In this trusted customer service classic, the renowned business training and consulting services practice Performance Research Associates, Inc. lays bare the truth all companies have come to accept but few know what to do with: companies that emphasize customer service make more money and keep customers longer than those that don’t. For over two decades, Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service has combined this timeless wisdom with powerful tools, real-world examples, and the latest methods to provide customer service professionals an indispensable guide. With lighthearted examples and to-the-point solutions, the book provides readers with proven tips and strategies for exceeding customer needs and expectations, determining the right times to bend or break the rules, becoming fantastic fixers and powerful problem-solvers, using the RATER factors to wow your customers, understanding cultural and generational differences, and coping effectively with your most challenging customers. Plus, the revised fifth edition delivers new information on using social media for communication and service recovery, owning service encounters, responding positively to negative feedback, and more.What is quality customer service–and how do you consistently deliver it for your customers? Discover the answers in this go-to guide for helping customer service professionals deliver outstanding service that keeps customers coming back.

In Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, Performance Research Associates – with some editorial help from Ron Zemke – highlight the main principles and techniques involved in providing great customer service and resolving customer problems. This lively book features many short chapters, cartoons, bulleted axioms and what-to-do examples. However, much of the information seems very familiar, like a juiced-up version of hints, tips and advice that have appeared in many other customer service books. Thus, it has a kind of déjà vu quality. While someone who is experienced in this field may find the information here too familiar, this accessible volume as a great introduction to customer service.

• To customers, you are the company.
• To provide great customer service, consider what your customers need and expect, and how to best provide it.
• The five essential factors in good customer service are: “reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness” – RATER for short.
• Keep the “Service Promise” by showing customers that you do what you say you will do.
• Respond to customers in a timely fashion, and reassure them by showing them that you care and that you know what you are doing.
• First impressions count toward credibility. You and your environment must look good.
• Make your customers feel heard, understood, liked, respected and appreciated.
• When there are problems and misunderstandings, first apologize, and then try to fix the problem while letting the customer know what you are doing.
• While the customer isn’t always right, make the customer feel right. Don’t try to place blame, rather work to make things right through service recovery.
• Treat each customer as unique; show empathy and support the customer’s feelings.

Basic Principles of Great Service

“Knock Your Socks Off Service” is excellent, top-of-the-line, best-of-the-bunch, take-your-breath-away customer service. At this level, you carefully give each customer a favorable and memorable experience while you satisfy every need and expectation. You show customers that you are a pleasure to work with as you seek more ways to make them not merely satisfied, but delighted. Essentially, go the extra mile, and as you go, look for even more unique ways to provide excellent service.

“Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service means creating a positive, memorable experience for every customer. It means meeting expectations and satisfying needs.”

Any organization needs good customer service and every employee must practice it. This is essential because any employee serving a customer represents the company to that person. “You are the company,” so when you speak to a customer, say “I” rather than “We.” For instance, if a customer has encountered a problem, don’t say, “We’re sorry.” Instead, say, “I’m sorry you had that problem,” to show that you personally understand and take responsibility for the problem. Use these guidelines to shape your thinking about customer service:

• Consider what your customers need and expect from you and your company.
• Think about how the other departments in your company, such as billing and shipping, contribute to the customers’ experience and what you can do to help them improve.
• Deliberate about the small details that are important to satisfying your customers.

“It means looking for opportunities to wow and delight your customer in unique and unexpected ways.

Then, take the pledge that you are devoted to providing the best possible service you can, so your customers want to come back for more. Giving great service is more important now than ever, since customers have become more demanding. They want and expect more, they have more choices and they are busier than ever. Gaining new customers is five times more expensive than satisfying and retaining the customers you already have, so it benefits you to do more for your current customers.

The Five Key Elements of Great Customer Service

According to Texas A&M researchers led by Dr. Leonard Barry, customers use five factors to evaluate the quality of the service they receive:

1. Reliability – Provide what you promise, and do so with dependability and accuracy.
2. Assurance – Display courtesy and knowledge; convey, “trust, competence and confidence.”
3. Tangibles – Be sure your equipment and physical facilities are topnotch.
4. Empathy – Give care and attention to each customer.
5. Responsiveness – Demonstrate that you are willing to help your customers promptly.

Applying the RATER Model

Together the first letters of these five factors spell the word “RATER”. Use this word as a mnemonic to help you remember these five principles whenever you work with a customer.

“Customers don’t distinguish between you and the organization you work for. Nor should they. To your customer’s way of thinking, you are the company.”

To be reliable, keep the “Service Promise,” which means you keep your word and do what you say you will. The customer interprets this promise as having these three components: 1) the commitments of your organization, such as through advertising and marketing materials; 2) the customers’ common expectations, based on their past experiences with you or other service providers; and 3) the personal promises you make to your customer. In short, if your company or you make a promise or the customer comes with certain expectations, work to fulfill them. If a promise should be broken – or if the customer thinks one has been – apologize immediately. Don’t blame anyone. Simply admit there is a problem and find out what the customer needs from you now.

“To a customer, the company begins and ends with you.”

To be reassuring, provide not only caring, but also knowledge and skill. Show your customers you know what you are doing and you care about them. Seek the customer’s trust by showing product knowledge, knowledge of the company, an ability to listen and a skill in solving problems. Additionally, offer your service with a style, based on the way you dress, move and communicate. Look and act professionally, and communicate well with good eye contact.

“Customers are demanding. And they have every right to be. Today’s customers have more options and less time than ever before.”

To provide the tangibles, you should present a good appearance – and your company should, too. Make sure the materials you give customers are well executed and that the environment where you serve them is clean and safe. Remember, first impressions last the longest.

To be empathetic, regard and treat each customer as a unique individual. Don’t show sympathy, which means identifying with or taking on your customer’s emotions, such as getting angry when a customer is. Rather, show empathy. When you’re empathetic, you show you understand and you affirm the other person’s feelings, such as saying: “I can understand why you’re angry,” and then explaining why you do understand.

“Courtesy, good manners, and civility are important…but courtesy is not a substitute for competence and skill.”

To be responsive, act in a timely fashion. Today, people want a quick response. You don’t necessarily have to provide the service immediately, but you do need to address the issue quickly to find out what the customer needs and when, so you can establish realistic deadlines. Ideally, the best time to provide the service is when the customer wants it, though sometimes the customer must wait. In that case, tell the customer how long the wait will be, since customers are frustrated the most by uncertainty. For instance, if you are helping another customer, let the waiting customer know how long you are likely to be and suggest an alternative for the customer to do while waiting, such as: “This will take about 10 minutes. Feel free to look around some more and I’ll be with you then.”

Customers are Everywhere; Treat Them Right

The people who buy from you are just your external customers. You have internal customers, too, such as the people you work with and those who provide behind the scenes customer support. For instance, after you take an order, the people who process or ship it are your internal customers. Seek feedback from them to improve what you do – such as how you fill out an order form.

“The reassurance factor is about managing your customers’ feelings of trust. The customers’ decision to trust you is built on honesty, knowledge, and know-how.”

Avoid the biggest mistakes in dealing with customers. These include giving the impression that you don’t care, can’t be bothered or don’t like the customer as a person. Being a know-it-all is a turn-off, too, such as when you proffer a solution before the customer finishes explaining the problem. Don’t demean customers, even if they ask seemingly dumb questions. And don’t argue with a customer over who is right. Give each customer the benefit of the doubt.

“Combine substance and style – what you do and how you do it – to reassure your customers that you really do know, and care about, what you are doing.”

Make your customers feel heard, understood, liked, respected, helped and appreciated. You don’t have to act like the customer is always right. But when misunderstandings occur, make the customer feel right or justified. Assume the customer is innocent. Maybe the customer just isn’t explaining his or her needs very well or misunderstood some directions or didn’t get them. Maybe the customer is right to complain. Most customers are honest or honestly disagree with you about what is fair, such as when a product doesn’t work. A good way to distinguish between the honest customer and the one who isn’t is to use the three strikes rule. Say a customer claims he has returned a video on time. The first or second time, give the customer the benefit of the doubt. But the third time, question the customer’s credibility and impose the late charge.

Great Customer Service Techniques

How you act can show that you care about providing exemplary customer service. For example:

• Be honest, because if you lie or mislead the customer, eventually the misrepresentations will catch up with you. If there is a problem, don’t conceal it. Be up front.
• Break or bend the rules when it makes sense and is appropriate. Don’t feel you always have to go by the book. Sometimes the spirit of the rule is what’s more important, since rules are designed to make things work more efficiently. Don’t assume there is a rule if you don’t know the company policy. For instance, if a customer wants to cash a check for $20 more than a purchase, don’t automatically say you can’t. Find out if you can.
• Build trust, such as by doing what’s fair, being open, being truthful and communicating frequently. Show confidence. For example, if a customer calls with a last minute emergency request, explain that it may be difficult and expensive to fulfill, but you will do what you can. Then, keep the customer informed about what you are able to accomplish.
• Use your own good judgment to do the right thing. For instance, Nordstrom’s, a department store known for its great customer service, tells its employees to think for themselves. Say a customer comes to make a return but doesn’t have a receipt. If the customer seems truly honest, the salesperson will accept the return. Ask your manager if you are not sure.
• Be a good listener. This means listening actively, even aggressively, so you show your customers that you understand. For example, if the customer has a complex message to convey, repeat the main points to show the customer you really understand. Ask clarifying questions.
• Ask good questions to find out what your customer needs. Find out who the customer. Ask probing questions to learn what the customer is complaining about.
• Use “winning words and soothing phrases” and avoid negative words and phrases, such as saying: “We can’t do that” or “I don’t know.” Instead, try the let’s-find-an-alternate-solution approach or offer to find out something you don’t know.
• Pay attention to your non-verbal communication, so you use appropriate body language. For instance, stand at a distance that makes the customer comfortable. This varies with national background. You should stand further away when talking to people from the U.S. and closer when speaking to Europeans and South Americans.
• Show a warm friendly attitude with your tone on the telephone. If you must put someone on hold, ask permission. If the person says no, get a number and arrange to call back.
• Use a personal tone when you write a letter.

E-Mail Customers

Increasingly, salespeople work with e-mail customers. But be careful. While people commonly use a chatty, casual style to converse over the Internet, don’t treat your customers as you do your friends, unless they really are your friends. Rather, adopt a personal but not overly familiar tone, and check what you have written before you hit “send,” so you convey a proper message to your customers.

Customers from Hell

Learn to control your feelings and actions with very difficult customers. Stay calm. Learn what’s bothering the customer. As appropriate, transfer the customer to someone else who can help, such as a supervisor. Build “contractual trust” when a customer becomes threatening. State what you will do, if the person doesn’t stop acting aggressively: “I’m sorry, but unless we can have a more restrained conversation, I’ll have to call security.”

“Seeing – and treating – each customer as an individual helps you meet the needs of each on their own unique level.”

Generally, when sales or service problems occur, see yourself as a “fantastic fixer.” Do whatever you can to make things right. Use the art of service recovery to bring everything back to normal as soon as you can. As a first step, apologize, no matter who’s at fault. Then, listen and empathize to show you care. Next, fix the problem as quickly and fairly as you can. Where possible, offer atonement, such as by adding some value-added service to make it up to the customer. Finally, follow up to make sure the customer is satisfied with the way things were resolved.

Performance Research Associates is a consulting firm specializing in customer service. Individually and together, PRA’s principals have authored more than 40 books and thousands of articles. PRA has developed numerous seminars, training films and organizational assessment instruments. Founded in 1972, PRA consults with large and medium-size corporations and nonprofits. Its clients have included Glaxo SmithKline, American Express Financial Advisors, Prudential Insurance, Harley-Davidson, Dun & Bradstreet, Motorola, Universal Studios and many others.