1. POST ‘EM AND KEEP ‘EM.
I know all too well the temptation to close ten minutes early when nobody has been in your store for the last hour or two. But, keeping the store hours you post is a basic customer service standard that should never be violated. Opening at 10 a.m. means 10:00, not 10:15. Closing at 8 pm, means 8 PM, not 7:55 PM. It’s a lesson I learned the hard way…
One cold and dreary evening, early in my retail career, I locked up my store several minutes before the scheduled closing time. I’d done it dozens of times before – and who cared? When I arrived at the store the next day, there was a note (and not a very nice one) on the door from a customer who had driven several hours specifically to shop at my store. They arrived ten minutes before closing and I wasn’t there. Ouch. I’d certainly lost a customer, but I gained a valuable lesson. So, I’m passing the lesson on to you in hope that you won’t lose any customers to this customer service faux pas.
2. LEAVE YOUR NAME AND PHONE NUMBER AT THE BEGINNING AND END OF ALL YOUR TELEPHONE MESSAGES.
This tip is another example of little, but important ways to make your relationships with your customers and vendors easier and more pleasant. Remember, building a great business is about doing lots and lots of little things well. Yesterday afternoon I got an important telephone message. It was very long and full of details. I needed to call back and have a conversation with the caller. And I had to play the whole dog-gone message again because I missed his phone number the first time…. terribly annoying.
If someone has to listen to your whole message a second time just to catch your phone 
number, you are wasting their time.Bad customer service. Leave your information at the beginning and end of your messages and always speak slowly and clearly when giving your phone number, it makes it so much easier to understand.
Content Copyright © 2008 WhizBang! Training
By Bob Negen
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3064252
