H.Y.V.A. and Save Time™

1. Don’t Delay, answer customer inquiries immediately!

I answer customer inquiries immediately. In online sales, the moment a customer hits the send button they are off to check out your competition. The faster I can answer their question the faster I can get them back into my shop to purchase from me! Then keep them happy! It costs less to fix/replace something than advertising to gain new clientele and that customer I just WOW’ed will become LOYAL and promote me to his/her friends! An angry customer tell’s friends too, but, it isn’t positive!

Thanks to Lisa Yaker of JYOUlry

2. Find Unique ways to show Appreciation to your customers.

An old concept that has gotten a lot of attention recently is customer appreciation. Its 5 times cheaper to retain the customers you have than it is to acquire new ones.

By providing a uniquely personalized token of appreciation you can strikingly increase overall loyalty and social perception of your business. The best advertising in the world is your customers bragging about you to others.

Thanks to C. Wise of Customer Rave

3. Regularly engage your customers in conversations

Communicate with excellence in every way. Use professional language. Keep regular updates; for example, an established check-in every week or two weeks. If there is a challenge, then communicate proactively about it. Finally – be on time. Even the smallest demonstrations build buy-in, every step of the way. Commit to Excellence in Communication.

Thanks to Pamela Hawley of UniversalGiving

4. Offer clients free Emergency Services

We are butlers who have left our full-time jobs for one family and now share our skills with many families as Part Time Butlers and Butlers on Call. We WOW our clients by offering free Emergency services, 24/7. A party by the pool and someone knocks a potted plant into it…we arrive and make the pool sparkling again at no charge. Business trip out of town longer than expected….an email or a phone call dispatches a team to water plants, feed/care for cats, and retrieve mail. All free.

Thanks to Debi Einmo of White Glove Services LLC

5. Constant training = constant improvement of your “Wowing” skills

Train your staff in customer service skills and communication skills. Really, sincerely, help your employees grow (psst, in addition to making your life happier managing them, and their lives better in the process, it improves Employee Satisfaction, an often overlooked key lever in improving Customer Satisfaction). The most effective process I’m aware of is provided by Impact Learning Systems.

Thanks to Glenn Friesen of Impact Learning Systems

6. Show Them You Care by making use of personalized Video responses to their questions

We go the extra mile by making an online video when a new topic comes up. Whether it’s installing our software for the first time or how to score higher on our played tests, we create a video and send the customer a private link on YouTube. Sometimes we even personalize the video in the captions so they feel extra special. The only major cost is time and film equipment, but our customers really love and appreciate the videos.

Thanks to Shaun Fisher of Raw Talent Guitar

7. When things go wrong; Take full ownership of the issue and fix it!

If companies were serious about exceeding expectations then when things go wrong as they inevitably will, the ability for the people at the coal face to correct things is paramount even if the cost to a company is greater than the original deal was worth. I have first hand experience of working within such an environment and provided that supporting records are maintained for senior teams to look at and disect all will be fine.

It sure focuses minds on what is going wrong when a costing attached to service recovery stands out. It is also a great way to really understand the route causes of what went wrong. If the energy is directed at delivering solutions then the cost of corrections will fall. A truely win / win, your costs fall, repeat business increases and the customer gets exactly what was promised. Takes a great deal of trust to set up and ultimately if the cost proves too much then perhaps you shouldn’t be in the game

Thanks to Frank Smethers of Spectrum Linguistics&Performance Development Ltd

8. Make customers say “Somebody Actually Called Me On The Phone!”

With the availability of many free websites and blogs people pay us for a reason – superior information, unique time-saving tools and outstanding Customer Service including these elements:

- individual welcome phone call
- series of helpful, introductory emails
- live chat
- live webinars
- weekly email newsletters including links to Customer Service
- helpdesk
- personalized phone appointments

Thanks to Stan Brown of SavingsAngel.com

9. Fluidity Makes For A “Wow” Customer Experience.

At 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, we call it ‘fluid’. An excellent, efficient customer service agent on the phone, booking the appointment. A welcome phone call to introduce, touch base and promise a certain time fo arrival. A clean, shiny truck pulling up with friendly, uniformed workers who show up on time and shake your hand. A seamless, expert removal of the junk with a sweep up afterward. A follow-up call or email to find out how it all went. Doing the little things perfectly, all the time, drives Wow!

Thanks to Erin Raimondo of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?

10. Make Customers Feel Fabulous one Tweet At a Time!

Recently, FabulousSavings has taken a different approach to customer service. With our Twitter feed @fabuloussavings, we’re able to engage directly with our community. We send out info on contests, launch our newest coupons, hunt out specific deal requests and get instant feedback about the user experience. This allows us to make sure the site is absolutely fabulous. By using Twitter as a customer service forum, you’re there when the customer needs you – even before they need you.

Thanks to Lindy Moses of FabulousSavings

11. Send your clients Personal Hand Written Notes

Everyone expects thank you notes via email or a phone call. Stand out from the pack by sending personalized, hand written thank you notes to show appreciation to a customer or client. In the internet age, this really is a dying art and a great way to keep your brand fresh in someone’s mind. Putting ink to paper goes a long way in the digital age. This is as simple as sending out a year-end greeting card thank your clients for their business!

Thanks to Tony Adams of Dallas Firewood

12. Show Up In Person whenever stuff doesn’t go according to plan

If you run a service business, showing up in person when a job doesn’t go according to plan shows customers you care. More people are tolerant of a problem as long as it gets fixed, it’s just a matter of showing people you care enough to show up in person and make the necessary changes yourself. This has been more endearing to customers (from my experience) than getting the job right the first time in some cases! So don’t cause problems on purpose, but if they arise, be there to solve them!

Thanks to Pam Pennington of Calworth Sprinkler Repair Inc.

13. Give Away Free Product and/or Service Samples

And not just product samples. I’m talking about service samples. As an example from personal experience, offer to paint a room for free and if the homeowner likes it, you negotiate the rest of the house from there. This can be applied to any service business and it puts you lightyears ahead of competitors by making you worth talking about and unique. This success can be verified and measured by the number of referrals from satisfied customers.

Thanks to Terry Jones of DFW House Painting

14. Act Like A Waiter To Improve Customer Satisfaction.

Want to improve customer service? Treat your customer like royalty.

The best way to improve customer service is to treat your customers like they are the most important person in the world. This means always putting the importance of their time before yours, their needs before yours and frequently checking in to see if there is anything you can be doing to better service them. Think of the best waiter you have ever had at a restaurant. The same rules and tactics can apply in the business world

Thanks to Chris Keller of Profitworks

15. Sacrifice Short-Term Gains For Long-Term Results

To go above and beyond your customers’ expectations, you often have to sacrifice short-term gains and aim for long-term results. I am a copywriter and in this business many people merely trade words for dollars because they don’t want to spend extra time on a project unless they are paid for it. I’ve found that by offering unlimited rewrites and consulting without charging extra for it, I convert clients into raving fans who work with me on a regular basis and gladly refer me to others.

Thanks to Kathleen OConnor of OCopy

16. Little things still matter! Be Courteous To Your Customer

Courtesy is a commodity that is becoming rarer every day. It takes so little to be polite but it is becoming a lost art. Say please when you ask a customer a question, thank them for their information and take your time talking to them. Nothing makes a customer feel more devalued than being treated like a number. Use the person’s name, make requests rather than demands and know when to apologize. When something goes wrong for a customer, they want to hear that you understand their frustration.

Thanks to Jacqueline Gikow of ChelseaRainbow

17. Wake up early and stay late until your client is satisfied!

We recently had a new client in Malaysia that had an email campaign that centered around a holiday and it needed to get out right away. But he could not send the email blast until we approved his list. So our Manager for Europe/ Middle East/ Asia got our Deliverability Manager out of bed at 3:30 AM to approve the list. We could have pointed to our approval hours but we went the extra mile and delivered “knock your socks off” service. The cost to do this is minimal and the return priceless.

Thanks to Denise Keller of Benchmark Email

18. Proactive Customer Service Wins Loyalty And Referrals

Business should be proactive in offering help to their customers and not fall into the trap of thinking that customer service is a completely reactionary activity. It’s critical in building customer loyalty and getting referrals to make your customers feel like you are anticipating their needs and proactively supporting them. Offer additional help and guidance at no charge and without being asked. Small gestures in proactive customer service can spur your business to new heights.

Thanks to Luke Latham of SellRex Corporation

19. Be Human, Be First, Be Memorable

Speed+Personality is everything. EVERYONE is the next big company, product etc so following suite just gets you lose in the shuffle. Be the first person on the “doorstep” of the person you are contacting. Respond quickly to them even if it’s just trying to understand better what they are looking for. Be funny, be warm, be human. Connect. From retailers to pr people we have seen this method get in us doors we NEVER expected to get into. There are no costs to this other then time and effort.

Thanks to Elysabeth Fulda of Sphinx Group

20. Show clients you care more about their satisfaction than your bottomline

Clients may engage in lengthy, casual conversations which are unrelated to contracted duties.

Although other vendors may not provide an ear for time-consuming “chit-chat”, we not only provide real-person availability to our clients 24/7, we invite clients to contact us anytime for any issue they wish to discuss.

To establish trust, clients simply need be able to confide and know us on a personal level; this “comfort connection” gives assurance that we care about more than the bottom line.

Thanks to Misha Garafalo of Handle My Task