Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service

"In your one-to-one contact with customers, the once vague, impersonal company takes on shape and substance."

"Keeping the promises you make and making promises you can keep is what reliability is all about."

"Deadlines become the yardsticks by which your customer will measure your success or failure."

"Customers know they can trust you because of the competence and confidence you display in your work."

"Recognizing your customers' emotional states helps you figure out the best way to effectively and professionally serve them."

"Tangibles help convey the value of the service transaction's intangible aspects."

"In your organization, your customer is whoever benefits from the work you do?or, conversely, whoever suffers when your work is done poorly or not at all. "

"Customers want you to care about serving them."

"Customers are not always right, but they are _always_ our customers."

"There are two very good reasons for facing your customer with the bad news."

"It's important for professionals to understand the rules that direct their efforts."

"It's important to listen actively, almost aggressively."

"Three types of questions will help you in your search for clues to what the unsure customer needs from you."

"When our nonverbal signals send a different message than our words, our customers can become disoriented, confused, and skeptical of our motives, actions, and interest in serving their needs."

"Before you ever pick up a telephone, you should take a moment to be sure that you are mentally prepared to deal with the customer on the other end."

"Good writing is an extremely powerful part of good service. Inept writing undermines everything you've worked so hard to build."

"Attention to details is a prime characteristic of high-performing organizations."

"Even if your title is customer service representative and a coworker is a sales associate, you both have the same goal: satisfying the customer."

"You need to say thanks to your customers every day."

"Healing injured customer feelings requires sensitivity to their needs, wants, and expectations."

"The solution to every problem, whether major or minor, should start with a sincere apology."

"Professionals recognize the emotional element of a service breakdown and manage the recovery in a calm, professional, even-tempered way."

"Atonement is a way of providing a value-added touch to tell customers their business is important to you."

""I" statements clearly communicate that you need the customer to stop a particular behavior."

"Appearances have an effect, both on customers who don't know you and on supervisors and coworkers who do. "

"Think of lifelong learning as a personal customer service workout program."