Devoted to customer service and the principles of exceptional customer services

For three years I worked for a well-known department store that prided itself on superior customer service.  If a customer wanted to return something that we didn’t sell, we were to take the attitude of “Not a Problem!”  If a customer wanted to return something without a receipt, the answer was: “Not a Problem!”

It’s the return policy, or should I say, lack of a return policy that kept the customers.  For this company, yes, the customer was always right.  There really was no point in arguing with customer because 99.9% of the time they ended up asking for a manager who in turn gave the customer what they wanted anyway.

Sometimes I stood and watched my colleagues huff and puff about the customer who tried to take advantage of the “return policy”.  They ended up wasting time and energy on an issue when they could have been back out on the sales floor making up that money that was supposedly lost.

Why did this company offer such great service?  Elementary, my Dear Watson.  As a customer, when we’re given great service, we’re more likely to tell other people of our experience and more likely to return to buy more.  It’s the attitude of “the customers are always right” that set this company apart from the rest.  As sales people, even if we knew the customer was actually wrong, they were told that they were right.  Isn’t it better to lose $30 than to lose $3,000?  If you rubbed that customer the wrong way, he/she would tell five friends what awful service they received and then those five friends wouldn’t do business with you.  That can add up to a lot!

If we can always keep the customer in the forefront of our minds, business would run more smoothly.  After all, isn’t that what we’re here for, the customer?