Your customer service skills show when things are going wrong, not when they are going right.
let me explain;
In addition to installing security systems to the required standards, regulations and above, how we deal with both potential and existing customers is key to how our business will be perceived and viewed by others.
This can be demonstrated initially with the security survey, at no point do we hard sell, lie or deceive the client using techno babble or scare tactics, everything is clearly explained with openness and honesty, the client is given a set of different options and they can decide on how far or as little as they want to go – their choice, not ours.
Recently a customer wanted a cctv system installed and thought they would need 3 cctv cameras and another company had quoted them for this, we could have easily quoted the same, however, by discussing the customer requirements and with a little thought into the design of the system we actually determind that only 2 CCTV cameras where required, reducing equipment costs and labour costs and saved the customer over £1,000. Net result one happy customer and one happy company.
This type of customer service should extend to both your new and existing customers, for example:
On record, we note how our customer expects to be addressed, whether that be formally (hello Mr Smith) or on first name terms (hello Robert), a little goes a long way, we always introduce ourselves giving both names so that our customers can always address us how the feel most comfortable and ask for us by name. It makes the customer feel like someone important rather than just a number.
Whilst, things like this are nice, dealing with issues or problems when they arise is the real mark or your customer service.
An example of this, we installed a hybrid burglar alarm system (a mix of wired and wireless) and everything was ok, after a period of time a fault came to light, withing 4 hours we were on site, the problem addressed and the customer was happy, however the fault occured again after about 3 weeks, now due to this intermittant fault, rather than trying to resolve the issue with a repair ( on a fault that could potentially happen again) to maintain the customers confidence in the system we changed everything for brand new.
Net result: once happy customer with a fully operational security system who trusts their security company.
Now it may of cost us money to carry out this course of action but it was the right thing to do, and this is where it comes back round to your customer service skills show when things are going wrong, rather than when things are going right.
its very easy to say that your customer service skills are brilliant when there are no complaints to deal with.
at Zodiac security we pride ourselves on treating customers the way we expect to be treated, and that simply is with honesty, with care and attention and a little bit of comon sense. As my mother used to say – saying please and thank you will take you a long way