LESSON 13: CUSTOMER SERVICE

Specialty cheese can be so operations-oriented that it is easy to become very task-focused when out on the sales floor. It’s important, however, to shift this focus to selling. Whenever a customer enters the department, there is always the opportunity to help them buy more cheese than they originally planned.

Top Ten Rules of Customer Service

1. Know what your customers want.
2. Be a good listener. Ask questions and concentrate on what the customer is saying. Don’t assume you know.
3. Identify and anticipate needs. Customers don’t buy products or services, they buy good feelings and solutions to problems. The more you know your customers, the better you become at anticipating their needs.
4. Help customers to understand your systems. Take the time to explain how your systems work and how transactions are simplified.
5. Make customers feel important and appreciated. Learn and use their names. Don’t forget to thank them for coming in.
6. Always look for ways to help your customers. Look for ways to make doing business with you easy. Always do what you say you are going to do.
7. When something goes wrong, apologize. The customer may not always be right, but the customer must always win.
8. Give more than expected. Consider what you can give customers that they cannot get somewhere else.
9. Get regular feedback. Encourage and welcome suggestions about how you can improve.
10. Treat employees well. When you treat your employees with respect, chances are they will have a higher regard for customers. Appreciation stems from the top.
    
    

Recipe for Giving Great Customer Service

Step 1
Find out what they want – this sounds self-explanatory but with specialty cheese, it can be difficult. Sometimes customers don’t really know exactly what they want and can feel too intimidated to admit what they want.

Ask simple questions giving choices between only two or three things.

• Is the cheese for a recipe or for the table?
• Soft or hard cheese?
• Mild or strong flavor?

Sometimes it’s easier for the customer to answer what they are not looking for or don’t like.

Step 2
Get it for them enthusiastically, politely and accurately – also sounds self-explanatory but if you think back to a time when you received bad service, it was most likely one of these three things that was off. All three are essential parts of giving great customer service.

Step 3
Go the extra mile – do something that the customer did not ask for that makes them feel special. Give them a sample of something they didn’t ask for, walk them to another department to show them where something is, give them a recipe for the item they’re purchasing, etc. The extra mile will be the thing that makes the customer’s day a little brighter and that will make them return.