Customer Support Training | What is excellent customer service?
Excellent customer service isn’t just something that happens from company to consumer. Customer service starts within a company. We all know about Zappos customer culture and their willingness to stay on a call with a customer for up to 10 hours. This article is to shine a digital light on a few other companies who have “WOWED” me and their secret sauce to create long term impact that makes at least my day a little bit easier. So much so that I am inspired and excited to share these companies with everyone I know. It’s the same effect you want on your customers.
The Product Companies
37Signals, ProductPeople.tv and LeadPlayer
I’m a ridiculously passionate person. Sometimes I’m afraid it freaks people out how much I care. There’s a caveat though. I only get behind good people. My twitter bio even says “Determined 2 meet all Inspiring Honest people”. It’s true. Jason Fried of 37Signals taught me long ago, ‘You don’t sell to companies, you sell to people’. Their company philosophies mean so much to me I even have a screenshot of their company’s MO as my desktop screen image.
Through Jason’s tweets I discovered the actionable, entertaining and authentic podcast ProductPeople.tv, “for people who love building products”. Their core audience are developers and project managers, but I think everyone interested in business should be listening. They are genuinely creating these podcasts to educate and inspire people who love building products as much as they do. They focus on a specific market and over deliver quality education. Listening to their in depth interviews and hearing 100% authenticity, I jumped on the chance to get one of their “Shout Outs” for my company SaveBusinessTime. Problem was, in order to do the shout out they asked me how to describe my company and being that I am once again a newbie start up this is a huge challenge I have been working on every day. So I sent this tweet…
And I got this back…
It was a sense of relief that this guy with an insane amount of experience building products, who I don’t know, based in Canada… no where near me, took the time to help me better communicate my brand.
And then the very next day I happily heard my “shout out”… here it is if you’d like to hear it… I’m the 3rd company in > http://d.pr/a/xrOf
Recently I started using LeadPlayer to power the videos on my website. It’s this awesome SAAS that allows me to include links and email forms inside YouTube videos. As I have been using it I have had a learning curve on how to get it working. I reached out to their customer support several times with questions and right away I got a response from a charismatic person on their team. Feels good knowing if I have a problem they have someone who cares on the other side to address it immediately.
The Virtual Assistant Companies
FoundersCard , Zirtual and FancyHands
These three companies focus on dedication to consumer experience. FoundersCard is an invite only community of entrepreneurial leaders. FoundersCard staff are always quick to return my emails or look into resources that help make my everyday living easier. It was only fitting that they have a partnership with the virtual assistant companies Zirtual and FancyHands. I signed up for both. Lets’ start with Zirtual. In the beginning there were a few hiccups, but the team behind the company truly wanted to give me an incredible customer experience. My account manager showed that she valued me as a customer and wanted me to have the perfect dedicated assistant to work with. I appreciated the care, saw her passion and wanted to be a part of their journey, just as much as my account manager showed me Zirtual wanted to be a part of mine. So I hung in there and now I have the perfect match. Richard Branson says rather than the perfect business tool, he values a brilliant personal assistant. Thanks to Zirtual that’s exactly what I have in my life now. Just as dynamic is FancyHands which, in my opinion, is a completely different service than Zirtual. Zirtual is for dedicated assistants. With FancyHands I get different people working on my tasks every day. They are all dynamic and the experience is consistently flawless. Each assistant has a positive attitude, but what puts them over the top is their technology. Their time and task tracking dashboard make their customer experience organized and dependable. The best part, when I rave about them in the social sphere they respond with appreciation and humor.
The Media Company
TechZulu and my previous company ZexSports
Today TechZulu sent me something that, in most jobs, is just another formality, but with this job, it is an honor > my TechZulu business card. I am so proud to be part of this team. I believe in their vision, I feel a sense of community, I am constantly valued and shown appreciation. So this isn’t just another card, this is a gift that I am so grateful to receive. Having awesome customer service starts with great leadership. People follow the leader so if a “team” doesn’t respect their leader then it should be no surprise if they take out their resentment and unhappiness on the company’s customers. If you want enthusiasm from your staff when communicating with your customers, then create a happy workplace.
With ZexSports my team was so hard working, stayed late always with a smile, took chances to benefit the company’s success. They did this because their teammates were doing it. They all believed in the company vision and wanted to work together to achieve it. Plus they knew that I cared just as much about their individual success as I did my own. So they made sacrifices to grow with my company and to give it their absolute all.
IN CONCLUSION
HAVE great leadership and a passionate team
BUILD great technology to enhance the customer experience
SHOW appreciation and value for your customers
USE humor
QUICKLY respond to support tickets with enthusiasm and care
HELP your customers with resources to make their lives easier
FOCUS on a specific market and overdeliver
CREATE a mission that people can align themselves with
