The History Of Friendly Customer Service

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Firstly, must need to know what your customer’s need and want. Customers always love to feel involved and important, taken seriously. Provides the ‘wow’ factor which delights customer such that they favor your service instead of others. Also they like to feel like their opinion and wants matter to be business owner or creator of a product, so when wondering how to figure out what they want or need, simply ask them. Have them take notes on what they learn, what they heard that customer want and need. This later will give some great ideas on improving and how to make to easier for the customer to use.

Moreover, customer’s demands are usually safety, quality, and value. Needs are the basic requirements of human beings which are naturally exist means default requirement of human being such as food, shelter and clothing. Markets never perform special role in creating needs nor can they do. Wants are needs shaped by culture and social values and demands are wants backed by purchasing power. Customer service is so often described as the intent of an organization to meet a customer’s needs. Meeting a customer’s needs is OK, but exceeding a customer’s needs is outstanding. Going above and beyond the standard expectation demonstrates that your business is willing to go that extra mile for the satisfaction of its customers.

Friendly customer service

Each and every one of us serves customers, whether we realize it or not. Maybe you're on the front lines of a company, serving the people who buy your products. Perhaps you're an accountant, serving the employees by producing their pay checks and keeping the company running. Or maybe you're a company owner, serving your staff and your customers. The Customer Service workshop will look at all types of customers and how we can serve them better and improve ourselves in the process. Your participants will be provided a strong skill set including in-person and over the phone techniques, dealing with difficult customers, and generating return business.

As a business owner and operator, it’s very easy to spend your time in the office rather than standing out front talking to your customers. People love to talk to the owner of a business it’s mark of respect for you and for them. No matter how busy you are, always take the time to talk to your customers. Ask them how they are finding dealing with your business. Get to know them and why they use your business. A few minutes’ conversation with your customer can give you a lot of information. I find that if I stop and have a chat with my clients, I get to know them better and that strengthens our relationship, but it also inevitably leads to new business. Perhaps, they were talking to someone who needs some marketing advice. Maybe I should give them a call…

When the owner of the business is too busy to talk to the people who pay the bills, there is a problem looming. It is important to remember that without customers, there is no business. Recommend that, occasionally during your working day, you stop what you are doing and take a few minutes to talk to your customers.

Capability to do better than what the customer expects

A guide to help businesses determine why gathering customer feedback is important, if you are going to ask your customers for feedback on your business, you need to be able to review the information objectively, openly and, most importantly, be willing to act on it. Moreover, worked on a number of market research campaigns for business that wanted to gauge their customers’ perceptions of their business. The results that came back were less than complimentary and, in some cases, downright terrible. When reported on the findings, the business owner found every excuse in the world to justify the poor levels of service. Statements like ‘our customers are too demanding’ or ‘we are busy to pander to every customer’s needs’ and, one of my favorites, ‘if they don’t like our service they should go somewhere else’.

Very often business embark on the road to improving their level of customer service only to find it too confronting. They take negative customer feedback as a personal insult instead of a perfect opportunity to rectify problems that they may not have known existed. One way to avoid this is to have a plan in plan in place that outlines what will be done with the information collected. This can prepare the business for the possibility of negative feedback, but rather than giving up in despair they will make changes according to the plan and work towards the desired outcome.

Often customers will want to know how the information they provide will be used. From my own experience, letting customers know that their responses will be used to improve the level of service encourages them to participate and our makes them feel good because their opinions are considered important. Every time someone gives you feedback that is less than positive, stop and think about how this individual is helping your business. Thank them for their honesty. Take their advice on board, if you have difficulty doing this because you are too close the situation, get help from someone who can step in and resolve any customer satisfaction issues that your business may have.

Anyhow, spend a lot of time going into businesses looking for ways to improve their overall level of customer service. When meet proactive business owners and managers who are open to and very accepting of customer feedback, always breathe a long sigh of relief. These people are smart and I know that their business will benefit enormously from their customers’ feedback. Their willingness to take this feedback seriously and to act on it to improve the level of service they offer is a one-way ticket to profitability and complete customer satisfaction.

Attentive and helpful to requirements

Before picking up the telephone, stop and take a breath, smile, and then focus on the call that you are about to take. When answer, the caller will pick up on your positive attitude and your smile, and they will automatically be more receptive to what you say. People will always comment on a positive telephone manner, simply because it’s so refreshing. This also sends the message that the business is fresh and alert and that they take an enquiry seriously.

Secondary, can all recite countless times when we have spoken to businesses on the telephone and the person answering the call sounds bored, completely uninterested or even quite rude. These calls only last a few seconds if I am making them. The telephone is an essential tool for most businesses. But the telephone itself is the same piece of equipment for all of us. The difference is how it is used. There is no excuse for a poor telephone manner, and anyone who answers a telephone in your business should constantly be encouraged to follow the three-step principle of stop, smile and think before picking up the phone. Customer service is all about attitude. To really impress your customers, you need to have the right attitude.

Research on an existing service-oriented organization (e.g. school, hospital, law-office, etc.,) in Malaysia and explain how these components are applied and practiced.

Chan Ban Eng & CO background and information

As one of the world’s biggest legal has been providing services to our clients in Malaysia, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, India, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States. Since 1991, Jerald Gomez & Associates helps many of the world's leading organizations think about and improve their strategies, organizations and operations.

Penang Branch:

Suite 5.09 5th Floor MBF Tower,

53 Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah,

10050 Penang

Tel: 04-2299448

Fax: 04-2299443

http://www.jeraldgomez.com/

legal services to our clients

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Customer Service in the Professional Law Office

Firstly, keeping the client happy is a matter of maintaining communication, respect and understanding between the law office and the client. Ensuring that support staff within a legal office understands the importance of every interaction will improve the running of the practice. Clients will be happier with their experience leading to a better reputation and more referrals to the practice. It is effort that does not cost much, but can lead to an amazing amount of gain. I was the front line support staff for a small law practice. It was my responsibility to be the first voice clients heard on the phone or face that they saw when entering the office. Quickly, it became clear that simple actions taken to focus on client customer satisfaction lead to a smoother running office with happier clients and in turn, a happier attorney. These keys of customer service helped me through my time at the practice, as well as other experiences within the law field. 

Communication

Maintaining regular communication with the client regarding their case can prevent many customer service issues. The attorney or support staff should contact the clients of active cases on a regular basis just to assure the client that their needs are being taken care of. This could be as little as a phone call or letter once a month for simple cases, or face to face meetings for more complex cases. Personal contact will ultimately reduce the frequency of phone calls and drop in visits to the practice inquiring about the case status.

Respect

Making sure that clients are treated with respect by all members of the staff seems to be an obvious practice, but many times it is overlooked. It can be put aside during times of stress or great activity within an office, causing more problems. Extensively training support staff to place a high priority on treating the customer with care and respect will prevent many mishaps and misunderstandings from happening. This will prevent the need for the attorney to get involved in minor situations, freeing him or her up for more important aspects of the legal practice.

Understanding

It is rare that individuals go to an attorney for positive things. Usually, it is in reaction to stressful time periods in the client’s personal life. The support staff should always have care and understanding that the client is under a great deal of stress due to the situation that brought them to the law office in the first place. Divorce, criminal charges, DUI, small claims court, writing a will or any other legal action brings everyday individuals into new and uncertain territory. Showing a bit of compassion with the internal customer service of the law practice will diffuse many customer service issues.

A law office can run more efficiently by remembering these simple practices of customer service. By following these simple pieces of advice, the staff will cut down on the amount of phone calls and drop ins from nervous clients. Also, each staff member will be better equipped to handle situations as they arise. It will expand the influence and reputation of the firm. Investing in a little bit of training and enforcing ethical standards for the treatment of clients will help retain business as well as make new clients feel comfortable trusting you with their delicate legal issues.

Attentive and helpful to customer requirements

This is the decade of the client. Clients are demanding and getting – both world-class service - and top quality products. Many law firms have spent too much energy on developing new clients and not enough retaining old ones. For many law firms, obtaining new work from existing clients is the most productive type of marketing.

Therefore, more firms are developing and using client satisfaction surveys to obtain feedback about their client’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the attorneys and staff who serve them, the timeliness, responsiveness, and value of work performed, the need for additional services, and whether they would use the firm again and refer the firm to friends and associates.

Our firm recently completed client satisfaction telephone interviews for several of our insurance defense law firm clients. Here are a few quotes and a summary of what these insurance company law firm clients told us:

We want to work with proactive attorneys that aren't afraid to try cases.

Limit the number of people working on a file. I like consistent assignments.

I expect attorneys to get back to me by the next business day.

I like one partner and one associate per file.

Most of our billing problems with law firms are due to excessive use of associates time.

I get upset with attorneys that want to settle right before trial.

The primary reason that we terminate our relationship with our outside attorneys is not reporting to us in a timely fashion and poor communications.

I find that many lawyers are poor at managing their files and have poor basic communication skills. I work with lawyers that can do both of these things well.

I think that it is important that law firms provide value added services such as newsletters, legislative updates, e-alerts, seminars, etc on a &"no charge" basis. Most law firms provide these services these days. Such services help us do our jobs better, improves communications and the overall relationship between our organization and the law firm, keeps us up to date on changes in the law, and helps the law firm stay abreast of emerging needs in our business.

I will pay higher fees to lawyers that aren't afraid to try cases.

The feedback obtained from these surveys formed the cornerstone of service improvement programs, which are currently being implemented by these law firms.

Much can be learned by talking to your clients. Structured telephone interviews and other forms of surveys conducted by a neutral third party can provide many surprises as well as answers. Client satisfaction surveys can be the best marketing investment that you can make.

Our law firm clients have found their clients to be impressed that the firm cares about their opinions. It is good business to listen to your clients. Understanding what bugs people about your services and those of your competition can be the most valuable input to strategy development you can get your hands on. Find out what bugs your clients and you will learn to out-think and out-service your competitors.

Before you invest any time, money, or effort in developing an overall strategy for service improvement, you must survey your clients to understand what your clients want and expect from your firm. An initial survey helps you identify the starting point for your service improvement journey.

Friendly customer service to say ‘thank you’

At the beginning of this section explained the importance of a strong and confident when meeting your client. The same principle applies to the farewell, but with one main difference. When a client leaves your Law office after making a purchase, it’s nice to say, ‘Goodbye’. Hope to see you again soon’, but it’s also very important to thank the person for their business. The client have choices and they know that they can decide where to spend their money. Like any conscious decision, it’s good to feel that you have made the right one. Assuming that everything else goes smoothly in the transaction stage of a sale, all of the benefit can be lost in the closing stage. Always remember to thank your client for their business before leaving.