{"id":11817,"date":"2017-09-27T12:23:04","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T12:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/?p=11817"},"modified":"2022-10-05T16:10:19","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T16:10:19","slug":"customer-service-week-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/customer-service-week-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Customer Service Week 2017: How to Make a Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s National Customer Service Week from 2nd to 6th October. This year, Shep Hyken invites you to take a different approach.<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Customer\n

There are many ways companies are celebrating. Everything from an employee appreciation event, like a lunch or dinner, to fun games that are about team building and comradery. And, of course, there is showing some love and appreciation to your customers.<\/p>\n

What makes good customer service?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This year I want to take a different approach. While thinking about what to share with you on this important \u201choliday,\u201d I remembered a question that was asked in a recent interview. \u201cWhat makes good customer service?\u201d Normally I would say attentive people, knowledgeable employees, great attitudes, strong relationship-building skills, and a desire to serve. While all that\u2014and more\u2014can create good customer service, there is an even bigger answer.<\/p>\n

We cannot determine if we give good customer service. Only our customers can. In other words, it is our customers\u2019 perceptions that determine if we\u2019ve provided good or bad customer service. The customer acts as the judge and jury. As a business, we can only hope that our efforts are in line with our customers\u2019 expectations. And, only our customers will determine if we have met or exceeded them.<\/p>\n

Good customer service starts on the inside with the company\u2019s culture. I\u2019ve preached this before. Leadership must create a customer service vision that every employee can relate to. It must be concise, simple and easy to remember. I call it the service \u201cmantra.\u201d It must be trained\u2014not just once, but continuously. Remember, training isn\u2019t something you did. It\u2019s something you do.<\/p>\n

Every employee must do their part. Once they understand the vision and are properly trained, they must manage every interaction they have with their customers for an optimal experience. The secret to making it optimal is within reach of anyone or any company. Just make the experience better than average. Just a little. That may sound easy, but what makes it a little more difficult is that it must be all the time. In other words, the customer can count on it. A consistent and predictable experience, that is better than average, is what makes for good customer service.<\/p>\n

So, for this year\u2019s National Customer Service Week, take some time to talk about your service vision. If you don\u2019t yet have one, this is a good time to start the process of creating one. Take this week to tweak the service. Talk about it. Practice it. Get feedback about it. And, make sure you\u2019re not just meeting, but exceeding your customers\u2019 expectations, if even ever so slightly. Your customers will tell you if you are. And, that\u2019s how you\u2019ll know if you are delivering good\u2014even amazing\u2014customer service!<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shep Hyken<\/a>\u00a0is the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations. As a professional speaker and best-selling author, Shep helps companies develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s National Customer Service Week from 2nd to 6th October. This year, Shep Hyken invites you to take a different approach..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11817"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11817"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11864,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11817\/revisions\/11864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}