10 Lessons about customer service

10 Lessons about Customer Service

A client recently asked me about customer service and what were some of the top lessons I have learned over 40 years of working with customers.  This is what I have learned.  Love to hear your thoughts.

1. Curiosity is our superpower. The more we know the better our outcome will be.
2. Be truly welcoming to people. A welcome sign doesn’t cut it.
3. Use a person’s name, their real name, not a nickname.
4. Don’t respond to the actions in front of you before knowing what led to them.
5. Wherever possible find a way to preserve a person’s dignity.
6. Remember worldview matters, we do not see everything the same way. Never assume anything is obvious to someone else.
7. Focus your policies and procedures on the 90%+ of people who act in good faith. Don’t design them for the few troublesome customers, deal with them separately.
8. When you make a mistake, and we all will own it, address it, and fix it, plus a little more.
9. “Yes, and” vs “Yes, but”.
10. As Donald Miller says in his book Storybrand, we are not Luke Skywalker, we’re Obi-Wan Kenobi. Keep the customer as the hero in their journey and experience, we’re the guide.