Good-Hearted Customer Service
By this stage of life and business, you already have an understanding of how you treat people. As children, our caretakers taught us how to respect people and they used words like polite, social, or customary. Someone taught you how to treat others, taught you how to shake hands, make friends, etc. All of the social training you received as a kid are part of your customer service.
Our beliefs about customer service come from three layers of who we are. One layer is what we are taught about how to treat people, the second is our vision, and the third is our nature. Are you naturally inclusive or are you an introvert are you a work alone type? Some people offer facts, give clear instructions on products while others its about the bottom line. How will my customer use this, what will they get from it?
Customer service starts from the moment your phone rings, from the first time a person walks in, or sometimes how you market. Customer service can be how you deliver the product, how you develop the product, and how you warranty it (how do you follow up after you deliver). These are similar to branding but this is more about relating to the customer vs how you market the product.
As business owners, our visions came from our nature and training. We all had a vision of what our companies would do; whether you developed a product or a new way for your customers to use or experience an already created product or you started your business to offer a service.
What affects customer service?
The brand affects customer service. If you're selling a $25 product, there shouldn't be a lot of customer service, you can't afford for there to be. The customer service surrounding a $25 product should be about meeting the masses because you must sell a lot of products; so you can’t spend a lot of time on customer service. However, if you sell a luxury car for $100,000 you spend a good deal of time on customer service. How much money can you put into your customer service?
Our Brand Dictates Our Customer Service
In my opinion, the single most important aspect to customer service is your time, effort, and energy. We all have a vision, a nature, and what we’re taught. If you’re fulfilling the original vision, are you exhausting your bottom line and yourself? Do you offer 600 hrs of customer service on a $25 product? Are you offering too much? Are you dictating what your pay rate is by giving more than you get? Our time and energy is what we are really delivering to people. Do the work to calculate you give versus what you earn for it and make the necessary adjustments to your level and system of customer service.