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Help Your Customers by Being Flexible
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by Kevin Stirtz
Kevin Stirtz’s Amazing Customer Service Rule #11
Be Flexible
In customer service, as with most things there is no one right answer. There is almost always more than one way to accomplish something. But we don’t always admit it. Too often we focus on one way to do something. Maybe it’s the only way we know. Maybe it’s the fastest, cheapest or easiest route to helping our customer. But that doesn’t make it the best.
Remember, our goal is to help our customers get what they want, within our ability. So we always need to look for alternatives. We need to be creative. We need to think beyond the first solution that comes to mind when we’re working with our customers.
Being flexible means being willing to try a different path. (This is good advice in life as well as business.) Always consider other options as possible ways to help your customer get what they came for.
It means offering customers more than one solution. By offering choices we’re making it more likely they’ll get what they want. There are few things worse than being a customer and someone says “that’s the only way you can do it”.
Being flexible also means being willing to try new things and go the extra mile for customers. It means being a problem solver rather than an order taker. Customers know the difference. Stay flexible as you provide solutions to your customers. They’ll thank you with their loyalty.
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Kevin Stirtz is the Amazing Service Guy, a speaker and trainer who helps companies increase revenue and profits by delivering Amazing Service. Stirtz has been quoted in such major media as BusinessWeek, the Boston Globe, Smart Money and the Chicago Sun Times. Get a free copy of his Amazing Service Toolkit.
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