PAY ATTENTION!!!

"If you make a sale, you can make a living. If you make an investment of time and good service in a customer, you can make a fortune."

Jim Rohn, Author and Motivational Speaker

'What's wrong Amaka? Why are you frowning at your phone?' I peer into her phone curiously.

Amaka is my colleague and she has a penchant for ordering items online. Clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc and she has all kinds of stories to tell about the way she has been treated by online vendors.

She handed me her phone to look at the exchange between herself and an online vendor and I was appalled. From being sheer clueless to outright rudeness, the tone of the conversation was condescending and I couldn't imagine how such vendor will still expect to be patronized.

How do you deliver over sized shoes to a customer and refuse to take it back, saying there is no exchange, meanwhile she explicitly told you her shoe size. You have also refused to process a refund even after my colleague offered to pay for dispatch to take it back to her. Then you ended the conversation by blatantly ignoring her messages. How many online vendors do we know sitting on this table comfortably??

Customer Service should provide satisfaction. Every interaction with your customer is an opportunity to make a good impression and as such, your goal should be a satisfied customer. Your customer should actually walk away feeling happy and content.

You need to first develop a customer friendly approach. Friendly gestures cost nothing. You need to understand that good customer service makes the difference in winning customers and retaining them. Statistics show that there is a 91% chance of poor service dissuading customers and it has been confirmed that people spend more for the same product with better service. This is to show that how you treat people matters.

I will leave you with a charge. Listen! Listen to understand, listen to respond accurately and not react defensively. The ability to listen to your customers and find out through polite questioning what he or she needs or wants is a winner any day anytime. You can only understand by listening. Your customers wants might just be having comfortable shoes or kitchen gadgets that do not break down.

Understanding will allow you tailor your responses to suit their needs

In the words of Jim Rohn " One of the greatest gifts you can give to anyone is the gift of attention"

So tell me in the comment section, how not listening has cost you a business or a sale and what you would do differently.