How important is customer service to you?

Customer service is everything I spent 23 years in s major supermarket chain early in my career service was a key factor , sadly it was not a focus latter on , I am a rep in the industry now and looking as a visitor to the stores now it has not improved , yet in the independent stores they will do what ever is required to get repeat sales , unfortunately in s lot of the major retail it is all about profit and telling the consumer what they will buy , and not listening to what the consumer wants ,

PS why cant the powerd that be see that fuel pricing and shopper docket discounts linked ,

Sorry a little off topic but all related

At my work we have one opposition business in town..... they are the best competition we could ever ask for. The staff are all incredibly knowledgeable and have been in the industry for 30+ years! BUT! they have been doing it so long they just do not give a crap any more. If a customer goes in "do you have this" the answer is usually "nope." Not, "nah mate we don't have anything here but I could probably get something for you?"
Best advice I ever got with walk-in customers was to greet people 50 years old + as "sir" and people younger than that as "mate." Seems to work every time!

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Originally Posted by Winnie

Best advice I ever got with walk-in customers was to greet people 50 years old + as "sir" and people younger than that as "mate." Seems to work every time!

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I like that, show respect to customers.

G'day Trendsetters,

Farkkk,providing good customer service is a simple thing! All businesses need to do is have a simple set of traits as a rule of thumb. This is some of my principles i adhered to when i was in business. they were;

(A) Answer phone calls and e-mails. Businesses sure make that someone is picking up the phone when a potential customer calls your business. (Notice I say "someone". farken people want to talk to a live person, not a farken "recorded message".)

(B) Listen to your customers. There is nothing more irritating than telling someone what you want or what your problem is and then discover that that person hasn't been paying attention and then farken needs to be have it all explained again?

(c) Deal with complaints properly and promptly. No one likes hearing complaints, and many of us have developed a reflex shrug, saying, "You can't please all the people all the time". Maybe not, but if businesses give the complaint proper attention,they just may be able to please some of there customers and probably position their business to reap the benefits of good customer service!

(d) Businesses need to train there staff (if they have any) to be always helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable. Businesses need to train and regularly talk to their staff about good customer service and what it is (and isn't) regularly. (Good Customer Service: How to Help a Customer explains the basics of ensuring positive staff-customer interactions.)

(e) Take the extra step. For instance, lead the customer to what they want. Better yet, wait and see if he/she has questions about it, or needs further assistance. Always be helpful, even if there's no immediate profit in it for now. There might be later on!

The irony of good customer service Trendsetters, is that over time it will bring in more new customers than promotions and price slashing ever did! I wish certain businesses in Australia practiced some of these traits!

Regards,

RLI

Couldn't agree more mate.
A recent job I did for a custom canoe rack on a camper trailer had me around his place for 2 hours before I even had the job nutting out where and how we would get around a few obstacles he had..
He told me the first bloke walked in looked at it and said, 'you need brakes' and walked out..
Now this is true, he needed an upgrade, but I talked to him about how simple it really is, 2 weeks later I'm helping install them and then I got the rack job.
He was so pleased with the out come he's now hitting me up with another $500+ worth the jobs and splashing these things all over the local camping pages...

So you my friend are spot on..

Kallen Westbrook
Owner of
Westy's Accessories

I thought I was in to a winner an old school friend ran a shop called jw race solutions he done mechanical work on my commodore and was great work tried him with the gu zd30 I will never recommend him ever again and am easy to direct people away from there and go to auto xperts instead. My clutch blew was solely their fault after my submarine incident I got her fixed as all manner of things broke was told it was fixed drove 10 metres and I said clutch is f!cked its slipping hard oh we test drove it will be fine just water needs to dry out so I drove it to the farm clutch bew up 130km from home expensive tow at least he saw my out raged Facebook called me opened the shop but still charged me to replace clutch. They took ages never called I was always chasing charged heaps took their time don't get e started on the gearbox and air on pulley they broke beneboy big rig and mud donk can attest to that they and myself done a better job.basicly if it wasn't a performance car you got ship service. Daniel from http://www.autoxpertsmechanical.com.au/ is a god send hes nissannewbys mate great service loves his patrols very experienced he bent over backwards to sell me his gearbox and aircon pulley great prices he will get my work from my patrol and my wife's new ve ss sportswagon top bloke top job

On other customer service related issues I'm a fair man but if you can't provide service you don't get my custom. Simple things like food service if I need to repeat myself more than 3 times and you still get my order wrong I just say dont worry about it if you're this incompetent I wouldn't want to eat your food Pizza Hut rockhampton was good for that! If you provide good to great service I pay more and will continue to use you George's paragon sanctuary cove amazing food well priced and great service also I've had 2 dealings with beanstead car yard in springwood both times very pleasant bought the wife's ss their last week te car was great sold its self they wanted 30g would have paid it too for te car but they gave us 1500 trade in on the wife's mirage that was dented side broken exhaust bald tyres 20 days rego needs brakes pisses oil out all sea,s(5 l every month) had a big end rattle after 2500 rpm and had 300000km haha they cut out any bs in the sale were well educated as I normally for fun go car shopping on weekend for fun with the wife to test drive things and ake up stories but a,ways ask tricky questions to catch them out this guy knew it all well played sir

ive worked with the public all my life and customer service is everything and when I feel im not being treated right I correct their attitude and walk out.

I actually think ppl don't care any more, years ago ppl asking all the time "can I help you" No just looking thanks.
Would customer service come from belief in the Product, why try and sell {Lie} something if you know its Shite.
I'm a bit old School and reckon word of mouth is the best advertising. Plus you need to know everything about what your selling
I remember with Dad "Fill it up and check the oil please", the guy would show dad the dip stick proving it was low and required a pint.
Most sales staff these days have scripted answers, or as Winnie put basically don't give a flying fig, cause they're the only mob for miles.
I know where I'd shop and that would be Winnies. A polite hello COST YOU NOTHING ITS THE SAME PRICE AS A SMILE,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Was a joke about customer service, for those who know it ended "and would you like a lawn mower with that" lol

Heres one for everyone to try next time at McDonalds ask for a Chocolate milk shake, Bet ya she/he says what flavour,works every time lol

Having worked in retail a few years i can kinda see it from the other side. I was once asked by a lady why i didnt know everything about everything in the shop, she was quite rude about it too, i simply said, 'if i went and had training on everything in this shop i would never be here to help you'. I worked for a major retailer at the time, in a 85,000m sq shop.
In saying that, its an attitude thing i believe. If the customer was polite to me, after greeting them, then i would do everything i could. If they were rude to me, then i had no time for them. I dont go to work to be your personal punching bag.

When i deal with shops as a customer, i will always be direct, get to the point but still be nice about it. Tell them straight up what i want and what i want to know. Example; i wanted an additional battery and car charger for my go pro. Went it to the camera shop assuming being a camera shop they would have better knowledge about the product and answer my questions. Go into the shop, there is 1 staff member there, already helping another customer, the staff member didnt even acknowledge me, im wearing hi vis mind you stand out a lot, he actually turned away from me. So i walked out. Thats the last time i will ever walk in that shop again. His loss. I walked into another shop, got what i wanted, asked the questions, admittedly he didnt know 100% but he helped and so i spent my money there, and i will happily go back.