Listen, Respond, Delight- A Guide to Customer Service

Knowing your customers’ needs and meeting them is key in any business. This is a simple message. But, how good is your business at listening and responding to customer needs? Nikki Wyatt, NAPIT’s Customer Service Manager, considers the importance of quality customer service with a step by step approach...

Step 1: Understand your customer needs

To deliver a reliable and professional service, the first thing you need to do is to understand your customers. You can achieve this by listening to their needs through various channels such as email, social media and conversations over the phone. It is key to record any responses that you receive about your business and then you can act on any that require your attention.

With good lines of communication by listening to and understanding your customers it makes it easier to anticipate what they expect. Discussing the contract with your customers before and after the work is completed could be incredibly useful for ensuring you are delivering the best possible service and putting your customer at ease, both of which could lead to driving repeat business.

Step 2: Meet your customer needs

Ensure that any products or services that your business provides match the expectations of your customers. This could include setting out timescales for any work to be completed with your customer and then meeting those deadlines. If you are unable to meet the agreed deadlines, then make sure you are open and honest with customers about what has changed to reach a solution and continue to manage any expectations they may have.

By constantly asking your customers for feedback and using it to keep your services up to date to their needs, you make it simple for people to do business with your company, which could lead to being recommended more for your services.

Step 3: Delight customers

The road to delighting your customers can be as simple as treating them fairly and ensuring you get your product or service right the first time. It is important to remember that the customer is always right and occasionally, by going that extra mile, you can turn a satisfied customer into a delighted customer, making them more likely to use your services again. Simple measures such as offering free checks while you’re repairing something in a home can make the world of difference.

Also, if you ensure your post-sales service is of the highest quality, it will vastly improve the relationship between you and your customers. If you make a focussed effort to ask for feedback, it shows your customers how much you care and improve the quality of your service. Something as simple as calling a customer a week after the work is completed to check they are happy could be the difference between them requesting your services again or looking elsewhere.

Step 4: Create loyalty

By adopting the three previous steps, your company can then instil a sense of loyalty with your customers. A company that listens to their customers, meets their needs and strives to delight them will maintain a fantastic relationship with their customers.

By pushing to create loyalty, this can lead to repeat purchases and therefore constantly generating business for you. With increased loyalty comes a willingness to recommend your services to others and therefore increasing the size of your customer base within the local area and beyond.

Result: Successful business

Building quality relationships and improving your customers’ experience strengthens your brand within the industry, increases your business opportunities in the local area and, most importantly, leaves people happy with the service you provide. Listening and meeting the needs of anyone interested in using your company has never been more important.

NAPIT has invested heavily in quality customer service and has recently received an ‘Outstanding’ rating from Investor in Customers (IIC) for customer service excellence, as shown in our infographic. By continuing to listen and respond to the needs of installers, NAPIT strives to improve and maintain the level of professional, friendly and reliable service it is known for within the industry.

Article Published: 09 February 2015

customer service