Wowing Your Customers
Achieving a truly exceptional life requires taking care of yourself and others. In Phase Two, you identified and organized your list of customers in order of priority. You put them into your Exceptional Living Plan. Now, in Phase Three, the implementation phase, the real work begins. You need to develop a customer service mentality that will enable you to meet your own goals while satisfying the needs of the most important people in your life. In order to determine what your customers’ needs are, you will need to work on your communication skills. Being a successful communicator will ensure your ability to meet and even exceed your customers’ expectations! Here are some pointers:
- Schedule important conversations in advance. Serious talks require dedicated time!
- Plan what you’re going to say. It may prove helpful to take notes.
- Meet in an optimal environment free from distractions.
- Be precise in your word choice. Incorporating specific examples is also useful.
- Connect with whomever you’re speaking with through use of eye contact, open body language, and subtle cues that show you’re paying attention (ex: nods, saying ‘uh-huh’).
- Listen carefully to what the other person is saying, and then paraphrase it so that they know you’re getting their message clearly.
- At the end of the conversation, establish the next steps. If you’ve had a disagreement, brainstorm solutions.
Although communication is key to formulating a customer service policy, it’s not the only piece of the puzzle. Sometimes people don’t know what they want or are unable to articulate their needs clearly. Sometimes they know what they need but they’re too shy to say it. But almost everyone appreciates it when you notice things without even asking and anticipate their needs. Delivering exceptional customer service requires you to act like an anthropologist. You can learn a lot about your customers by observing their habits and behaviors. For example, imagine that your mother-in-law’s birthday is approaching and you need to pick out a present for her. The worst sort of customer service would be to forget her birthday completely. The next best level of customer service would be to call and ask her what she wants, then buy that gift for her. She’d most likely be satisfied, but not delighted. The optimal level of customer service would be to pay attention to what she says and does, and figure out on your own what she might like to receive. This is the sort of customer service that pleasantly surprises people and makes them truly happy in their relationships. For more ways to jumpstart a good conversation, give this milestone’s activity, Pulse Check a shot!
