Top 10 Customer Service Tips from the UK Best Women Awards Best Customer Service Winner

2018 Best Women Awards Customer Service winner was announced at an elaborate finalists’ dinner. Carolyn Lewis of eLearning Marketplace was awarded the prestigious award with the judges saying that she ‘clearly demonstrated how the business exceeds customer expectation which oozed out of the entry submission.  A truly worthy winner for exceptional customer service’.

When asked what eLearning Marketplace’s tips are for exceptional customer service, Carolyn said “the main objective must be to strive to maintain a strong culture of exceptional customer service across the whole organisation, which requires 100 percent input from everyone. My recommendations are to:

1.  Treat customers as you would want to be treated yourself; be polite and friendly. At all times put yourself in the shoes of the customer and think about what their objective is, and when practically possible try and meet this.

2.  Set out to please the customer, so act on any opportunity to turn a negative into a positive. In life everything doesn’t go according to plan all of the time. Technology can fail, people make mistakes and external factors can have a negative impact, but it’s how you deal with the negative that makes the difference to the customer.

3.  Always take responsibility for a situation. When a customer is communicating with you they want you to take responsibility and take action, whether it’s to recommend a product to meet their needs, replace a product they’re not happy with or to support them in some way. They don’t want to be passed to lots of different people and they don’t want to hear blame being laid elsewhere.

4.  Never fail to do what you say you will do. If you tell a customer you will do something for them ensure that you do it as promptly as possible.

5.  Build good relationships with your customers and get to know them. This puts you in the best position to offer the service, product and price to meet their requirements.

6.  Always listen to the customer and let them say what they have set out to tell you, making note of their objectives.

7.  Be consistent in everything that you do so that customers can rely on your brand.

8.  Ensure that you understand your industry and can identify ‘quality’, so that when you make a recommendation to a customer they respect your views.

9.  Ensure that you know your products well so that you can provide customers with accurate information.

10. Make sure you can back up any claims of price comparisons or guarantees so that customers know they can trust you.