Good Old-Fashioned Manners, The Bottom Line in Successful Customer Service
Today’s “Building a Culture of Customer Service – From Training to Tweeting” at Curry College explored different ways that evolving technology can be used to provide better customer service and build stronger relationships with customers. From engaging with customers via social media to offering services online for customer convenience, technology continues to offer new ways for companies to interact and manage relationships with their customers. Despite all the new opportunities, and challenges, technology opens up in customer service; all of today’s speakers emphasized the power of simply using good manners when interacting with customers on any level. Although this philosophy seems completely obvious, we can all think of a time when we’ve dealt with a rude or obnoxious employee as a customer.
When seminar attendees were asked to share their customer service pet peeves this morning the recurring theme involved the general lack of common manners when dealing with front-line staff. Susan Setterland of S Bank emphasized “managing the first impression” a customer has of your brand. Since every interaction a customer or potential customer has with your company shapes how your brand is viewed it is important that employees at every level of an organization are aware of the principles your brand is intended to project. No matter how well your company uses new technology in customer service, nothing takes the place of polite, friendly employees who want to provide the best customer experience possible.
