Is the customer always right? To help find an answer, George James, an award winning cafe owner and expert in customer service was brought onto the show to discuss and reveal the secrets to improving customer service in your business.

Tackling the question

Is the customer always right? It’s a difficult question but should not be left unanswered. The customer is the main reason you go into business and they should be at the forefront of every move you make. After all, without the customers, there is no business so it’s really important to get this right. At the end of the day, there are two sides to every story and this is still the case when it comes to the customer being right.

However, your role is to make sure you service that customer no matter what. If you can do that properly, they will keep coming back. This is something that George stands by as he believes rapport is one of the most important aspects of customer service.

If you can provide that customer with a pleasurable experience, then not only will they come back, but they will tell all their friends. The power of customer retention and the word of mouth marketing should never be underestimated.

The Customer

Like in any form of life, there will always be two sides of the spectrum. You will have customers that are difficult and you will have customers that are a delight. It’s here that you need to make sure you’re giving every customer an enjoyable experience and George explains one way of doing this is to know your customer.

Understand what they need and do all you can to put a smile on their face… “That’s what we’re here for,” says George. There will always be certain situations that can’t be helped and times where the customer might have an unpleasant experience no matter how hard you try. George expresses how crucial it is to maintain a cool, calm attitude and treat the customer with respect even when they are being difficult.

How you manage these encounters will be noticed by other customers and gives that image that you’re providing good customer service at all times.

What can you do in your business to improve customer service?

The key for George? “Training is the most important thing. You need to educate your staff.” You need to make sure your staff understand the product, know the business and appreciate the importance of the service being provided.

George says if the staff don’t understand the product that they’re working for and the business that they’re working for and the history of that business, then you’ll struggle to maintain healthy customer service levels. “You need to educate your staff as to the reason why your business is so important to yourself,” says George.

It is absolutely essential that you make sure your staff are on board with the vision so they can provide that level of care when it comes to customer service. Understand the customer, the product, the clientele as well as the industry or you’ll fall behind. Another important point to mention is making sure you’re doing it better than everyone else.

Providing that wow factor so your customer service stands out above the rest. Something George talks about is a technique he calls ‘under promising, over delivering’ which he has found to be extremely effective in his businesses.

When you’re trying to educate your staff on the importance of customer service, George says that team bonding can be a great way to help your business culture, and therefore the attitude of you staff when they inevitably deal with difficult customers.

Finally, as the business owner, understand that your staff are human, they make mistakes. Rather than being overly critical when mistakes occur, offer useful advice, ask them questions about why they think errors occurred. Build trust and rapport through mentoring your staff, rather than just criticising.