Sales Service Advice | Countrywide Home Loan Customer Service.

By Christos Varsamis

Customer service is the most vital asset for a Business, whetherit is online or offline. It’s the critical factor whichdetermines if your business has a future or not. There are twovital components to every interaction you have with a customer

1) The purchase or transaction 2) The relationship

In order to distinguish yourself among your competition,providing just good service is not enough. Your competitors dothe same. You must provide EXCELLENT service. That will happenif you follow these rules:

a) Solve your customer’s problems as fast as you can withouthassles.

b) Your employees should know their stuff and should bewell-trained.

c) Treat customers with respect, a quick response, andappreciation.

d) Authorize employees to provide as accurate information asthey can and make things happen for customers.

e) The customer should leave with a positive feeling.

One of the most serious problems corporations and small businessdeal with customers is the defection effect. It is the silentprocess where the customer takes his business from you and startdealing with your competition. This happens without yelling orshowing disappointment for your service up-front.

That process applies to many industries and trade sections. It’san epidemic. The cure here is to do the best you can in orderfor the customer to come back again and again. Most of yourprofits will come from few large accounts ordering continuously.

It is with these kinds of customers you should focus yourefforts and customer service. For example you could create atoll free call line 24/7 for tiding your large firms you dobusiness with.

On the other hand, that does not mean that you should leave yoursmall clients “out in the cold”. Supporting them is importanttoo. Imagine what would happen if a large customer stops workingwith you? What do you think the consequences for your companywould be if you leave your small customers?

Of course it costs less keeping a customer who makes revenue bycontinual orders than chasing and finding new clients. It’s nota secret the 80/20 rule, meaning that 80% of your profits willbe produced from the 20% of your clients. The rates of courseare not absolute, it could be 98% to 2%. There are Real lifeexamples for these rates.

After all, the most effective advertising in the business worldis the "word-of-mouth advertising." It’s so effective becausethe testimonials gain you trust , which means the happy clienthas no self-interest causes for proposing a particular firm tohis friend. This can be accomplished if you have providedexceptional service to your clients.

Another important factor of a great customer service is that ithas to be countable. For example: “ You must answer the phonefast” doesn’t mean anything . On the contrary : “You must answerthe phone sooner that the third ring” is an accurate customerservice rule.

Finally, one of the most important leaps in customer service wecan find in today’s business world is the individual sectionmindset most of the companies follow. That means theinteractions between the different sections of the company(Sales/Telemarketing, Shipping, Technical support,Credit/Collections, Order processing) do not function as a teambut more often as individual sectors of the firm.

The most discouraging feeling for a customer is dealing withmore departments with lack of critical information between themand not being able to find a solution to the problem.

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