The Ten Commandments Of World Class Customer Service - Commandment Three

World Class customer service is as easy as seeing your customers as friends instead of just customers and then keeping and building those friendships. Every customer that comes to your business should be treated like a valuable, potential new friend and not like someone that you meet for a moment when they buy your product or service and then you never talk to again. The goal of every business should be to build customers into clients. A customer is someone that your business has no personal relationship with and buys what you sell once and moves on. Whereas a client is someone that you develop a long term relationship or friendship with that may or may not buy every time you see them, but are committed to you and your business. Customers come and go and need to be encouraged with promotions to come in, but clients feel so valued that they come back on their own without prodding and stay like friends. You need to find customers, whereas clients find you.

COMMUNICATING WITH FRIENDS

You communicate with friends differently than you do casual acquaintances. With friends you show concern and interest in their needs and opinions. You treat them with genuine respect and demonstrate how important they are to you. You "talk" to friends on a regular basis and reach out to them and demonstrate your appreciation for their friendship with no expectation that they'll "buy" something from you. You thank them for their continued friendship and make them feel valued. In business, as in life in general, building these kind of relationships is the difference between having a business that continues to grow with long term committed clients (friends) and a business that lives from customer to customer and sale to sale.