Customer Service Handbook – General Coaching

Your Organisation’s Customer Service Concept

What is your organisation’s mandate or business purpose?
Example: To provide best services in Uganda.

What is your organisation’s vision?
Example: To be the leading customer centered organisation .

What is your organisation’s mission?
Example: Professionalism, Excellent services, Reliability, Integrity, Innovation, Team Work, Result Oriented.

What is your organisation’s core values?
Example: Professionalism, Excellent services, Reliability, Integrity, Innovation, Team Work, Result Oriented.

What is your organisation’s customer service motto?
Example: “The customer is the reason we exist.”

What is your organisation’s customer service statement?
Example: We aim at giving excellent customer service, which exceeds our customer expectations. We know that if we exceed customer expectations, customers get delighted, become happy, and become our friends and promoters. But in case we fall short of the customer expectations, we are ready to learn from our mistakes and aim at giving better customer service experience.

Customers of your Organisation

Primary customers
People or organisations that utilize your goods or services.
Whether you are working in government, NGO or business, you have customers i.e. people you are supposed or mandated to serve.

Other customers (secondary customers)
a) Service providers: e.g. bankers, lawyers, doctors, utility companies, teachers, security companies, consultants, government officials, the media and the general public.

b) Staff of your organisation (internal customers)
Once the staff of your organisation do not like or appreciate your organisations services, they will not market them effectively. So managers should treat their staff with respect and motivate them in order to offer excellent customer service to customers. Supervisors should not be rude while communicating with their staff.

Even if they (secondary customers) are not your main customers, the objective should be to turn them into primary customers (buyers or recipients of your services). Once they visit your office, or work place, please offer them good customer care. Once they are treated well, they will develop an interest in your services and they will promote the image of the organisation.

Common Customer Complaints for your Organisation

What are the most common complaints that customers or the general public have with your organisation?

Examples

• Poor service delivery, delayed services or delayed payments
• Poor quality products or services, high prices
• Corrupt staff, rude staff
• Delayed feedback and communication from your organisation
• Lack of clear channels of communication with your organisation

NOTE:
When customers complain, they have opened up and given you an opportunity of improving your services. Therefore it is a good practice to encourage customers to complain. It is a strategy of gathering customer views, comments and suggestions.
Organisations are expected to put in place mechanisms of capturing customer complaints and strategies of addressing them.

Understanding Customer Service in your Organisation

How does your organisation understand customer service?

• Does your organisation have a customer service charter?
• Does your organisation emphasise efficiency in serving customers?
• Does your organisation focus on serving or giving customers all the items or services paid for (right amount) or expected, serving them with good quality services, within the shortest possible time?
• Does your organisation emphasise prompt responses to inquiries from customers and complaints in the shortest possible time?
• Does your organisation appreciate customer feedback and complaints?

How does your organisation understand customer care?

• Does your organisation demand that while serving customers, its staff should be warm (put on a smile), be friendly, talk nicely (not rude), not abusing customers (being proud), and showing respect and willingness to serve customers?
• Does your organisation train and initiate its new staff into the customer service culture of your organisation?
• Does your organisation reward the staff that excel in customer service?

Responsibilities of Parties

Obligations of your staff to your customers

• Put the needs of your customer first.
• Welcome all customers with a smile and greet them with respect.
• Listen and respond to our customers appropriately.
• Treat customers with courtesy, consideration and respect.
• Have supportive staff to deal with customer complaints.
• Deal with all customer issues with efficiency, fairness and integrity.
• Provide customers with all the necessary possible information to solve their complaints.
• Be as reliable, honest, and friendly beyond what your customers would like your staff to be.

Obligations of each staff towards fellow staff

• Treat each other as partners in delivering good customer service.
• When serving other fellow staffs always give good customer service and care.
• Create forums to share information, both formal and informal
• Practice pro-active information sharing.
• Continually empower and develop staff through training.
• Give feed-back to staff about their customer service performance.
• Listen to opinions from employees for new ideas on how to improve services.
• Value and appreciate the contribution of every staff to the service of our customers.
• Regard fellow staff as internal customers who must be treated with respect, courtesy and honesty.

Obligations of Customers to your Organisation

To facilitate the provision of good services, customers are expected to do the following:

• Pay for their bills or meet their obligations where expected.
• Give feedback and raise complaints for poor service.
• Treat your organisations staff with courtesy and respect.
• Avail all appropriate information requested by your organisation in order to give good services.
• Abide with the legal requirements and desist from illegal practices while dealing with the staff of your organisation.
• Avoid practices and compromises that would lead to defrauding or cheating your organization.
• Bring forth new and practical ideas to help your organisation improve service delivery.
• Report all matters that they deem to have negative impact on your organisation, staff, other customers and service delivery.

NOTE

Some customers have bad manners. Instead of following the right channels put in place by organisations, they sometimes tempt staff by asking for ways of not following laid down policies. Such customers are tarnishing the image of Uganda. Please stop it!

Importance of Customer Service in your Organisation

Does your organisation understand the following?

• Good customer service is an important business, marketing and public relations (PR) strategy that can promote your organisation.
• If you offer good customer service and you care for you customers, they will be happy with your services.
• Happy customers will tell other people about your organisation, products and your good services.
• Your happy customers will become your marketing agents and am­bassadors, friends and supporters.
• Happy customers will defend your organisation in different fora e.g. on media especially on social media and programs, in parliament, cabinet, educational institutions, lecture rooms and others.
• If your customer service is poor and you offer poor quality products and services, and you and your staff are rude and you cheat cus­tomers, tell lies or take advantage of customers, soon customers will know the truth and become annoyed and unhappy.
• Unhappy customers are dangerous people because, they will tell other people and de-campaign your services and organisation.

DO’s of Customer Service

• As you start talking to a customer (physically or on phone), please put on a SMILE, warm face and tone.
• Your verbal and non-verbal messages should be properly understood by your customer.
• First ascertain the language that the customer is comfortable with, and then use it.
• When talking to customers, speak clearly and do not rush. Give full attention to the customer.
• Learn to listen to whatever the customer is telling you.
• Give appropriate feedback.
• Portray the willingness to help the customer, this will please the customer.
• Know your products or services. Customers trust people who are confident and know what they are selling.
• When talking with customers, give your full attention to customers. Stop what you doing and give full attention. Stop paperwork or anything you are doing.
• For every customer you serve, please say “Thank You! All customers like these two words.

DON’Ts of Customer Service

• If you are annoyed, stress and or unhappy, never show it to the customers.
• Do not look annoyed while talking to customers.
• Never appear rude or gloomy on the face while communicating with customers.
• Never talk with a customer in a negative way. Do not take customers for granted.
• Never be rude to customers. Never quarrel with customers.
• Never argue with your customers. Never neglect a customer.
• Never offer poor quality products and services to your customers.
• Never cheat customers or clients. When they get to know, they will tell others and they will stop coming to your shop or business.
• Never tell lies or take advantage of customers.
• Never continue eating or drinking something when talking to customers. A customer needs a listening ear.
• Sometimes when your customers are unhappy, they can abuse you or write some angry comments about your business or organisation. Never respond to them in the same way. Stay calm, respectful and positive. Try to resolve issues by not abusing customers.
• Customers are kings and you need them to continue buying from you or receiving your services.

Benefits of good customer service

Individual Level

• Practicing good customer service reduces stress at work place. Poor customer service can result in abuses by customers and peo­ple who receive poor service. If you quarrel with customers and get annoyed, then you become stressed and you can even fall sick.
• Serving customers with a smile keeps you younger. However serv­ing customers with a gloomy face and without a smile leads to early development of wrinkles and looking older. Good customer service has curative and therapeutically advantages.
• Customer service improves staff interpersonal relationship thus creating harmony on work places.
• Poor customer service and care damages the staff’s personal image among colleagues and customers. A staff with poor custom­er service culture is not liked by other staff. They sometimes nick­name such staff as Mr. Rude or Ms. Rude.
• A good customer service staff has greater opportunities for pro­motion. You may miss on promotion because of your poor cus­tomer care. Do not be fooled, your customers, colleagues and supervisors know your good or poor customer service orientation. Sometimes, they associate it with your family upbringing.

Benefits of good customer service

Institutional / Company Level

• Improves corporate image and public relations of the business, association, government institution or NGO.
• Good customer service is a strong marketing strategy for attract­ing and retaining customers through word-of-mouth promotion or referral marketing.
• Increases sales and leads to customer bonding.

National Level

• Promotes a nation as a friendly tourists and investment destination.
• Improves the country’s customer service ranking and global economic competitiveness.
• Good customer service is a strong marketing strategy for attracting investors, tourists, trade importers and other visitors to a country.

How to communicate with customers

• Effective communications with customers is an important element of customer service. Good communication helps the service provider, business owner or shop keeper to understand the needs and expecta­tions of the customer or client. Available means of communication with customers include: Telephone, Email, Social media and Internet.
• Listen to whatever your customer is saying and give appropriate feedback. This portrays a sign of willingness to help customers.
• Always try to understand things from the point of customers while communicating with them. Do not impose your thoughts or ideas to customers. Effective communications starts with listening.
• Address your customers by their names or titles if you know e.g. Mr, Mrs, Ms, Madam, Ma’am, Hon, Prof, Dr, Counsel, Eng, Afande, Pilot, Teacher, Bishop, Rev, Hajj, Hajjat, Pastor, Father, Sister, Brother, Uncle, Auntie and others. If you are not sure, please ask them politely.
• Before you deploy your staff to interact with your customers, first train and give them customer service skills. Most organizations and business are making a big mistake of allowing their staff to interact with their customers without first training them on communicate skills.

Communication challenges in customer service

Example 1:

• Your organisation may recruit a new staff, and then ask the staff to serve customers as the customer service front office agent, customer service agent or receptionist.
• New recruited staff need to be oriented in the customer communication culture of the organization.
• Give them the organization DO’s and DON’Ts on customer communication.

Example 2:

• In some cases, when a staff fails to perform on some tasks, they transfer them to receptions or front offices or cash offices. Such people may not be good communicators.
• The staff that interact with customers are expected to be high performers, highly motivated, good communicators and people of warm personality.
• There are high chances that the new staff will use “home-based” or “school-based” communication skills which are different from customer service skills.
• Some staff are naturally very rude, they abuse customers, they do not want to assist customers and they cheat customers. They borrow such behaviors from their homes or schools. But such behavior is not accepted in work places.
• Before communicating with customers, every person should be taught the DOs and DON’Ts of customer communication.

Smile while serving customers

A smile is a tool that spices customer service

A smile is one of the most important customer service tools. A smile is a language that opens doors and communicates a good customer service tone. It communicates the following: Thank you for coming; I treasure you; I respect you; I am ready to serve you. A smile should be practiced on every customer interaction.

Tips on how to use a smile while serving customers

• Before interacting with customers, prepare yourself and plan to put on a smile. Customers like smiles.
• First impression while greeting your customers is an important aspect in customer service. Greet your customers with a smile.
• Always show a positive attitude (warm) while serving customers.
• When interacting with customers, be warm and portray a ready attitude to help.
• Master how to smile and do it well from the beginning to the end while serving customers.
• Practice how to smile because serving customers is like being on a stage or show.
• Keep the smile simple and do not exaggerate it.
• When speaking on phone, your tone should be clear and warm. The person you are talking to will receive the smile through your warm tone. Market yourself and your organization using your tone.
• Address or call people by their names and smile while serving or calling them.

Quotes on smiling

• “A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles”. William Hazlitt
• “A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.” William Arthur Ward
• “A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.” Chinese Proverb
• “Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl (gloomy face) and have wrinkles”. —George Eliot
• “A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside”. Denis Waitley
• “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around”. Leo Buscaglia
• “Smiling is definitely one of the best beauty remedies. If you have a good sense of humor and a good approach to life, that’s beautiful”. Rashida Jone
• “Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you’ll start to see a big difference in your life”. Yoko Ono

Be a good listener to your customers

Always listen to whatever your customers are saying and give appropriate feedback. Clarify on areas where they seem not to understand you. Don’t interrupt and get defensive. Just listen to them and reflect back on what they’re saying. This portrays a good sign of willingness to help a customer which eases communication. As a result, customers will pay attention to you and what you want to say and will be more willing to listen to you too.

Tips on Listening skills

• When listening to a customer, be attentive and give them a warm facial expression.
• Prepare yourself to listen to what the customer is saying. Your body language should portray willingness to listen. Listen to the customer’s tone, voice and hidden emotions both on phone and face to face situations.
• Give customers all the information they need to make a decision on whether to continue doing business with you or not.
• While interacting with customers, don’t interrupt and impose your solutions to them.
• Be patient while attending to customers. Ask customers to explain what is not clear such that both of you understand each other.
• Never interrupt or finish a sentence for any customer. This might make them feel offended.
• Show empathy to customers and understand their point of view.
• Put yourself in the shoes of the customer. If you were the customer, how would you want to be treated?

Quotes on listening

• “To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld
• “One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” –-Bryant H. McGill
• “If you make listening and observation your occupation, you will gain much more than you can by talk.” –Robert Baden-Powell
• “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said” –Peter Drucker
• “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” Ernest Hemingway
• “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” –Stephen R. Covey
• “You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time.” –M. Scott Peck
• “We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.” –Diogenes

Give feedback to your customers

It is important to provide feedback to customers regarding their com­plaints and other issues. As you give feedback, try not to offend cus­tomers. A list of customer contacts will help you while giving feedback to customers. It is a good practice to always keep a list of customer contacts such that you follow them up and check if they are satisfied or not. Keep customer records of names, location and addresses, emails, Facebook, and twitter accounts and communicate with them whenever need arises.

Tips for giving feedback

• Feedback needs to be timely.
• Always think about what you are going to say to customers.
• Always accept and give feedback to your customers.
• When interacting with your customers, be open to feedback.

Quotes on feedback

• “Feedback is a gift. Ideas are the currency of our next success. Let people see you value both feedback and ideas.” – Jim Trinka and Les Wallace
• “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” – Ken Blanchard
• “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.” – Bill Gates

Responding to customers’ complaints

We live in a world of complaints because everyone is always looking for things to complain about. But complaints offer a good opportunity to improve service delivery. Customers have a right to express their views, so complaints should be welcomed. The customer may not always be right, but he or she has a right to complain. It is therefore how you handle the complaint that matters.

Respect customers when they complain. They are helping you to improve. When customers are unhappy, they can abuse you or write something bad about you or your company. Do not respond to them in the same way. Your objective should be to sort out the case and turn the complaining customers into loyal or repeat customers.

Tips on responding to customer complaints

• Listen attentively and encourage the customer to talk.
• Do not be defensive or justify anything.
• Apologize to the customer even when they may not be right.
• Respond to complaints quickly and efficiently.
• Ask the customer what you can do to solve the complaint.
• It is a good practice to keep records of all customer complaints.
• Endeavour to follow-up to ensure the customer is satisfied.
• Emphasize the spirit of teamwork in any complaint handling.
• Point out the team members that will handle the complaint.

Quotes on handling customer complaints

• “When a customer complains, he is doing you a special favor; he is giving you another chance to serve him to his satisfaction. You will appreciate the importance of this opportunity when you con­sider that the customer’s alternative option was to desert you for a competitor.” Seymour Fine, Author “The Marketing of Ideas and Social Issues”.
• “Thank your customer for complaining and mean it. Most customers do not bother to complain. They just walk away, never to return.” Marilyn Suttle, Success Coach.
• “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning’’ Bill Gates.
• “When complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for”. John Milton.

Follow up customers to ensure that they are satisfied

Follow-up is the act of bonding with your customers. Follow-up helps you to keep in direct contact with your customers or clients and keep them happy. That is why it is vital to have follow-up plans so that you can reach to your customers effectively.

Tips on how to follow up customer satisfaction

• Use follow up opportunities to thank customers. It is always a good practice to thank your customers whenever you get an opportunity. You can thank your customers through a telephone call conversation, face to face or email, etc.
• Always ask for feedback from your customers on whatever update you like or in case you want to know how you can improve your service.
• Make sure you follow up to the end results to ensure that there is continued service delivery. This will result into customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• It always good to be patient and establish facts before you make any important decisions before or after follow up exercises.

Show respect to your customers

A customer is the king and is always right. Customers want to be treated with respect. Make customers know how they can do busi­ness with you in a way that’s beneficial to them. Your company or organization should show it to customers that they are respected.

Say it to customers that you respect their views and choices. Make it part of your culture and show it to your staff that customers are treasured and respected. Let every staff understand and participate in respecting customers. Whether you are in business, government or NGO service, respect to customers is a must.

Tips on how to show respect to customers

• Show respect to every customer, no matter their age, gender, race, ethnicity, or position.
• When speaking to customers, always maintain good eye contact.
• Always listen to customers, a good sign that you respect them.
• Tell customers how important they are to your organization.
• Recognize your customers every time, whenever you get an opportunity. Address them by name and title if you can.
• Be nice and bring happiness to customers. It shows respect.
• Customers should always be given chance to make their own choices. It shows respect.
• Fulfill what you promise to customers. It is a good sign of respect.

Quotes on respect to customers

• “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us; we are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work; he is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business; he is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him; he is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” Mahatma Gandhi
• “You must never cheat the customer. You must make the customer happy and satisfied, so that she/he will come back” (Revised) Alexander Turney Stewart, Business Magnate
• “You can have what you want if you help other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar, Author and Motivational Speaker
• “Ask your customers to be part of the solution, and don’t view them as part of the problem.” Alan Weiss, Author “Million Dollar Consulting”

Always use appropriate greetings

First impression while greeting is an important aspect in customer service. People have a tendency to form a positive, negative or neutral image of others during an introduction exercise. It is advisable to show a positive attitude and greet every customer that interacts with you.

Tips on how to greet customers

• Put on a smile before greeting customers.
• Use simple language while greeting customers.
• Always make eye contact to your customers. Good eye contact communicates that you’re focused and ready to help.
• Make sure your voice creates the perception of intelligence, re­sponsibility and capability to offer a service.
• Be responsive to customers, acknowledge and value their time when serving them.
• Identify yourself with a nametag where possible. This will depict seriousness and make it easy for customers to identify you.

Be courteous and friendly to customers

In today’s competitive environment, your customers should be treated with courtesy. This will build customer relationships leading to loyalty, continued business and referrals from other businesses.

Tips on how to be courteous and friendly to customers

• Give a friendly image to customers when they arrive to your office.
• When interacting with your customers, always project a tone of readiness to help them.
• Use their names and titles as customers want to hear their names being mentioned. But be careful especially if you are not sure.
• Actively listen to what the customer wants before you respond.
• Empathize and be attentive to customers.
• You can ask if there is anything in addition you can assist with.
• Show gratitude for the customer’s support towards your service.

Quotes on being courteous and friendly

• “As youngsters, my mother taught her children that while we might not be the smartest people around, we could be courteous, polite and considerate of others”. Zig Ziglar
• “No one is too big to be courteous”. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Courteous treatment will make a customer a walking advertisement’’. JC Penny

Be reliable and keep your promise

Anybody who is involved in serving people should try as much as possible to be reliable and keep his or her word and promise. When you are not reliable and cannot keep your word, customers will not take you seriously. As a result, your image and that of your organisation or country will go down. Customers will start dodging and shunning away from you. This is very dangerous in customer service whether you are in government, NGO or private sector service.

Tips for being reliable and keeping promises

• Be ready and willing to offer services to customers.
• Be honest when dealing with customers.
• Tell the truth. If you tell lies to customers, they will lose trust when they discover the truth.
• Fulfill customer tasks in time. Customers are always impatient.
• Keep time when you have an appointment with a customer.
• Plan well before you start the day i.e. prepare tools that you need to serve customers. e.g. paper, pen and others.
• Dress well (in uniform where possible and necessary).
• Use name tags if you can.
• Take time to rehearse how to be friendly to customers.

Always thank your customers

In any customer service environment, you should strive to show your gratitude to customers as you serve them.

Tips on thanking your customers

• Appreciate customers: Always say “Thank you!” to every customer that comes your way.
• Feedback: Customers feel important when their feedback is imple­mented. There is no better way to communicate “thank you” to a customers than to show them that their views were considered.
• Excellent Customer Service: Nothing says thanks to a customer than offering an excellent and friendly service.
• Thank complaining customers: When customers complain, thank them. This means that you still want to do business with them again.

Quotes on “Thank you” in customer service

• “Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” –Voltaire
• “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” – G. K. Chesterton
• “No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” –James Allen

Appreciate positive criticism from customers

The goal of constructive criticism is to improve the behavior of a person. It takes professional customer service skills and knowledge to understand and appreciate criticism. When faced with criticism from customers, never be annoyed and do not take it personal because they are telling you how you and your organisation should serve them.

Tips on positive criticism

• Be positive and always accept constructive criticism from customers.
• Be open to learn from criticisms.
• Never be defensive when faced with criticism.
• Always be objective to constructive criticism.
• Avoid personal attacks, insults and hostile language when you receive constructive criticism.

Quotes on positive criticism

• “You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept constructive criticism”. Willie Mays

• “Every human being is entitled to courtesy and consideration. Constructive criticism is not only to be expected but sought”. Margaret Chase Smith

Effective telephone and email skills

Sometimes customers will approach you or your organisation through the phone or by email.

Tips on telephone and email communication

• Get to know the caller before you continue the conversation.
• Every OFFICE phone call should be picked within three (3) rings. This is a good customer service.
• When you receive office calls, respond for example as follows; “Thank you for ringing “ABC”, “Jane” speaking, how may I help you”?
• Put on a smile, stop what you are doing and concentrate on the call.
• Pay attention to every caller and do not let your mind wander away.
• When talking on phone, always identify customer needs.
• Use professional language and tone while talking to customers.
• Give full attention to the caller and project “Ready to help” ‘tone.
• Control the conversation, so that it doesn’t drag on needlessly.
• Learn how to handle angry callers, ignore personal insults.
• Do not dominate the conversation with customers.
• After the telephone conversation, always thank the customer.
• Ensure that you fulfill any promise you made to the customer.
• Respond professionally to all customer emails within a day. At least indicate the specific time when you will give a full response.

Be a Good Customer Care Agent

Sometimes when you ring an organisation you get this message. “All agents are busy, please try later”. We know that sometimes agents do not want to talk to customers. Maybe they had a bad day, or the customer before them gave them a hard time, or they just hate their job.

Example: You call an organization, a staff answers and says that you have rung a wrong department. So the staff transfers you to another department. Again, you have to explain your problem to the next person. Again, this one says that the first person did not know what he/she was doing, so they transferred you to another department. And the wheel spins on and on. Being transferred over and over and having to answer questions and explain your problem to each staff or agent is not only frustrating and annoying but poor customer service.

Tips for customer care agents

• Never lie to customers. Never ignore customers.
• If a person rings your office, take details of the issue. If you transfer the call, first explain to your colleague the issue with the client. This will help the caller not to start afresh, all over again and explain.
• Do not just transfer and hung up as if you are a machine. Follow up and ensure that the caller is helped.
• Put yourself in the “shoes” of the caller (empathy). How would you want to be handled if you were ringing an organization?
• In case you take long while connecting the call, please apologize.

Interesting Customer Service Quotes

• ‘Customers do not expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong’’ Porter, V.P.-of British Airways
• ‘If you work just for money, you will NEVER make it, but if you love what you are doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours’’ Ray Kroc; founder of McDonalds
• “We don’t push our ideas on to customers; we simply want to make what they want“ Laura Ashley, Fashion Designer
• “Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, “What’s in it for me?’’ ’’
• Brian Tracy, Author and Motivational Speaker
• “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job to make the customer experience a little bit better.” Jeff Bezos, Founder Amazon
• “Our greatest asset is the customer! Treat each customer as if they are the only one!” Laurice Leitao
• “It is not your customer’s job to remember you, it is your responsibility to make sure they don’t have the chance to forget you.” Patricia Fripp
• “Until you understand your customers – deeply and genuinely – you cannot truly serve them.” Rasheed Ogunlaru, Author of Soul Trader