The biggest niggle customers have is having to make a great effort to get something resolved when the problem wasn’t theirs in the first place AND they are the customer so you should be giving them the service!

A large percentage of calls to any company involves downstream issues related to the problem that prompted the original call. It could be as simple as a customer chasing up their order for a specific tree. The current issue of the plant not being in store yet isn’t the only one to be resolved and asking the customer to call back in a couple of days won’t leave them satisfied with your service

The need to call back for an answer is one of the biggest causes of customer dissatisfaction.

• In your business, all systems and all people should work together with one goal and that is to make the buying experience as positive as possible for the customer
  
  
• Frequently communicate your service aspirations with employees so they understand that what they do, or what they forget, impacts the customer experience
  
  
• Connect the dots. The reality is, customers don’t care why the supply nursery has been so long despatching a tree to the garden centre, they only care that they haven’t received it when it was promised
  
  
• Set expectations. Train employees to take ownership of customer issues. Every employee should feel responsible and empowered to help a customer. They should implement service policies and systems for processing customer enquiries or issues. Unless an employee understands what great service looks like they may not be able to demonstrate it
  
  
• Hold employees accountable. Creating a great customer experience is everyone’s job and poor service at any level should never be tolerated.

Don’t just resolve the current issue, head off the next one.