Customer farming

customer service farm

The farming community knows a thing or two about delivering real results despite unpredictable and changing market conditions. The parallels which exist between agriculture and customer service and marketing are not used enough and yet they could assist in the design and delivery of a clear customer-focused strategy. Chose the best food to grow, select the crops, prepare the soil, plant the seeds, use (or not) fertilizers, provide water when needed, harvest, select, calibrate, taste, store... Wouldn't it be great if our local farmers could engage in workshops to develop these simple concepts and help us adapt them to the way we handle customers. Unfortunately they are far too busy producing tangible results.....the first lesson maybe?

Picture courtesy of http://www.berryscrumptious.co.uk with our thanks

Customer service skills: what kind of animal are YOU?

Customer service skills

Irrespective of our actual customer service skills, many of us have an opinion about how customer service should be and what to do in order to deliver good customer service. However intuitive this may be, one should take a step back and see what we can learn from our recent experience. One of the best learning point is to reflect on how we individually behaved when someone complained about our own level of service. What were our customer service attributes? Did we become defensive? Scared? Opinionated? Aggressive? Rude? Cheeky? Suddenly the customer was not right any more, was he? Wouldn't it be worth writing down our own customer service skills set and reading it again before complaining about others?


Update - March 2013

We have put together a list of what we believe are the essential customer service skills. As always, we are very happy to take your suggestions on new skills which you believe should be added to your page. http://blog.verygoodservice.com/customer-service-skills/

Spinning the customer service wheel of fortune?

Wheel of Fortune Customer Service

Delivering good customer service should not be like spinning the Wheel of Fortune. Companies have to find a way to make sure that customers win at all times. It might require educating clients and make them appreciate the value of all prizes. Above all, they should not leave disappointed and certainly not feel as if they were victims of the luck of the draw. The customer service lottery is definitely one  to avoid...

The future of customer service

The Future of Customer Service

The world is moving so rapidly under the influence of technology that it is very hard to predict the future and in particular have any ideas about what customer service will look like in 100 years time. Two questions arise: what view do we have of customer service practices from 100 years ago? Did the expression "customer service" even exist? And more interestingly how will today's customer service skills withstand the test of time?