You have a great product or service that your customer needs. But so does your competition. Customers have numerous choices when it comes to buying options and the younger the customer, the more willing they are to use there techie toys to find them.

Frankly I am getting bored with companies who say they deliver 100% outstanding customer service. Sorry, but they are looking at their own bellybuttons and not focusing on what their customers really think. No one delivers anything, perfectly, 100% of the time. Everyday I read articles and blogs that point out the terrible state of customer service around the world. Start a conversation with anyone about one of your bad experiences with customer service and I guarantee that someone else will try to "do one better"!

In order to develop a "contagious customer service atmosphere", a company has to focus on every "touchpoint" that the customer comes in contact with that company. How the phone is answered, the ease of getting to the location, whether a physical structure or even a website, the exterior of the building, the parking lot, the entrance, the employees, the merchandise or set up of the office, and finally the ease of doing business. All of these "touchpoints" contribute to the customer's mental report card that they make of you and your business. Where the problem arises is that the report card is rarely shared with the business, it is shared with everyone they can tell. Today that negative marketing reaches millions with just a few key strokes and a listing on a blog. Now that is contagious.

If you want to create a positive contagious customer service you need to develop a style that will make your customer say "O" what great customer service, and then be willing to spread that information to everyone they know.

Let's look at three classifications of "O" customer service.

1. Ordinary Customer Service:

This is probably the most popular type of customer service that we all experience. Employees do the job they are trained to do. They try to be efficient and take care of you as quickly as they can. If they smile, that is an extra. If they go out of their way to do anything else than handle your request, that is really an extra. Employers or managers and just happy that the employee shows up for work, doesn't steal from them and makes as few mistakes as possible. I would guess that there is little or no follow-up on their progress as an employee other than a yearly review. Training may also be at a "bare minimum" and used mostly upon hiring.

What does that mean for the customer? That they don't receive anything out of the ordinary nor do they feel compelled to tell anyone else.

2. Ouch Customer Service:

We have all experienced this type of customer service. The employee is "merely doing their job" but their attitude or lack of knowledge or flexibility causes a negative reaction with the customer and the customer vows never to do business with that company again. We have all been a "lost" customer at some point. Unfortunately it translates into a loss of revenue for the business because people love to tell customer service "horror stories" to everyone they know. Statistics have said that we tell an average of a dozen people when we have had bad service. That number is insignificant now with the ability of posting negative comments on blogs and websites.
"Ouch" customer service not only hurts the customer, it hurts the business as well.