Improve Customer Service by Being Honest with Your Customers

An essential ingredient to long-term cleaning success is great customer service.

Have you ever dealt with a cashier who was unfriendly or down right hostile? I don’t know about you, but it always makes me want to call their manager and tell them about the cashier’s rudeness and how he/she could be running customers away, maybe never to return again.

In the cleaning business, customer service is a very important aspect of how your clients view what you do and, most importantly, how long you keep the job. When we owned Cleaning Concepts, one factor that set our cleaning business apart from other less successful businesses, was our customer service.

To me, customer service involves three main parts; Consistent Follow-Up – to make sure the cleaning is being done to satisfaction; Updating The Customer – of any changes in staff or procedures to make sure they feel informed; and of course, Handling Problems – when they arise.

All great customer service comes down to GOOD COMMUNICATION. Your customers want to know you “care” about their cleaning needs. By following up with them and notifying them when changes are made, you make feel important. This only takes a couple of minutes to short time investment could be the difference, in the long run, between them staying with your company or switching to someone else. It’s so easy to go that extra mile for the customer, but few businesses are willing to even take the first step.

Many companies don’t have much contact with their clients after they get the account unless it’s when a problem arises. Good customer service means sniffing out problems and fixing them before the customer even know they’re there. If you keep a customer happy they will stay with you, which equals a long-term, profitable relationship. What this means to you is money in your pocket, month after month, year after year. Just think, your employees show up and do the cleaning and you make the money. Money you can spend on a new car, your kids, education, or a bigger home. With this money piling up every month, you can spend more time with your family and FINALLY take that once in a lifetime vacation (or you could make it once a year).

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Joe (my husband) and I owned a very successful cleaning business before we sold it. We did pre-/post construction clean-up, commercial and residential cleaning.

Founder of http://www.AprilGregoryInc.com
, April Gregory has invoked the successes of many including multi-million dollar producing spas to individuals in the United States Marine Corps.

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With all the headlines about corruption in business and government, many believe that honesty is allusive. However, honesty can improve your customer service. This past week I realized the power of honesty specific to customer service. Let me share two real examples to illustrate this point.

During a return from a meeting with a client, I stopped in a national restaurant chain where I have consistently experienced good food and fast service no matter how busy the restaurant was. After placing the order, I watched others being seated and then noticed that they were receiving their food orders while I was still awaiting. Finally, I asked for my waitress and then the manager suddenly appeared with my order. He asked if everything was OK and I took him at his word and responded “No.” Then, I shared with him that I had been waiting over 20 minutes and watching others who were seated after me enjoy their meals. The manager quickly apologized, said that they had more than enough staff to cover the dinner crowd and picked up the bill. Shortly thereafter my waitress came by and attempted to put the blame for the poor service on the kitchen help while keeping herself blameless. She asked me to come back and I said that I would continue to frequent this particular chain, but not at this location. Her service received less than a 10% tip and with my realization that she probably doesn’t even know why.

Later during that week, I visited another national chain after the lunch hour rush. The service was good until I asked for the bill. After waiting 10 minutes and having another wait staff person locate my server, she appeared with the check and apologized for the wait. Then she said, “I was reading an Avon catalog and lost track of time.” A 20% plus tip rewarded her honesty.

How many times is honesty supplemented with a convenient, less than forthright response? The fear of being wrong or being viewed as incompetent takes precedence over the simple truth. Putting the responsibility and personal accountability on someone else’s shoulder has become sadly a way of life.

If you truly wish to improve customer service, go beyond the traditional customer service training and encourage your employees to be honest with their clients and accept responsibility for their actions. Of course, this also means that your employees need to know the core values within your organization’s strategic plan and that everyone from the top down must consistently live those values, day in and day out.

P.S. If you wish to read more about how to improve customer service, read First Contact: The Source of Customer Loyalty

Leanne Hoagland-Smith doubles results for individuals and businesses by helping them close the gap between today’s outcomes and tomorrow’s goals.

One quick question, if you could secure one new client or breakthrough that one roadbloack holding you back from success, what would that mean to you ? Then, take a risk and give Leanne a call at 219.759.5601 to experience incredible results.

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