By Nancy Friedman, Keynote Customer Service Expert on Sales and Communications; President, Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training

When you take the “friendly." out of Business Friendly, the only thing you have left is business – business as usual. And we all know that’s just not good enough.

You may be asking yourself, “What exactly is Business Friendly customer service?." We define it as the middle ground between being too cold, impersonal and uncaring, and the other extreme of being too familiar. I’m sure we’ve all experienced both.

Here are five points to help you deliver Business Friendly customer service.

Every Call is Unique – Don’t Become Desensitized:

The customer interaction you perform at the end of the day needs to be as upbeat and helpful as you were with the first one of the day. What happens is often times we get the same questions over and over and it’s easy to become desensitized. We need to remember that to the customer, his question is new to him. And it’s the first time for him; no matter what time of day it is.

Solve the Problem – Don’t Argue:

You know the old saying “the customer is always right.." Well, the reality is “the customer always thinks they’re right." and that’s the perception we need to deal with. There are indeed times when the customer is wrong and we, as service specialists, know and realize it. There’s zero value in pointing out to a customer that they’re wrong. So focus on the problem; don’t worry about whose fault it is. There’s simply nothing to be gained by arguing with your customer. You will lose every single round. Focus on solving the problem.

Show Empathy – Don’t Ignore What The Customer Says:

The other day, I called a company and explained that the product they sold me wasn’t operating properly. The answer from the company representative? “Oh, OK.." AGGGGGG. That drives me crazy. First of all, it’s NOT OK that the product wasn’t working right. And secondly, where was a little empathy? Where was some sort of acknowledgement that they indeed heard what I was calling about? None. And you can have empathy in happy and good things too. Empathy isn’t only for disasters and bad times. You can join in when someone mentions a birthday, a vacation, a wedding, or anything that is happy. Point is, just do not ignore what they say. COMMENT on it.

Smile:

Yup, the customer can hear it. We all know that. And since we all know that, we all need to do it. And by the way, smiling is showing your teeth. If your teeth aren’t showing, you’re only grinning – not smiling. Grins can’t be heard! Let those puppies show!