Every industry has companies that land somewhere between great and poor customer service. It would seem that all businesses look at what sort of customer service they provide in different ways. Some will be priced higher and provide better customer service, while others will sell at low prices and provide the absolute minimum customer service that they have to.

The biggest problem that i find with companies and the customer service they provide, is often the difference between the service they promote and they claim to provide, and the actual reality is quite different. It would seem that they want to be seen as providing something, but then feel they can almost get away without providing it but still get the boost from claiming to provide it. This has started to become more visible to me, especially in how i want to work with No Fixed Office. Lets take a look at one industry that best fits here specifically, that being Cafe’s where as a mobile worker we do most of our work.

CAFE CUSTOMER SERVICE

What’s on offer – When you look at cafe’s there are a few different style’s of customer service which you will encounter. Each is dependent upon the type of establishment, and is often reflected in the prices.

• Counter Service only – In reality these are not really Cafe’s however there are a number of different businesses that could be seen in this category. They mostly offer Coffee and Cake take away options without seating (or very little) and is usually reflective in the price.
• Counter/Table Service – This is similar to the above however you place your order and it is served at the table. Pricing is entirely relative, you pay a little more for being able to sit down and have the order brought to your table. Dependent upon the cafe though you may still need to wait for your order at the counter and take it to the table yourself.
• Full Table Service – Just as the name suggests this is where you are fully served at the table. In other words you can walk in and sit down, have a menu brought to you, have your order taken at the table, and served to you at the table. Of course this service is a little going to cost a little more in the price of food and drinks, however it can often make it easier.

What to expect – As you may see there can be a big difference and there is certainly a different in the pricing as well. The difference can be anywhere up to 30-50% more for table service. Which is maybe rightfully so. There are definitely more cost associated with providing full table service in leasing of space, additional staff, costs of furniture and reusable cups and glasses, and a need to wash it all up.

Why this post – Well maybe you are asking why this post and why the focus on Cafe’s particularly. Well as a mobile worker we rely on cafe’s often as a quick place to work and easy to get a cup of coffee or something to eat or drink. For many people, but i know for myself especially i choose where i go for the level of service.

I choose the cafe that i go to because of the fact they offer Full Table Service. I also am happy to pay the little bit extra for that service. What i cannot stand though are cafe’s that claim full table service that do not really provide it. Now with table service you have to be willing to accept a little variance in time to take the order and getting that order to your table, and the busier the cafe the longer this might take. Which i can completely understand.

However I have been becoming more aware of a drop in service at the cafe that i am very much a regular at. Where for quite some time the level of service often saw me with a coffee in less then 5 minutes. However more recently this has been more like 10-15 minutes to take my order, and on occasion anything up to 30 minutes before getting a drink at the table. While on occasion this has not been much of an issue for me, as i always have something to do on the laptop. With it becoming more frequent and longer wait time, it just becoming more and more obvious to me, that the extra I end up paying for the table service, is not worth the extra.

Whats the morale – The first part of the morale starts with the fact that due to the service getting worse there is a good chance that i will be making a change in the cafe that i visit often. This leads to the second part, you need to ensure that your business can live up to the claim of the service that it is going to claim to provide. If as a Cafe you want to offer Full Table Service, then you need to be sure that is what you are able to offer, not just in the respect of eventually, but in a reasonable time frame that the customer is going to be happy with.

So take a look at your customer service level, even find someone that can test the level of service provided by your business, and be sure that the service provided when you are there is the same as the service provided when you are not.

TRACKING YOUR CUSTOMERS

The essential first step is to find ways to track, where your customers are coming from, how often they purchase, and any number of other key points that you feel will provide a benefit for you in looking to grow the loyalty of your customers. Some of the simple ways that you can track your customers are through your marketing (tracking return from marketing). Or another way if possible is to include customer details on invoices. Or finally through a short customer survey.

ONCE YOU HAVE THE DATA

Once you have put in the effort to track your customers, and to find out some information about their buying patterns. You need to actually put the data to use. Of course how you do this will depend upon what data you have managed to collect and what you want the eventual outcome to be. But for example if you tracked where you customers were coming from you may find that you are getting 80% from one source and as such better utilize your marketing dollars. Or maybe you have found a way to track how often the customers purchase, by looking at this trend you may be able to rearrange your marketing to increase the frequency of purchases.

OTHER METHODS

While you should be looking for ways to track different aspects of your business, there are other methods which can not only help you track your customers buying activities but also help to encourage them to purchase from you over a competitor.

• Discount card – Customers love a discount. You can find any number of ways to provide this type of card, maybe give them to your best customers, sell the card for a nominal fee, or give them away in a weekly business card drawing. Whichever way you choose to do it, you need to make it so that the card shows reasonable value to your customers, while not impacting your bottom line to greatly. For example, customers will not see a 1% discount as good value (unless maybe your products are high ticket items), where as offering a 20% discount will potentially impact your profit a lot. Often 5-10% are good points, or maybe a fixed dollar amount off when spending a certain about maybe $5 when you spend over $50.
• Rewards card – This type of card can be a little more flexible and help to encourage customers to purchase over a longer period or more frequently. Often they are cards with spaces for a set number of purchases, and a space is filled in for each purchase over a certain value, and when the card is filled a reward is available. For example Every purchase over $10 gets a stamp, and when the card is filled with 10 stamps, you get the reward of a $10 gift card to spend in store, or a free bonus on your next purchase.
• VIP Newsletter – Rather then offering a card some business prefer to offer special offers, just to a select group of customers, or this can even be anyone that wishes to join the list to receive the newsletter. What this often help to do is share products with customers who may not have otherwise known about a specific product or may allow you to promote product more frequently to your customers. You can include vouchers, or other newsletter only offers to ensure that customers have some motivation to take action. The only warning is that you do not want to send information to frequently.

While it can be quite a task to build your cusomter base, it is often easier to sell to an existing customer then to gain another. The added bonus is that often a small discount or reward for loyal patronage, can cost your business less then the marketing costs involved in gaining a new customer.

While rude customers can happen in many forms, and in many different type of interactions with many different businesses. the main focus i want to deal with today is rude clients within your business providing a service as a consultant or contractor. This is where you can have a lot more control over the situation and there are more steps often involved that you can put to use to help you to avoid rude clients. Where as in an environment like a retail store, the interaction can happen quite quickly, and the rudeness displayed by customers cannot always be directly altered, as it is not always a result of you or your store.

One of the first things that you need to remember, when you come up against a rude client is “Don’t take it personally!” What it comes down to is the reason they are being rude may have nothing to do with you at all. It could just be a side effect of something else either in their personal or business life. By taking it personally and acting accordingly, you my just be making a bad situation even worse. One of the best things you can do at this point is to just listen.

The second thing to remember is possibly more something you need to do before it even gets to the pointof the customer being rude. It basically comes down to being sure before you begin a project that you are both on the same page. There are a number of ways that you can do this.

• The first point is a little repeition, but you basically need to be sure that you are listening to the requirements. If you do not hear what the customer wants how can you expect to deliver the correct result.
• The second point should be seen as part of the listening, and that is taking as many notes as you need, to be sure that you will understand the requirements.
• The third step is possibly the most important, at this point you need to review your notes, and clarify your understand of what you have heard, and what you have made notes on with the client to ensure that you are understanding it in the same way they are explaining it.
• Finally create the contract for the consulting/contracting work around this brief. Look to set things like milestones, and clear points of everything that you see as being involved. This can make it a little easier for you both to see clear boundaries within your relationship, and understand what both of your expectations are.

Your finalstep if you can see the potential of a rude customer before you even start doing business is to basically just not take the job. If you can see the making’s of a rude customer even before you start working with them, there is often little chance that you are going to be able to change this. So while you may be thinking that the you need the work and you can change the client, the chances are slim that you will be able to change them enough, and if you find yourself getting stressed over rude customers, then is it really worth that stress just to get a job you may not even make money on trying to solve all the problems of a rude customer.

Interacting with your customers is often one of the most important part’s of your business, and one of the parts that makes the difference between repeat customers or not. It can also make the difference between how well you connect with a client, there is a definite difference between an email communication a phone call and a face to face meeting.

Meeting new clients can also be much easier when you make contact in a direct person to person instance. So you may be asking if i do not have an office how do i meet these new clients in person. There are a couple of ways.

• Join local groups – Things like the Chamber of commerce, or Toastmasters, may have people or businesses within your potential target market as members. Attending or joining these sort of groups are ways to meet new potential customers.
• Attend Networking events – These are events purely designed to connect people, so attending these events may again have people that are within you potential market attending as well.
• Tell everyone you meet – When you meet people have a fairly specific definition of what you do ready to share. Don’t drone on to long, but something that gets interest and lets them know what you do, in around 30 seconds, may gain you interest. Just don’t forget your business card.
• Create your own events – It will take work, and require some extra effort, but you can create your own networking event or local business group and create a network of contact not just for yourself, but for the other members or attendees that you get along.

They may be fairly simple idea’s and they may be the same sort of things you have thought about doing, but it really comes down to the pure fact thinking about it, does not solve anything. You need to get out and actually do these things, for them to benefit your business.