101 Ways to Really Satisfy Your Customers: How to Keep Your Customers and Attract New Ones (101 . . . Series),New

About the AuthorAndrew Griffiths has been a small business owner for more than 20 years. His company, the Marketing Professionals, provides practical and creative advice to large corporations and small business operators alike. He is the author of 101 Survival Tips for Your Business and 101 Ways to Market Your Business.Product DescriptionFull of practical tips to improve customer service and maintain a level of excellence, this resource helps businesses attract new customers and keep regular customers coming back. Suggestions include understanding customers, using a personalized approach, managing customers over the Internet and telephone, overseeing internal customer service, and stepping in when things go wrong. Helpful tips, such as giving regular customers a contact number for outside normal business hours, offer great ideas for speeding up customerservice transactions for busy owners and managers. Also included are checklists to gauge customer service satisfaction, handle customer complaints effectively, and analyze competition efficiently.Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.101 Ways to Really Satisfy Your CustomersBy Andrew Griffiths Allen & UnwinCopyright 2006 Andrew GriffithsAll rights reserved.ISBN: 9781741750089ContentsAcknowledgments,Introduction,Getting a handle on customer service,Section 1: Understanding your customers,Section 2: Your working environment,Section 3: Your staff,Section 4: Making it easy for your customers to buy from you,Section 5: The personal touch,Section 6: Facetoface customer service,Section 7: Telephone customer service,Section 8: Promotional material,Section 9: Customer service and the Internet,Section 10: Following up on a sale is good customer service,Section 11: Internal customer service,Section 12: Maintaining a personal commitment to customer service,Section 13: When things go wrong,Bonus section 20 more customer service tips,Appendix: Blank forms that may come in handy,A final note from the author,Recommended reading,About the author,CHAPTER 1Understanding your customersCustomers are the one constant that all businesses need. This may sound blatantly obvious and it is, but one of the most common customer service complaints is that businesses don't listen to their customers.We all need to take the time and energy to listen to what our customers have to say. We have to look for ways to make our customers feel comfortable, and to tell us their opinions on what we do well and which aspects of our business we need to improve. This first section of 101 Ways to Really Satisfy Your Customers looks at ways of finding out what your customers expect from you, what they like and dislike about your business, and how to use these opinions to improve your overall level of customer service.#1 Always put yourself in your customers' shoes#2 What do your customers expect from you?#3 Hire a mystery shopper to evaluate your business#4 Observe your business objectively#5 Take the time to talk to your customers#6 Encourage your customers to give you their opinions#7 If you ask for opinions, be prepared to listen to them#8 Start a customer satisfaction survey immediately1 Always put yourself in your customers' shoesTo be really committed to customer service, you need continually to put yourself in your customers' shoes. This simply means that you need to look at every aspect of your business from your customers' point of view. It can be easy to slip out of the habit of doing this and to revert back to an 'us and them' mentality.Whenever you are making a key business decision that could affect your customers, stop what you are doing and think about all the possible ramifications. Write down the possibilities, both negative and positive, and then make your decision.We all need to make difficult decisions in business from time to time; however, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about this. Simply putting up your prices