Kathleen Cady Schilling
Kathleen Cady Schilling
“Customer service is the support a business offers to its customers before, during and after a purchase. It’s about providing a positive experience that helps customers feel valued and builds long-term relationships.”
I found that definition of customer service online. Customer service is support — it is about stepping up and helping your customer. It is about providing a positive experience — it is about creating something pleasant that they will remember about you. Finally, it is about building long-term relationships — your goal is to keep them as a continuing customer. How is your business doing on customer service and what steps are you taking to improve your client’s time with you?
On Tuesday, Feb. 11, OED along with the county (Belgium, Cedarburg, Grafton and Mequon-Thiensville) Chambers of Commerce hosted their first session in their series Best Business Practices. This session focused on customer service and working with your team to improve your client’s experiences with you.
Our moderator, Julie Collins of Knot Magic, put on a great seminar on the topic. She spoke about ways to improve your team’s performance and things clients will remember about their experiences with you.
Here are some basic tips from the seminar you can use to help your customers feel valued.
– Be pro-active, when you see a situation occurring, don’t wait until someone complains; step up and try and find a solution, anticipating issues and dealing with them before they become major problems.
– Make sure your team is responsive in all avenues. If you have a website or Facebook page; make sure a staff member is monitoring it and answering questions and concerns.
Always know what your neighbor knows with our newsletters, delivering the latest local news, sports, and breaking stories straight to your inbox!
– Make sure the person answering your phone is the right person for the job. Be empathetic, make sure you are listening to people’s issues, don’t just utilize a canned answer.
– Make sure you personalize things when they are talking with you. If you know their name, utilize it. The simple act of talking directly to someone can make people slow down and think about what they are saying. Everyone wants to feel important, how you talk to people and how you listen to people can create a positive environment.
– Lastly, we all make mistakes, just make sure to own up to them and don’t try and push the problem on someone else. Own it and see if you can make it right, people will appreciate it and want to work with you again.
Our next session will be on Tuesday, April 8 and will be focusing on another key business issue — employee retention. Although the market for employees has eased up a bit, keeping quality employees engaged and not losing them to your competitors is vital. This session will focus on this issue and what your company can do to retain its best employees.
Carol Crawford from WMEP will be talking about steps your company can take to retain its employees and create a productive environment where people want to work. Carol will provide an interactive session that will give you tips and action steps that your company can take with them to improve your environment.
The session will be held at the Kacmarcik Center for Human Performance. The session runs from 7:45 a.m. to 9 a.m. Registration is required and can be done through OED at its website, www.ozaukeebusiness.org or through your local Chamber of Commerce. Sessions are $30 for nonmembers and $25 for members and include a light breakfast.
Two additional sessions will be offered this fall and focus on other key business topics — increasing productivity and generational business. These sessions are designed to help you increase your sales and improve your business practices. OED and the local Chambers of Commerce look forward to seeing you at our next seminar.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
10 things to know this week from the WOW counties (Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington) sent on Sundays
Get the latest Ozaukee County news delivered Tuesday and Thursdays so you don’t miss out on updates.
Have Ozaukee County breaking news alerts sent to your inbox as they happen!
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.
We recommend switching to one of the following browsers:
