Are You Prepared to Help Your Customer?
I had a fantastic insight shared with me this week by one of my regular newsletter readers, Sue. I had the great pleasure of working with Sue a number of years ago and have remained in touch ever since. We have a shared love and passion for all things customer.
Sue wrote to me about the importance of being prepared in customer service from both a team member and customer perspective. I have been reflecting on this since receiving her message. If you have ever run a marathon, delivered a speech, or prepared a dinner party or a special event, you will know the importance of preparation.
I am sure you have all heard the saying:
“Prior preparation prevents poor performance (or a version of this!)”
There is so much truth in this statement!
In fact, a google search shows a whopping 7,240,000,000 items related to the term preparation. So why is it so important?
In many aspects of life, preparation is the key to performance, efficiency and to us reaching our goals.
Working with customers and choosing to be prepared can make a huge difference. This can be:
Self-preparation – Taking care of ourselves with sleep, proper nutrition, drinking water, exercise, focusing on our health and well-being and rest.
Time preparation – How we manage our day, from arriving at work on time to how we manage our daily tasks.
Physical preparation – Ensuring we have everything we need from physical to digital, customer files, tabs open, or our CRM ready.
Emotional preparation – Asking ourselves at the start of the day, are we present, focused and ready to help the customer? One of my favourite questions I have ever heard was “Would I like to be served by me today?”
For anyone working with customers or leading customer service teams, this looks great on paper. We do however, have a thing called life that can get in the way from broken sleep, ill health, kids waking up during the night, or caring for a sick loved one.
The biggest thing I have learnt comes from the work of Stephen Covey and that is to focus on the things I can control, influence and change. In the words of my dear friend Sally, ‘Control the controllables’.
Which of the above four areas do you have control over, both inside and outside of work? Which ones could you focus on more to improve your preparation?
I am first to put my hand up and share I have to continue to work on time preparation and how I can make the best of the twenty-four hours I am gifted with every day.
Focusing on the above areas of preparation is mutually beneficial for ourselves and for the customer. As well as ourselves feeling more positive and in control, the customer will have a more seamless and efficient experience.
This is especially important during this busy time of the year.
As customers, we can also help our customer service community by being prepared. Be that through having the correct documentation, our credit card at the point of sale, or being ready to talk and focus.
Thank you, Sue, for sharing your valuable insights with me, which got me thinking more.
This is our community.
If you have questions, topics you are interested in, or thoughts you would like me to explore, please just send them through. I would love to answer them for you.
And finally, in the words of Benjamin Franklin:
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
