Exceptional Customer Service

Customer Service Tips for Building Exceptional Customer Relationships

Tip #1  Study and learn the six behaviors: spontaneous, adaptive, defiant, controlling, nurturing, and reasoning.  Each behavior has its place and time.  Discuss when a behavior might be appropriately used and when it may lead to further complications.  When you understand how and why people behave, it helps to understand how a customer service situation may best be handled.

Tip #2  Practice the skill of avoiding hooks.  A hook is a behavior from a customer that may provoke you into behaving in an unproductive manner.  This is why it is critical for you to be able to recognize and identify the six behaviors both in yourself and your customer.

Tip #3  Modify the tone of your voice to fit the particular situation.  Your tone of voice for a greeting will be very different than your tone of voice for an apology.  Know that the tone of your voice should fit the most appropriate and productive behavior for the situation.

Tip #4  Choose your behavior.  While it isn’t always the practice, you can choose your behavior and control the choices you make.  You decide how you’re going to behave in any situation.  Choose the behavior that will provide the best possible outcome.

Tip #5  Care about the words that you use.  There are words that show that you care and words that reflect your indifference.  In order to provide exceptional customer service,  choose words that are caring.  Replace “you have to” with “will you” and you change the entire tone of the conversation.