Customer
Service Tips: Serving Without Burnout
by Molly Gordon, MCC
Customer service is essential for the success of your business. Yet many
small businesses or solo-shops crash and burn because they confuse customer
service with customer tyranny. They imagine that serving customers means
giving into endless demands.
If you're troubled by customer service issues, try this exercise, an
adaptation of Byron Katie's "Work" to business issues.
Write down the statement, "I have to satisfy all my customers all
the time, and that means..."
EXAMPLE: "I have to satisfy all
my customers, and that means that I need to accede to all of their requests.
Since I can't possibly do that, I'll either go bankrupt or burn-out or
get a reputation for bad service."
Next, ask yourself what happens to you when you believe this. How do
you feel? How do you behave toward yourself, your customers, your employees?
What additional beliefs do you hold?
EXAMPLE: "When I believe that,
I feel like a phony because I know I cannot possibly meet all my customer's
demands even though I pretend to give good service. I feel defensive and
resentful because it is not possible to live up to this. I feel cornered
and I sometimes strike out or shut down."
Breathe, you're half-way there!
Without trying to change your thoughts or beliefs, ask yourself, "Who
or how would I be if I did not have this thought?"
EXAMPLE: "I'd feel free. I'd be
curious about what customers had to say because it might help me do better
work. I'd look forward to making my best offer in response."
Now, look at your original belief, the part that you wrote after, "I
have to satisfy all my customers all the time and that means..."
Turn it around, re-writing it as the opposite.
EXAMPLE: The belief "I have to
accede to all their demands" becomes "I do not have to accede
to all their demands." It could even be stated, "I do not have
to accede to any of their demands" or "I have to NOT accede
to all their demands."
Notice how it feels to play with these reversals. Are any of these statements
as true (or maybe more true) than your original belief?
For me, all three statements are at least as true as the original. After
all, we're each responsible for our own businesses, and that includes
being at choice about how to respond to a customer demand or request.
Sometimes we might find that saying yes to a customer demand is bad for
business because it is out of line with what the business really offers
or with the resources at hand. In addition, we can notice that saying
yes to a customer all the time without pausing to reflect turns the customer
into a tyrant or a dictator. Is this really a good way to treat your customers?
Let's not turn customers and clients into demanding children. Instead,
let's treat them with dignity, respect, and balance. Let's make clear,
clean, and complete commitments to them that outline what we can do, by
when, and under what circumstances. Let's respond to their complaints
with integrity, dignity, curiosity, and a commitment to resolution that
serves both parties.
That might mean referring a customer to someone who can better meet their
needs. It might mean clarifying your policies and promises so that, in
the future, customer expectations match the reality of what you deliver.
It might mean saying no to the request while saying yes to the requestor:
"Yes, I value your patronage. It does not work for my business to
provide that service at that price, however we are ideally suited to doing
this other thing for you at a price I think you will like."
The bottom line is that when you examine your hidden beliefs and challenge
them you can open up a bigger playing field, a space in which you can
make your best offer, do your best work, and serve your customers without
burnout.
* * *
 Learn
more about Authentic Promotion - a comprehensive small
business marketing resource that turns marketing and self promotion into
a path of increasing self-awareness, authenticity, and right livelihood.
In particular, the strategies of maintaining your work life balance you
learn to apply will build the solid foundation for your authentic prosperity
as an entrepreneur.
* * *
Contact Master Certified Coach
Molly Gordon at:
Shaboom Inc. Life could be a dream…
PO Box 195
Suquamish, WA 98392-0195
mgordon@authenticpromotion.com
As a business coach and small
business marketing consultant, Molly Gordon, MCC, is available in Greater
Seattle Area and internationally |
