Customers, clients, users of your business’s services … whatever you refer to them as, they are people and they have reactions to being sold and they expect certain things in return for their hard-earned coins.  Don’t you too?

Millions of words have been written on customer service, but I liked this nice concise summation from a survey done by The Marketing Science Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts.  They asked a wide range of customers what factors they considered most important in assuring their satisfaction.

Here are the results:

• RELIABILITY: This topped the list of what customers expect.  A major source of customer dissatisfaction is the “un-kept promise”.
• RESPONSIVENESS: Be helpful and provide prompt service.
• ASSURANCE: Employees should be knowledgeable and courteous and should convey confidence in the service they provide.
• EMPATHY: Customers want individualized attention and people who will listen to them.
• TANGIBLES: Physical facilities and equipment should be attractive and clean.  Employees should be dressed appropriately and well groomed.

Here are the six ways to lose customers (common complaints):

1. Overpromising/under delivering.
2. Failure to stay in touch.
3. Using too much industry/inside jargon.
4. Failing to listen to customer’s concerns/ideas.
5. Telling rather than explaining.
6. Communicating without courtesy.

The entire team can benefit from learning and practising how to do these things (or not do the bad ones) and the income of the business will increase to the degree these are done well.