Creating a Mindset for Delivering Superior Customer Service

Yvonne A Jones
Jul 10, 2017 · 4 min read

Creating a mindset for delivering superior customer service is the foundation on which to build strong customer relationships. The process starts even before the person becomes a paying customer.

Example of Not Delivering Superior Customer Service Offline

Here is an example from my own experience. A few months ago I went into a small store that sells ladies’ clothing. There were two sales persons in the back having a conversation, neither of whom stopped their conversation to say hello or even to acknowledge my presence. I walked around for about 3–5 minutes as I saw a few things I was interested in. During this time they continued their intense personal discussion (from the bits and pieces I heard).

3–5 minutes, I believed, was enough time to give them an opportunity to deliver some measure of customer service and so I started walking towards the door. As I did, one of the women said, “May I help you?” My response? “No thank you” and kept walking, never to return. I admit it openly: customer service, good or bad, affects whether or not I do business with a company.

It pains me to see establishments lose business because they’ve either not trained their staff well, or their staff, although trained, feel they have no vested interest in the business so display a nonchalant attitude toward customers. They have not created a mindset for delivering superior customer service.

Delivering Superior Customer Service Online

In delivering superior customer service online, there are two paths to take. The first one is the businesses that are offline and provide a way for their customers to contact them through their websites, forums, and social media. The second path is that of the online business owner whose entire business is online.

In this article, I’ll be focusing on the online business owner whose entire business is online, often referred to as an Internet Marketer.

Several years ago I attended a live event with 90% attendees being Internet Marketers and did an informal survey to measure the interest in Customer Service for a training I wanted to create.

One of the questions I asked was, “When you think of customer service, what comes to mind?” The majority of respondents answered that they thought of purchasing something in a department store and taking it back because it did not fit or for some similar reason. Of the people I surveyed at that three day event, only two persons applied customer service to their online business.

As a business owner who markets your entire business online, your website is your home on the internet. Like the Welcome mat you place outside your front door and the curb appeal you create around your physical home, your website should be attractive and welcoming to your visitors.

Ways to Deliver Superior Customer Service with Your Website

Here are some creative ways, recommended by Elegant Themes, to make your website more attractive to visitors. and in doing so, indirectly deliver superior customer service:

1. Place important content at the top of the site

2. Declutter your website and provide plenty of white space

3. Show credibility indicators such as, testimonials, social media followers, and trust seals.

4. Include an About page so your visitors can learn more about you.

5. Make your site responsive so that it can be easily viewed on mobile devices

6. Use high-quality visuals.

In addition to the foregoing, depending on the nature of your business, if you find that you’re receiving many similar questions, create an FAQ page so that visitors can get answers to their Most Frequently Asked questions easily. It’s wise to allow for comments on your blog to create engagement and interaction. In all cases, make sure that you respond promptly.

According to a poll done by Twitter consumers were willing to pay more for services if their questions were answered promptly, so you want to make sure that you receive notifications from your website immediately and reply as quickly as possible.

In order to meet the needs of a changing market, your website will always be a work in progress, and can definitely be a channel for delivering superior customer service.

Whether you market offline, offline with an online presence, or your business is totally online, it’s important to create a mindset of delivering superior customer service so that you can build strong relationships with your prospects, customers, and clients.

There are updates I need to make to my website at www.YvonneAJones.com in this regard. How about you?

Sources cited: https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/tips-tricks/10-creative-ways-to-improve-time-on-site-for-your-wordpress-website

https://blog.twitter.com/marketing/en_us/a/2015/new-research-consumers-willing-to-spend-more-after-a-positive-customer-service-interaction-on.html

Yvonne A Jones

Written by

Personal Business Coach| Founder of 50 & Wiser Coaching|Relationship Marketing Strategist|Author|Speaker #custserv #mindset #smallbiz #entrepreneur

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