I kept thinking was that I didn’t have a dishwasher since March 31st and this could have been fixed? Was the repairman inept? Maybe or maybe not.
We rationalized because the repairman ordered the power cord and the control panel, it may have been too costly for the warranty company to repair. Plus if they factored in the other times they were here to replace the hinges and trim, it was probably a write off. In any event, the installer suggested I keep the dishwasher and sell it on Kijiji and that it would only need the power junction. Anyway I was impressed with the installers! He could have said it didn’t work and took it himself. I didn’t expect them to test my old dishwasher out and offer to move it to the basement for me. So I posted it on Kijiji right after they left and already have an offer on the table. So I may give it a day or so to see what happens.
Busy day! Remember I talked about “Cleaning for a Reason” well the company affiliated with them also came today right after the dishwasher installers. Two young ladies showed up that were extremely thoughtful and generous with their time. They called to let me know they were running a little late and wanted to make sure they met my priorities and did a thorough job. They didn’t factor in enough time being that they had never been here before. I think I may be their first cancer patient. That said, they made sure to do what they could in the time they had allotted. They even presented me with a card which was totally unexpected. I opened the card, it was the first time I got a card that said “IN DEEPEST SYMPATHY”. Well I received them before when some of my relatives died but not one specifically for me. I thanked them and when I went into the other room, I laughed quietly to myself. I didn’t have the heart to tell them some people could take this the wrong way. They wrote how humbled and grateful they were to have this opportunity and wanted to welcome me to their cleaning family. How sweet! They were too cute. This goes well with my post from the other day. People know not what they say but they certainly have the best of intentions. I got a kick out of the card as it makes me laugh! I was touched by these sweet hard working girls. I should mention they were either Mexican or Spanish and one was more fluent than the other. So I don’t believe English is their first language.
I could see that they were customer oriented, did a good job and were very conscientious. They wouldn’t accept any tips and actually refused…. I will get them next time somehow though! For them to be happy and volunteer their time means a lot especially as my heart palpitations aren’t going away and make me feel fluttery.
Tomorrow off to get an EKG and a halter monitor. Might as well get checked out as my new job is meeting with medical customer service regularly.
Service with a smile!
