The 10 Commandments of a Customer Service Religion

10 Commandments of Great Customer Service
The 10 Commandments of customer service

Today, when customer service is becoming a major differentiator for businesses, it is probably not a blasphemy to call it a new religion – religion for business. If we take on this term, the next step is to adopt some kind of a scripture, a code to live by.

Few weeks after Christmas, I was sitting in my chair and thinking that it would be good to remind myself what is really important. Serving customers is the main job for every business and every department within a business. Everybody understands that now. But what makes up for a good and efficient customer service? What is there that all of us should keep in mind and focus on, what are the guidelines? Like this, I have come up with a list of things, which based on experience, seem to be contributing the most to creating a great experience for clients and a meaningful relationship between a business and its customer.

“The 10 Commandments, you say? Why not!” – I said to myself. Let them be the foundation of our customer service Bible, or whatever name we want to call it, a Pirate Codex )), which we will be creating and writing down day by day through our interaction with customers in the process of building and growing our businesses.

So here we go.

1. Respect the customer

I’m a firm believer that every relationship, be it a personal or a business one, starts with respect. If there is no mutual respect, there is no real relationship, there is only using each other. Not the most emotionally fulfilling experience for either party involved, and on a count-down from the very beginning.

The customer wants to be honored, to feel important and appreciated. How can we show respect to the customer? We can do this by giving our full attention to every interaction with the client, by speaking his language.

Customers are individuals and they value sincerity. Sincere involvement with their problems is of the shortest ways to show your care and generate good feelings about your company.

2. Make it easy to do business with you

There are a few things that you can do to make it easy for customers.

Be available and easy to reach. Whether it is a sales question or post-purchase support, customers want to know that they will be heard and helped. Availability is one of the first things that create trust.

In the process of communication with clients, inform them on what is happening, respond quickly. Use efficient technical solutions to empower the speed and efficiency of your interactions.

Educate the customer so that they feel free and confident to use your products and services. Knowledge is great power, and if you empower your clients in this way instead of trying to make them dependent on your company and service, they will feel infinitely grateful and will always be coming back to do business with you.

3. Listen first and then speak

No great communication can happen if we try to put ourselves and our views first. In customer service, it is especially so. We need to listen to the customer very attentively and speak only as much as the situation demands.

Being a good listener gives at least two benefits. First one is an emotional benefit. The customer who is listened to will feel comfortable with you, respected and cared for.

Another benefit to listening is that it helps you to understand quicker and more precisely what the customer request is and so provide a faster and more efficient solution.

4. Set the customer’s expectation

Set the baseline for the customer’s expectation and let them know what you can do for them, what service you can provide. Then, if you can do more and exceed the initial expectation, you will have a customer for lifetime.

Be sure to always follow through with your promises however. Underdelivering can dramatically damage your reputation.

Just keep in mind this well-known statement “underpromise and overdeliver”. It really works, unsurprisingly.

5. Walk a mile in the customer’s shoes

One of the corner stones of effective communication is to be able to put yourself in the place of the other.

There are many cases in customer service when a client is calling in to complain or give some negative feedback about your product or service. To avoid becoming defensive in such situations, the first thing is to try and see things from the client’s perspective.

This will allow you to evaluate the relevance of the complaint and find the right approach to the customer. In some cases, you may not even need any tangible solution, other than giving the customer additional information, an explanation which will correct his vision about the problem. If, however, there is an issue which requires some steps to be fixed, then putting yourself in the customer’s place will allow you to identify the problem correctly and be flexible about what solutions your company can offer.

6. Be honest

I call honesty a glue for relationships. If you are honest, you are strong. And you will attract strong and honest people to be your partners in business, your clients etc.

I think exceptions are possible here. There are people who will misuse your honesty and will attempt to trick you. Some will succeed. Perhaps, it’s just your bad karma coming back to you.

However, from my own experience and from seeing how our company is growing, I am inspired. Even if you’ve been tricked by a few people, the number of great relationships that you acquired through your honesty is the best thing you can wish for. Honesty pays off. That is my conviction. You are welcome to argue here if you’ve had a different experience.

Honesty with clients means, whether it’s good or bad, tell them how things are, and do the best you can to make amends. Even if you can’t do anything, it’s better to tell the truth and acknowledge that you are powerless. True people will appreciate and will not use your honesty against you.

7. Apologize when apology is needed

A part of being honest is to apologize when you’ve made a mistake. Acknowledging that it is your fault and not trying to shift responsibility on someone else, on the politics or weather etc. is honesty in its purest state.

I feel apology is an important aspect of customer service communication. It helps to build trust with clients. It helps to find solutions faster, because you are not avoiding to look at the problem and be proactive about it.

After all, it shows the customer that human beings are working in your company and he is interacting with humans. So really, there are no excuses for withholding apology when it is needed.

8. Focus on relationship and not the sale

It helps to understand that if you want to get a good fruit crop from a tree, you need to water the roots of a tree and not the flowers.

Similarly, if you want to be a successful business, you need to understand the importance of creating a strong, honest, sincere and mutually beneficial relationship with your customers. Just trying to extract the benefits from someone never really works in the long run.

How you want to serve your customers and carry out your relationship is up to you, but without one, there is no question of a lasting success in sales.

9. Ask for feedback

It’s important to know what your customers think about your product or service. One thing is you can use this information to improve your product/service.

Another reason you should always follow up with your clients is to show that you care about their satisfaction, value their opinion and would like to use the feedback you receive from them to help other users.

Taking care to follow up indicates your intention to build a relationship with your customer, and to show that’s it’s not a short lived one-way interaction. So when asking for feedback, try to stress the importance of the customer’s opinion on the product or service, rather than trying to make another sale.

10. Express gratitude

It’s not possible to underestimate the value of saying thank you. I would say that it works even when said automatically, out of cultural conditioning. However, if one truly means it and feels it in the heart, the power of thank you is limitless.

I believe that we should express gratitude to our customers on every occasion, as many times as many opportunities we get. One day we may no longer have the opportunity to say thank you, because the customer has already left.

Gratitude has the power to change and transform our lives, let alone to create a positive relationship with our clients.

We should be grateful for everything: as a business – grateful for every customer, as a human being – grateful for our life and everything that we’ve been given. Somehow, gratitude makes us feel much much better about our own self and about our life. I’m not sure how exactly this works, but it does work. Find gratitude in your heart next time you are speaking with your client and try to express it sincerely. It will do miracles, I am sure.

So thank you for spending a few minutes of your time and reading this post. I will be happy to hear your feedback.

What would be your 10 commandments of customer service? Do you consider other things more important than those I have mentioned here? Your sharing is most welcome.

Maria Lebed

62 comments

  1. This is outstanding advice for anyone with a customer facing role in the organization! I know tons of sales, customer success, sdrs, and support folks who would find equal value. Thanks for posting.

  2. Numbers 3 and 8 are my favorites here; honestly it’s cringeworthy when brands forget that consumers lead the conversation now, not the other way around. People used to be told what they wanted and then had it served up, now brands need to really listen to customers in order to create a brand that stands out. Nice work, Maria!

  3. This list is on the mark; just one comment. Those who interact directly with customers have significant opportunity to deliver on many of these items but I think it’s worth calling out that leadership also has to have this same focus. Service professionals need the tools, support from other areas in the company and dedication from their leadership to constantly make their job easier.

    1. Agree with you, Joanne. Everything is interdependent and indeed, great work in front line is not possible without great backup and vice versa.

    2. Totally true. Am reading this blogs all made out on some level of experience and based on “I own the company”. Underestimating management who is mostly afraid of people doing more and better than themselves, being threatened to loose their position.

      1. Thank you for your comments, Dejan and Joanne. Your points are valuable and I have taken them into consideration. Thank you for sharing your opinion.

    1. Thank you, Andrea! It’s very encouraging to hear your feedback and know that this information is helping teams and will be contributing to making the way we serve customers better. Happy New Year to you as well!

  4. Perfect. Maria has hit all the important points, regarding great customer service. This is something that should be happening with 100% of your staff, 100% of the time.

    1. Tatiana, I do agree with you. In the short run, you can loose sometimes, because there are people who will take advantage of your honesty. There is nothing we can do about it. However, in the long run you always win by being honest. At least in my own experience and that of other people and companies that I know I found confirmation to that. Thank you for your comment 🙂

  5. Great article and one i willl share with my team. I have a big push to digital services and I’m wondering how you build and maintain digital customer relationships?

    1. Thank you for your feedback, Michelle. To answer your question I will need a space of another blog post. Stay tuned 🙂

  6. Thank you. Just printed it to give to my Team.
    We have excellent reviews for our customer Service on Reseller Ratings.com.

  7. Great!!! Number 3 is really the Customer Service essence, often forgotten: symbolyze Customer Service Departement by assistant with headphones on , isn’t it? That means listening to as first and main action to do. Number 5 , 6 and 8 points are essential for Customer Service and also, very important, to ensure working pleasure for Customer to Customer Service assistant too.

  8. Customers are like god we are ready to full fil their all conditions and if you are going to sell any products then we have to prepare about help the customers thank you.

  9. Hence you were always ready to provide better reviews on everything I never feel alone to find right answers about customer support. Thanks admin for giving the best helping hand.

  10. Every customer expectations with any service provider to help them, and give him the best solution to their problem so don’t treat any user like you are favoring him, this is your duty and company have responsibility.

  11. Every customer expectations with any service provider to help them, and give him the best solution to their problem so don’t treat any user like you are favoring him, this is your duty and company have responsibility.

  12. Every customer expectations with any service provider to help them, and give him the best solution to their problem so don’t treat any user like you are favoring him.

  13. that’s right, every customer’s expectation with any service provider to help them, and gives him the best solution to their problems so do not treat users the way you like him.

  14. Every customer’s expectation with any service provider to help them, and gives him the best solution to their problems so do not treat users the way you like him.

  15. Every customer’s expectation with any service provider to help them, and gives him the best solution to their problems so do not treat users the way you like himm

  16. I am 100% agreed with your words. These are some basic things which seller have to kepp in mind while dealing with buyer for maximum satisfaction of customer.

  17. I am agreed with your words. These are some basic things which seller have to kepp in mind while dealing with buyer for maximum satisfaction of cstmer

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  20. Great!. Maria has hit all the important points, regarding great customer service. This is something that should be happening with 100% of your staff, 100% of the time.

  21. This is a great post. Thanks for the tips. I love the “take a stand” comment. I worry though that “taking a stand” will cause a stir and create controversy. Wish you all the best in all of your endeavors.

  22. I feel it interesting, your post gave me a new perspective! I have read many other articles about the same topic, but your article convinced me! I hope you continue to have high quality articles like this to share with everyone!

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