1 - 101 Ways to Really Satisfy Your Customers

It is therefore imperative to examine this text entitled "101 Ways to Really Satisfy Your Customers" written by Andrew Griffiths. Griffiths is a professional marketing consultant, as well as director of an Australian company called "The Marketing Professionals". Griffiths submits that small businesses have the greatest potential to offer extremely high levels of customer service, due to their direct contact with customers. He says unfortunately, very few people fully realise the power of customer service and what it can do for their business.

Section one is generically christened "Understanding your customers" and contains eight tips. According to this consultant here, all businesses constantly need customers. Griffiths says this may sound blatantly obvious and it is, but one of the most common customer service complaints is that businesses do not listen to their customers.

Griffiths says you should always put yourself in your customers' shoes; attend to what your customers expect from you; hire a mystery shopper to evaluate your business; observe your business objectively; take time to talk to your customers; encourage your customers to give you their opinions and start a customer satisfaction survey immediately.

This author adds that there are many ways that you can make your business more appealing to your customers. While many of these may be obvious, there are also many subtle, service-related things that can make your business far more inviting and customer-friendly, educates Griffiths.

This section identifies some of the best ways to improve your level of customer service by looking closely at your workplace. Section three is summarily entitled "Your staff" and contains 17 tips, that is, tips 17 to 33. According to Griffiths here, staff are the front line when it comes to customer service. Griffiths advises you to always smile, take your staff to your competitors' businesses, have regular brainstorming sessions, debrief staff after good and bad experiences, encourage your customers to tell you if your staff give outstanding service, and reward your staff for outstanding customer service. Sections four to nine are based on the generic subject matters of making it easy for your customers to buy; the personal touch; face-to-face customer service; telephone customer service; promotional material; and customer service and the Internet. These sections contain 44 tips covering tips 34 to 77.

Section ten is summarily entitled "Following up on a sale is good customer service" and contains four tips, that is, tips 78 to 81. In sections 11 to 13 covering tips 82 to 101, that is, 20 tips, this author analytically X-rays the generic concepts of internal customer service; maintaining a personal commitment to customer service; and what to do when things go wrong.

Apart from 101 tips, there is a bonus section containing additional 20 tips on customer service.

To ensure active reader participation, Griffiths includes notes and customer service action list segment.

However, some tips seem (conceptually) repetitive in the book. In short, this text is a must-read for everybody especially that no business can succeed without customers.