Common Sense Customer Service: Improve Your Job Skills & Provide A Great Customer Experience

A Must Have Resource For Anyone In The Customer Service Field
For Job Seekers
Common Sense Customer Service helps job seekers that are looking for a career in customer service. This book gives them a good grounding in what is involved in delivering truly excellent customer service. It also explains how being an amazing customer service representatives benefits themselves, the customer and the company. The job seeker can be certain that they have the skills that are required for such a position and can effectively communicate that when applying for a career in customer service.
For Customer Service Training Common Sense Customer Service is a must-have book to add to any customer service training program. It's great for large or small companies since it is general enough for any industry but in-depth enough to be truly useful.
Victoria Wells talks from a wealth of customer service experiences in a non-threatening, chatty style that most people find easy to read and easy to absorb.
This book can be the basis of a training program, an addition to a training program and a reference guide.
For Managers/Owners Every manager/owner should have a copy of this book for themselves, too. The Extra Chapter is targeted specifically at managers/owners and includes some valuable insights.
Managers/owners will come away with a new appreciation and understanding of their role in attaining company wide, exceptional customer service, as well as ideas on how to effectively reward, or constructively criticize, their customer service personnel.
Basic Customer Service Concepts

• Do Unto Others
• The Customer is Always Right - NOT!
• The Customer is Always the Customer

Attitude and personality

• Personality
• Attitude

General telephone basics

• Automated Attendant or Not?
• Pick Up The Phone!
• Physical Telephone Message Records
• Setting Up Your Automated Attendant
• How to Answer the Phone
• Don't make the greeting too long
• Return Voice Messages
• Telephone Tag
• It Doesn't Stop There
• Don't Badger

Communicating With Your Customers

• In Person
• In Person Trumps On The Phone
• By Email
• By Phone
• By Regular Mail
• Upselling

Dealing with Different Types of Customers

• Understanding Your Customers
• What do most customers really want?
• Learn to Listen
• Recap
• The Golden Rule
• The Demanding Customer
• The Unhappy Customer
• The Unreasonable Customer
• The Abusive Customer
• The Accommodating Customer
• Internal Customers
• Don't Play Politics

Under-promise and over-deliver

• Promises, Promises, Promises
• Under Promise and Over Deliver
• Keeping the Customer Informed
• Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up

Knowing your limits

• Company Policies
• Use Your Authority Wisely

Dealing with stress

• Don't Take It Personally
• On the Phone
• In Person
• If It's Truly Too Much
• Never Complain to a Customer

Good note keeping

• Manual Note Keeping
• Be Concise, Not Cryptic
• Be Consistent
• Critical Information
• Separating Notes
• Indicating Completion
• Tracking Older Notes That Are Not Yet Complete
• Keeping Older Books of Notes Handy
• Electronic Note Keeping
• Keeping Good Customer Records

Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up

• The Importance of Following Up
• Keeping Your Customer In The Loop
• EWhy Following Up With Your Customer Is So Important
• Ways To Follow Up
• Additional Advantages of Keeping Your Customers Informed

Bonus Chapter for the Manager/Owner

• Lead By Example
• Management by Walking Around
• Technology
• Other things to consider are
• Empowering Your Employees
• Rewarding Your Employees
• Praise In Public, Criticize In Private
• Constructive Criticism
• When an Employee is not a Good Fit for Your Company