The Three Elements of Excellent Customer Service

The illustrious American poet Maya Angelou once said, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” While this poignant observation accurately describes the most important basis for interpersonal relationships, it can extend to all manner of interactions, including the ones we have with the businesses we frequent. What keeps us coming back to our favorite stores time and time again? Certainly what they have to sell matters, though in this world of ever-expanding options, it is usually possible to find substitutes for those products and services if we search elsewhere, and often those alternatives are just as convenient and accessible. What drives us to be repeat customers of these establishments is, as Angelou so eloquently put it, the way they make us feel. We might call this charm, personality, and dependability in a person, though we roll all these characteristics into one simple term in the business world: customer service. Many excellent books have been written on this subject, so we will keep things simple and focus on the most important (and most overlooked) elements of excellent customer service that can make the difference between disappointment and a lifelong business relationship: empathy, communication, and adaptability.

Empathy might seem like a strange term to apply to a business relationship. After all, isn’t empathy more of a Psychology 101 buzzword, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another? It might superficially seem that way, but this is an absolutely essential part of providing great service no matter what field you are in. When we shop for something specific, what we are actually looking for is a solution to a problem and validation for how we feel about it. Whether that problem is as simple as desiring to feel better about ourselves with a gym membership or as deep as seeking to improve our relationships with others via the newest self-help book, the first thing that the customer needs is to be heard. We can only imagine how many customers are put off by the indifferent attitude of a staff member and decide not to move forward with it. Even a simple sentence of encouragement and validation makes a big difference, such as “We’re so glad you came out to see us today, the desire to feel great about yourself is an awesome new year’s goal and something we all feel. We’ll be glad to help you every step of the way!” This is enough to make the difference between a lifelong customer with a healthy mindset and a dejected one with yet another negative experience that will surely make it even harder for them to try again in the future. Empathy helps get things off to an amazing start, improves working relationships, and keeps everyone in the right mindset to be working toward the same goals.

Communication is yet another word that is more often applied to personal relationships but is still just as essential to business relationships. How many times have you looked at a website and realized that they lack the key information you need to make a purchasing decision, or even worse, the posted information is outdated and incorrect? This is one of the greatest stumbling blocks for all kinds of establishments, and despite now being the most important time to offer up-to-date information given the frequent shutdowns and complex schedules many businesses have due to Covid-19 precautions, too many of them neglect to provide key information to potential customers on their websites and through social media. Those companies who have the presence of mind to make these necessary updates gain not only additional business, but also the trust of those who interact with them. In the modern world where Google is the first stop for prospective buyers, consider the customer who has to choose between three online listings: a business with great social media content and updated hours, a business that has not updated anything in months, and a business that barely has an online presence at all. Even if they do everything else correctly, those latter two companies who fail to communicate with their customers inevitably suffer when no one is entirely sure if they are open or not. If advertising spending gets you 90% of the way to match you with your customers, that all-important last 10% is entirely dependent on your ability to communicate with them.

Being adaptable is a favorite attribute that many hopeful job applicants like to include on their resumes, and with good reason: adaptability to changing circumstances ensures your success no matter what unexpected situations you find yourself in. In a modern context, restaurants who quickly pivoted to offer both outdoor dining as well as easy pickup and delivery options to contend with in-store dining prohibitions have survived and sometimes thrived by doing so. Brick and mortar companies that have no online footprint have found themselves isolated, and the current wave of small business bankruptcies is a testament to the dangers of not changing the way you do business to suit the times. Customers have adapted to this unfortunate scenario in large part by switching over to a “deliver everything” mindset, and it is no surprise that delivery-centric companies like Amazon, Etsy, and eBay are seeing record profits and customer conversion rates. Delivery is just one example of the ways businesses have adapted, and those stores hoping to weather this viral storm with the expectation of returning to the old way of doing things may find themselves surprised when many of the Covid-era shopping habits stick. As many establishments will find out in the coming years, being adaptable is not only the best way to ensure you are meeting your customers where they want to do business and laying the foundation for lifelong relationships with them, it is also the best way to ensure that you are keeping up with seemingly-temporary trends that just might turn out to be more permanent than anyone bargained for.

As new shopper expectations raise the bar for customer service, businesses must empathize with their customers’ needs, communicate effectively and consistently, and adapt to the ever-changing needs of their clientele. At Edgington Studio, we have done our best to bring these core values to the way we do business, through understanding our customers’ needs, keeping our social media presence current and informative, and offering an omnichannel approach to business. We hope to connect with you soon, and you can be sure we will stick to our service values!