Dos and Dont's of Customer Service - Moses Nmor

In my several years working as a customer service professional, I have met every type of customer there is. But, perhaps, the best experience I've had is  meeting a customer that prays for you for 5 minutes - when all the time you have you have is a 2-minutes query resolution time.  There isn't any question that customer service is an art, with it's books and laws, though it may not translate the same way across board like your regular languages. There is always a tweak to it in more ways to suit your business environment, as certain parts of the experience is unique to the environment it is deployed at. In this write up there will be segmentation to dos and don’t s but they will be embedded in the article like your regular novel. Four months ago a client called me from America saying “I would like to confirm if my reservation at Obudu Mountain Resort is still available, because I will like to make a transfer now.” So I asked “Can I have your name Ma?” Then she goes “Uchenna, please.” On searching for that name, I happened upon a startling information. Obudu Mountain Resort took a Honeymoon reservation for a period when the package was unavailable and a confirmation had already been sent to the client. And, from my conversation with the client, it was quite clear that a reversal could lead to a law suit. So I had to act in line with 3 core principles of the business: 1. Never say "I can't help you"; just say "I will get back to you with a confirmation as soon as possible".  2. Do not try explain how and why, just fix it. 3. Do not play the blame game; just sort it out the issues. The moral lesson in this case was the fact that this client had her 9 gracious nights at Obudu and during the review of her stay she was full of praise for the service received and fun at the resort considering the fact that no other agency could give her that reservation. “Hats off to your service”, she said. Indeed. Just before I bore you with too many Honeymoon issues here is a special. The way our service runs, when hotels are added, there is a usual check done to be sure the pictures added are really for the said hotel and if their rates are really the same, or were adjusted to be more expensive instead of being cheaper on our platform. So on a particular day, a client calls in to know if he was through to the hotel but as usual we had to let him know that he was through to Hotels.ng. (Which leads us to the first "do", which is: always say the truth, because they will always find out some how.) Good enough he was patient to find out our rates for the hotel but then he goes “I have heard the rate but I will rather book directly at the hotel, I am 10 minutes away from there, just wanted to know the rates and if they had a room.” Like every other agent I persisted to see if he would book through us but he insisted and, in other not to seem pushy, I closed the conversation. But 20 minutes later he calls in again and, this time, he goes “I called in for a reservation some 1 hour ago, I am at the hotel and they say they do not have my reservation. What kind of service do you guys say you are offering when you can't take care of a single booking”. Once again, I applied yet another "do", which is: Never interrupt the client; wait till they are done talking . So when he was done, I apologized and asked what his name was, saying I wanted to take care of it myself.  He didn't know that I was the same person he spoke with initially and that I knew he didn't want a reservation through us initially, but very likely changed his mind when he got to the hotel and found out their rate was N15,000 higher than what we had. And here is where another "do" comes to play: always take the blame before a word. In the end the client got a room using us and has, since then, made over 20 bookings for himself and his friends as well. One very important fact is that how knowledgeable you are about your product gives you the upper hand when a confused client calls you, because you have a good number of options at the top of your head. Never say I can't, I won't, I am not sure, It's confusing or I might. Be sure what you want to give away before you say a word, a fast thinker is always the best care giver, the customer is always right, first impression lasts long, connection keeps you at a better advantage and always have it in mind that all parties - from the agent to the product, to the client, to the laws - needs care and total attention or else every other thing won't matter.