CUSTOMERS.. A POWER SOURCE FOR ANY INDUSTRY!
Whether it is providing service at a restaurant, Approaching people walk-in at a car dealership, Greeting people at the Hotel front desk, or Handling business talks with High net worth individuals for a large Multinational Corporation, Customer is key.
During Sales or Post Sales, Customer management comes under multiple sectors while different strategies and methods should be implied with how an individual must maintain the relationship with their customers.
- IMPORTANCE- Everyone knows about Customer management, But how important is the question as many a time people do not take it seriously. This also leads to customers being taken advantage of, being disrespected, or not cared for the least just for the sake of business growth or for personal entertainment as in some sectors the customers are looked down upon for example nowadays in Hospitals. Which in many ways is regrettable I have to say.
One must understand if customers can help you start and grow your business or organization, the same customers can also by ways ruin the name and reputation, like say those who are well connected or powerful, which ultimately can affect your business or ultimately lead to complete closure.
All this depends on the mere fact whether you know how you are treating your customers and putting in the effort and patience to understand them with what are their needs, likes and dislikes for this is a necessity to maintain good Relationship with the customer and good Customer Management.
2. PROBABLE CHALLENGES- Mostly for the people who don’t normally understand handling customers is a very complicated and a high task responsibility which needs to be handled separately as well as accepting every customer as a different individual.
This is because all customers are not the same and due to this maintaining the same strategy for every customer is the wrong approach. Every day people meet all types of customers who are Polite, Rude, Hot-headed, Impatient, Reasonable, Unreasonable, Understanding, etc.
How we handle each customer individually will help us to make a better understanding of them and in the future provide more probable situations when the customer comes to visit again.
3. COMMUNICATION- When dealing with customers people need to understand that communication is a very important factor if not the most important factor there is.
The reason is that the more affluent the person is at his/her communication the better they are at handling their customers.
So communication can mean multilingual, good product knowledge, a good hold of the language whether English or the local language can lead to many positive outcomes.
4. Do’s & Don’ts-
Do’s
- Greet customers with a smile while making them comfortable by providing a beverage or even just water is good etiquette.
- Let the customer speak first then accordingly reply based on what you have understood of the situation and their requirements.
- All customers come with an expectation of the matter. If possible try to understand the customer’s comfort level example language to make them more comfortable.
- Maintain regular contact with your known customers to keep them happy.
- Treat every customer differently as not one customer is the same as the other.
- Always have patience no matter how disturbing or difficult the customer may seem, you never know this can get the customer impressed and turn positive.
Don’ts
- Never speak with a customer in an open area, always guide them to a private room to discuss.
- Whenever possible answer the customer’s call or mail and never ignore the same as it will be impolite if possible provide a revert that you will get back later.
- Never show the customer if you are irritated or annoyed as this will undoubtedly lead to an unexpected situation.
- Remember customers are more experienced at hiding their actual emotions or sometimes what they show is just to get the true picture hence careful with what you speak.
- Ever heard the phrase ‘Customer is King and King is always right’. this is because you never try to correct a customer only reason with them.
5. Conclusion- In the end, Customer management is a unique skill set which in general is learned and improved in the due course of a person’s career. Everyone learns differently and according to their pace and capabilities, but never consider yourself as an expert in this situation because every day is different and you will never know what would come in the next.
Yes to learn is never-ending as gaining knowledge is a gift everyone has, but many fail to understand or realize its importance in life.
To learn is to gain wisdom, To Ignore is to remain foolish.
Signing off:
Vernon Alexander D'costa
