The Five Must Dos of Customer Service

Hello Ranchers,

Today we wanted to touch on a very important topic which is none other than Customer Service. We often hear about the challenges (or horror stories) related to customer service in our beautiful twin island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. However, is customer service really a challenge or an opportunity? We would like to use a recent example of which our team faced to demonstrate how the five (5) must dos can be applied; (1) Time is always of the essence, (2) Service is always your concern, (3) Service begins with values, (4) Your reputation counts on it and (5) Always end with a smile.

Last month our office received a message via social media that there was a concern with one of our products and naturally we were more concerned than they were. Upon investigating the concern, we quickly realized that the customer purchased a product from another vendor from one of our retail partners which we do not carry under our portfolio. After a long sigh of relief, we quickly worked with the individual to assist with rectifying their concerns and here is how we did it:

  1. Time is always of the essence – Especially when it comes to communication!

Communication and timeliness are probably the most critical components when attempting to handle a consumer complaint. Nothing is worse than a concerned customer having to wait on hold whilst listening to annoying music on a phone line or waiting minutes to hours at a time to get a response to a message via social media. We have all been in that situation before and I would like to think that 90% of the time you have probably become even more concerned or irate by the time you get in contact with a CSR to express your circumstances. Time is always of the essence when it relates to communicating with your costumers or consumers. This does not have to relate to a service complaint but also general inquiries or feedback. We received the message at 10:05 AM and responded within seconds to the message expressing concern and requesting additional information.

2. Service is Always Your Concern – No matter the circumstance!

 There seems to be a mentality that once a concern is raised by someone; a consumer or otherwise that unless it is related directly to our day to day activities, it does not concern us. The previous statement is the furthest thing from the truth, once you have received information it is everyone’s duty to express an interest and follow up. In the example we raised above, the consumer did not purchase our product but contacted us probably because they saw our contact information on another product and concluded that we were more than likely the supplier of the product in question. Once we realized that it was not our product, we were of course relieved but guided the customer to the correct supplier, provided them with a contact person along with details to reach them and even followed up to understand if they were successful in resolving the situation. In a perfect commercial world, every business would love to have zero complaints, but this is bound to occur, valid or otherwise and everyone should adopt the mentality that perception is reality when it relates to your brand!

3. Service begins with Values – From home to the office!

The greatest challenge or should I say opportunity is not customer service but building it into your corporate values. Rancho Marketing Limited embodies the traditional values from the household at that begins with respecting your stakeholders. Many corporate bodies sing the song of social responsibility and being a great place to work, but in order to truly practice theses ethos you also need to live it. The way staff interact with one another and managers treat their reports should be with great care and respect and naturally this will trickle down all the way to the end consumer. This is easier said than done and maybe for a business the size of Ranchos it is a lot easier to maintain a culture of mutual care and respect. However, having said that, it is very possible for larger businesses to maintain this practice by incorporating these values into the on-boarding process, management training and even rewarding these behaviors from the highest and lowest levels of the organization. I suppose this is why television reality shows such as, “Undercover Boss” have become so popular, they demonstrate the disconnect that founders/owners/executive management have with their staff at the lowest levels.

4. Your reputation counts on it – It really does!

As the adage goes, “A good reputation can take a lifetime to build but only seconds to destroy” and this is even more relevant in today’s digital world of social media and trending topics. The internet has created numerous opportunities in terms of connectivity, information sharing and creating bridges to various cultures. In all honesty, small businesses such as Ranchos can now reach a larger consumer base on a low budget and create higher quality products with innovation at its core. However, this also holds true for misinformation and negative consumer experiences. Imagine in the example mentioned earlier, that the consumer took to social media to voice their concerns, potentially reaching an audience of 111.5k consumers with thousands of interactions, this could have been potentially devastating to our brand and worse yet based on bad information. It really would not have mattered much whether it was or product or not, the damage would already have been done. Given the advantages that the digital revolution has brought with it, businesses should also be aware of the potential havoc it can bring if customers are not treated with the utmost care and respect. Your professional reputation and brand truly depends on it.

5. Always leave with a smile – Happy customers always come back!

Who does not want to be happy after all? Every organization’s goal should be to have happy consumers at the end of the day. In today’s busy world many businesses get caught up with the bottom line and whilst that is of great importance it should be concurrent with customer satisfaction. This means that every business should be looking for ways to improve the consumer experience whilst focusing on profitable interactions with your brand. Consumer complaints are not a headache but rather an opportunity to improve your service levels or product offer to the consumer. It provides great levels of insights that can assist with getting your consumer to smile at the end of the day. Many first-time users to your product or service are more than likely from referrals rather than your marketing activities. This can be from word of mouth or digital shares via social media. In our example, we were able to convert that potential complaint into a customer who referred our products to other potential customers and this was done strictly through good communication, follow up and a discount on trying our freshly baked empanadas ?

We hope that this post was enjoyable and informative to our readers and look out for more post on healthy recipes for delicious dishes that we are experimenting with to share with you. If you have any recommendations for another post we would love to hear from you, please feel free to comment below or forward to a friend who may be interested.

Sincerely,

The Ranchos Team