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Developing Your Winning Customer Service Plan

January 16, 2008 · Written by Heather Juma

customer service Customer service is a huge factor to consider when it comes to your target client, your overall success in the business world, and keeping those clients happy.

If you are like most entrepreneurs, you haven’t given much thought to what customer service involves, not to mention good customer service. You probably wait until someone complains about something and then you decide how you will take care of the issue, right? Wrong! Bad strategy.

Your outstanding customer service or lack of it, for that matter, plays a key role in the success of your business. Sure, you need a great product and a great message, otherwise, the best customer service in the business world won’t do you any good. But if you have a great product and a great message to go along with it, and your customer service is terrible, what happens then?

The best example of outstanding customer service is Nordstrom’s. Nordstrom’s has a great product, a great message, and so do many of their competitors. But what Nordstrom’s did differently than their competitors is they have outstanding customer service and with that, they dominated their market.

So what about you and your business? What do you do to “rock the world?” Yes, I said “rock the world” because that is what it takes to compete these days. The same old, run of the mill strategies no longer work. It’s a crazy, competitive world and you have to make yourself stand out in your market. Here’s how!

Many of your competitors are just like you. They don’t give a second thought to their customer service, either. This gives you the prime time to dominate the market and develop a wild, crazy, over the top customer service culture, much like Nordstrom’s.

One of the biggest rules in marketing is to take away the risk. Well, Nordstrom’s takes away teh risk with their return policies. People have been known to take items back to Nordstrom’s that weren’t even purchased there and they are given a cheerful refund. Nordstrom’s wants every customer to have an outstanding experience with them and they are sure that every customer has just that–It’s called Customer Evangelism.

You want your customers to have such an over the top experience with you that they just love to talk about it. They are your customer evangelists. This is free marketing, folks–Free. And that is the best marketing you could ever get. This type of marketing bypasses the normal sales channels and drives the customer straight into buying mode. Once they are a customer, they rarely leave; as long as you have a great product, a great message, and great, over the top customer service.

This is your time to get creative. What customer service culture can you promote in your business? Think outside of the box, think about your customers; what do they crave? What are their problems and what are your solutions? How can you use this information to develop your customer service plan?

Once you develop your customer service plan, make it a part of the company culture. Make your customer service an integral part of your business and soon you will be the talk of the town, too!

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Comments

6 Responses to “Developing Your Winning Customer Service Plan”

  1. E3 Success Blog » Blog Archive » E-3 Carnival of Success Principles - January 17, 2008 on January 17th, 2008 3:33 pm

    [...] Lifestyle presents Developing Your Winning Customer Service Plan posted at GWN Lifestyle, saying, “Customer service is the key to your success as a small [...]

  2. Brandie Nemchenko on January 17th, 2008 9:14 pm

    The best test of success is not HAVING to market! I must say that I am by no means saying that one should not market, but it is so sweet when your business is self-generating based on the RELATIONSHIPS we build with each passing year.

    The best investment in your business is hiring customer-service oriented staff who cater to your customers. The result will be immeasurable in the future. Take care of people today, and they will take care of you tomorrow.

  3. 4 entrerpeneur Blog Carnival II | 4 entrepreneur on January 18th, 2008 4:12 am

    [...] Lifestyle presents Developing Your Winning Customer Service Plan posted at GWN Lifestyle, saying, “Customer service is the key to your success as a small [...]

  4. ThePodcastSisters on January 25th, 2008 4:59 am

    Entrepreneur Tips and Stories…

    We like to bring you ideas, inspiration for how to build your small business. Being an entrepreneur can be tough so each fortnight we bring you articles from around the web to help your personal development. Holly Ord presents Calling…

  5. pramod on February 5th, 2008 5:49 am

    Here’s my little site I’m gonna site aboutBest Lifestyle Information

  6. Celebrity Foods on February 27th, 2008 5:24 pm

    Good post and I agree, Nordstroms is a great example of customer service the way it is meant to be.

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