If you are in customer service, you’ve had to face a lot of lemons lately. It has been nearly impossible to give customers exactly what they wanted when the whole world was turned outside down. Yet the best customer service representatives turn lemons into lemonade.
When I drew this cartoon, It didn’t occur to me how sales and customer service do this every day. Instead, I was thinking of how even a humble lemonade stand owner can benefit from customer service. I didn’t think about the sour events customer service representatives face every day.
One of my friends works in the billing department for a hospital. She has fielded calls from people who have been affected by the financial hardships of COVID-19. Both couples in a family have lost their jobs. Or maybe someone just wanted to talk about the disease. She’s done a lot of listening. She’s shed tears with customers that are going through tough times.
About a year ago, our plant was going through some capital improvements. We hit some snags with installing and testing the new equipment that caused jobs to be late. It was a very rough time for our customer service department because they had to field the calls of frustrated customers that were used to excellent service. I was impressed by those in the department that took the time to listen and be helpful even when they may have felt there was little they could do.
Excellent customer service looks like the following:
- Treat each customer the way you want to be treated
- Taking the time to listen to the customer even when you may not agree with them
- Offer solutions that may not be exactly what they want, but involves compromise
- Being an advocate for the customer while avoiding making unattainable promises
In the end, if we’re in business, we are all in customer service. Everyone wants to know they are being listened to and that the other person cares about their plight.
