Customer Focused Service

What are some service attitudes and practices that promote the sincere desire to pay attention to what customers say?

Some service attitudes and practices that promote the sincere desire to pay attention to what customers say are; be empathetic, be courteous, actively listen, provide helpful feedback, and most importantly treat them the same way you want and/or expect to be treated.

It is important to understand that it is impossible to control another person's behavior. All an employee can do is control their own behavior and refuse to let negativity or hostility affect their words and actions. When dealing with angry customers, it is best to stay calm and treat them as if they are not yelling and calling you names. It is possible to change a person's negative attitude by being pleasant and helpful.

Which service situations promote effective listening and feedback?

Any and all service situations should promote effective listening and feedback. What I believe to be the most important situation where effective listening and feedback should be encouraged (or even required) is when a customer asks for assistance or complains.

Which skills should CSRs practice that complement customer-focused listening?

Skills that CSRs should practice that complement customer-focused listening are confidence, integrity, pride and passion.

Practice confidence by recognizing the vulnerability of the customer by making them feel protected, reassuring customers by explaining the steps you plan to take in order to effectively undertake the problem, and resolving the issue the first time it is brought to your attention (Rieger, 2006).

Practice integrity by looking for gaps in CSR knowledge and then coaching those that have issues in a way that prevents an incident where a certain CSR is not capable of handling certain situations, inform customers of any and all actions that have taken place in order to solve their problem, being accountable and offering information about the process taking place, and apologizing without making excuses (Rieger, 2006).

Practice pride by complimenting customers for being loyal and punctual customers, share your customer's excitement about their purchase and support the customers need to feel capable and in charge of the situation (Rieger, 2006).

Finally, practice passion by treating customers as individuals rather than comparing them to every other customers or being forceful and unaccommodating, abstaining from hurrying customers along and making them feel insignificant, and by focusing on your work so that you are confident with the result of every customer interaction (Rieger, 2006).