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What Constitutes Good Customer Service?

Last week, my wife had to call our gas company because they had overestimated our natural gas bill by over $300 for one of our properties. As you can imagine, we wanted the bill to be fixed. When she called the company, she was met with some of the worst customer service that she or I had ever encountered. She was treated rudely, and as if she had no idea what she was talking about. Our bill was eventually adjusted, but it left us with a bad taste in our mouth. We are switching to all electric because we know we get good customer service from our local electric company. This isn’t a knee-jerk reaction, as we have dealt with the bad service for a decade and we refuse to take any more of it.

I believe what most people believe. Good customer service is a must or I will go elsewhere. Though there are some cases when it is obvious that the customer is wrong or things are not going well, but anyone who wants to retain business knows that you have to remain calm no matter what happens. Those who work in customer service know that when things get out of control, it is always a good idea to get management to move in before tempers are lost – and customers are lost as well.

All companies need to keep an eye on things to be sure their customers are getting good customer service, even when the customer is being difficult. Some even have repeat customers that give employees a hard time, but they do return because they are given a calm and serene response, even when they are irate for whatever reason. They can be hard to deal with, but they will return if they are getting great customer service. Money is money, and each customer does count, even if you are a large business with thousands coming in and out each day.

If you are worried about good customer service, no matter how many or few customers you have, you do have to keep an eye on things. You should take some time each day to see how your representatives are handling things, and be sure to have a solid set of guidelines and rules in place. Those that want to have good customer service must realize that not all reps can be perfect at all times, and that they need to have someone to call on when they feel they are losing control of the situation. If there is no one else, that go-to person can be you, as you have the most invested in being sure great customer service is occurring in your company.

Advertising ethics should be the hallmark of all website marketers, especially if they want to be successful over the long haul.

Running a website business offers many advantages over running a brick-and-mortar only business. The first advantage is you don’t have the overhead of property leases and high utilities. Another key advantage is that you can automate many business functions. Furthermore, you can have a flexible schedule that suits your lifestyle. These reasons make it easier to enjoy your work. But nevertheless, one of the main reasons you’re in business is to make money. When you give good service and stand behind your promises to customers, you naturally meet with greater success. After all, the drawback of a web-based business is that your customers don’t typically meet you face-to-face. You must work a little harder to gain their trust and establish your credibility as an honest, ethical marketer.

Developing good advertising ethics requires that you generally adopt that time honored adage, “the customer’s always right.” Anyone who has worked with the public knows that dissatisfied customers can be unreasonable at times, but if you treat them with respect and treat them fairly, they’ll return.

For example, if you advertise a product with a money back guarantee, you’ve got to be prepared to stand behind that promise. There are people who will take advantage of such offers, but luckily, those “chronic returners” are rare. All it takes is one disgruntled customer to put a terrible mark on your reputation, even if they happen to be one of the “few.”

Let’s say you put up a page on your website, making an offer good through a certain date. You mistype the date, and your customer is misled, believing it’s good for an additional period of time. It’s your mistake. Even if you discover the error after publishing, good advertising ethics requires that you allow the extended time period. Why? If you modify the page to correct the date, what happens when a previous visitor returns to make the purchase? You must honor the offer as published.

In a case like this, you can try to earn yourself a few PR points and turn it to your advantage. You could insert a note, right above the offer, to let your customers know you goofed, but are still going to honor the offer. You may even gain more sales, because your visitors have mentally calculated that your advertising ethics must be pretty trustworthy. You didn’t have to honor it, but you did.

Just as with a single disgruntled customer, who believes they’ve been treated badly, can spread the word about with their friends and online message boards, a happy customer also tells others of your impeccable advertising ethics. Good news spreads as well as bad news.

Although we know there are some genuinely unscrupulous marketers out there, it doesn’t make much sense for a legitimate business person to not embrace a high standard of advertising ethics. High ethics will do your business good in the long run.