Customer service seems like such a simple concept, but yet so many businesses get it wrong. I personally believe the reasoning behind this is every customer and every business has a diverse set of expectations of what they consider excellent customer service to be.
After attending the Crosslin customer service seminar and reading the Huffington Post article “6 Ways to Create Experiences That Customers Crave,” it seems clear to me that the best way to succeed in customer service is to know your customer and build a relationship with your customer.
No two customers are the same. One customer may want to only communicate via email and never meet the accountant that prepares their taxes. Another customer may want to only communicate face-to-face and want to tell their accountant about their family and their latest vacation. The only way to know how customers like to do business is by building a relationship with them. It is the foundation. In today’s world, a customer has so many options for services and products. If you build a relationship with them and know their likes and needs, they are less likely to turn their back on you and leave your company for a competitor.
An important piece of the puzzle when building this relationship with a customer is the company’s employees. Some companies believe that they need to spend an extreme amount of money to fix their customer service and please their customers. But, it really lies in the attitude and willingness of the company’s employees. If a company gives an employee the opportunity to build that relationship with a customer, and praises them for achieving results with customers, then the employee will most likely want to continue doing so.
At the end of the day, we need to remember that each and every one of our customers are not just a tax return, or an audit, they are actual people. They expect personalized service to stay loyal. If we give them each a personalized customer service experience, they will keep coming back.
Kellie Tucker, Operations Team (Tax)
