Knowing What Your Customers Need

My first job was working at a hardware store. Because of the hours in which I worked, I dealt primarily with customers who had a problem with something in their home and needed it fixed ASAP. These issues could be leaking pipes, broken windows, electrical problems, and just about any home-related problem that could occur.

They came to me for either replacement parts or for guidance. Many times, they would bring the broken product - stinky pipe and all, and ask "how can I fix this." That's a job unlike most others. For me, it wasn't about selling them something but sending them home with a solution.

Customer support was my job. Words I commonly heard were "thank you so much" and "you just saved me a lot of time and money." Every job I had after that, I realized the ability to provide customer support was what kept people coming back. The more help I could provide a customer which any aspect of sales or support, the more likely they were to return and buy more from the business.

My book, Cruise Control Customer Support, teaches how you can provide helpful customer service in the most effective manner. My success at that hardware store came from knowing the types of problems people have in their home and how they could be fixed. In other words, I had the solutions just waiting for the customers. My book teaches you how you can do the same.

Blurring the Lines of Customer Support

Customer support work is usually easy, right? Customer sends in an enquiry and you respond with a solution. You might have a few iterations of emails back and forth but that's the general process. What if they have a billing issue?

Who takes care of the billing issues in your business? Is it the customer support person or the person who does accounting? If you don't get this straight, your business is bound to have some problems.

And what about product fulfillment? Who takes care of that? Is it a third group? Is it the billing person? When you don't have clear outlines of responsibilities, your employees get frustrated and your quality of service to your customers suffers as well.