Common sense tells us that customer service should be exceptional year round. We shouldn’t need a holiday or an event to remind us to be courteous. Good manners should be natural; yet it is a reality that the service a customer should receive is easily overlooked and underestimated.
Consider the following three etiquette tips for enhancing your business:
- Lead by example
- Talk with others
- Create a plan
If these tips make sense to you, share them, post them and add to them.
Starting with You
No matter your position at work, you always have opportunities to lead in a positive, mannerly order. Even if colleagues don’t or customers refrain, you can always choose to rise above the less considerate.
Before you arrive at work, be grateful for the work you have. Acknowledge your gratitude aloud or in quiet thought. Never forget to do it, one way or the other, before you address your business responsibilities. Your personal gratitude for what keeps you moving forward each day will make it easier to extend gratitude to those who buy your items, use your services or retain your advice easier and will garner greater appreciation for your business. This simple act is where etiquette starts – with you! You are always in charge of being your very best self.
Customers Bring Business
No customers equals no business. No business equals less opportunity. Remember, you personally can shop, search and seek advice just about anywhere, right? The same holds true for your customers. What will you do to ensure they keep coming to you? Etiquette benchmarks for how a customer is treated keep them coming back for more.
Benchmarks for Good Etiquette
It’s hard to believe that you can walk into a place of business and have to ask for help. A good benchmark training in etiquette would have prompted the opposite experience, which is you being acknowledged by an eager person wanting to serve their best interests – serving you!
Perspective is important here. Set an etiquette benchmark by ensuring you are personally engaging everyone who patronizes your business, whether by phone or in person. Greet each person with a genuine smile. Although the phone may not be equipped to show it, the smile is transmitted by the tone of your voice. Your pleasant, welcoming attitude is what sets your business apart from competition and is the prelude to a lasting relationship.
If you are managing others in a business, have regular meetings and role-play time to cement these important etiquette customer service guidelines. Consider investing in customer service etiquette training to enhance the professionalism of your team. Training validates your professional perspective and creates a convenient place for your team to contribute their ideas for enhancing a company’s etiquette commitment towards customers and colleagues.
Your good manners are contagious. They trump rudeness; they encourage respect. Have faith that choosing to use some or all of the etiquette tips mentioned here will make for exceptional customer service.
Consider your plan for enhancing your customer service. Ask yourself if taking the lead and talking with others about your plan sounds promising for more fully enjoying and profiting from working your plan.
