Providing excellent customer service may be one of the most important things you will do in your business. After all, if you get this part wrong, you’ll lose current customers and maybe future customers when they find out.

1. Create Standard Policies and Procedures

Establishing service standards that your customers will read before and after they buy and that you can use as a basis for providing a solution to their problem will go a long way. Make sure your return policy, terms of service, and expectations are crystal clear to your customers.

2. Let the customer speak first

When a customer contacts you with a problem, let them speak first. You want to hear what they have to say and let them know you are listening by making the right sounds, giving them the right looks (if in person), and parroting back to them what you think they meant by what they said on their own. words. Most customers tell you what they want in the first minute.

3. Don’t take it personally

Whether you are the creator of the product or the direct provider of the service, it can be difficult to provide customer service to you because it is so personal. If you can’t separate things out and see them as non-personal and just business, you may want to outsource to someone who can do a better job of providing customer service to your customers.

4. Don’t be negative

Even if you have to say no to someone, it’s imperative that you stay composed and don’t be negative. Do not attack. Don’t defend. Indicate the policies that you plan to practically comply with. Repeat if necessary, always using a calm voice.

5. Be easy to find

Don’t make it difficult for your customers to contact you. The emails you send to your audience must be reply-able and not a no-reply email address. Big corporations use them, but as a smaller company, you’ll turn away too many people if you do too.

6. Get a mirror

If you are talking to people on the phone, get a mirror that you can look into while you talk. If you smile and talk to the mirror, you will appear more friendly and approachable, and this will help keep the person calm.

The thing is, while you want to say that the customer is always right, sometimes they are not. Sometimes customer service feels like harassment. Even so, you have to put it in perspective and try to listen first to what he has to say and what his complaint is. Try to listen through the anger and find the solution. Create policies that make sense, but be willing to bend them. If someone is very angry, you better give them a refund.