Customer Service Policy
"A strong customer ethic must guide your business from the inception," writes author and business owner Paul Hawken in his book Growing a Business. "No matter whether you manufacture, grow, produce, distribute, or sell, you are 'in service.'"
But do you realize that quality customer service begins with your employees? An owner of a successful chain of hair salons advises that the first step is to set standards, then make sure everyone in the company understands them. Finally, he says, reward employees for achieving your service goals. Be sure to seek out and solve annoyances that could lead to poor morale. An employee with a complaint cannot be completely effective in dealing with customers. The axiom is easy to remember: "If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers."
On the other hand, Hawken warns, if your employees are not customer-oriented, no standards or goals will change that. "We concentrate on hiring people who embody the quality of service for which we strive. It is difficult to teach someone to be helpful and serve others if he or she is misanthropic to begin with."
Hiring the best people means trusting them. Your employees should be able to do what is necessary to make the customer happy without fear of reprisal.
Hawken says, "Policies and procedures are helpful only as guides toward an end result. When employees run out of possibilities to make the customer happy, they must have the latitude to improvise to make it right. Most employees operate in a state of fear that their own generosity with a customer will be viewed as foolishness by their boss. This situation will stifle flexible customer service."
References:
• Small Business Administration
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