By Garrison Wynn

Have you ever called a company and been greeted with phrase “Hold, please”? How do they know you can hold? They don’t even know who you are. Maybe you can’t hold; maybe you have 10 seconds of juice left on your cell phone and your hair is on fire. Then you finally get someone on phone, only to be told, “I can’t actually help you; I’m just paid to apologize, and I’m really sorry about that.”

Being frustrated by a lack of customer service is nothing new. It just seems that in last few years, companies have become more innovative when it comes to not helping you solve your problems. I recently asked a hotel employee to help me with my luggage. He told me to hold on and he would have someone look into it. I thought, “Hey, you’re someone—why can’t you look into it?” I realize that we are as busy as we have ever been, and that many younger people were not brought up in traditional culture of customer service. But none of these excuses will protect your business in today’s challenging economy, where customers are questioning value even with companies they have known for years.

Maybe it’s time to get back to basics and make service a real priority. Sure, plenty of companies claim to offer great customer care. But raising your service standards requires more than a promise; you need to set concrete goals and establish effective procedures to meet them. Whether you own company, handle key accounts or just accidentally encounter your customers, you’ll reap huge benefits by applying following customer service goals:

On Phone

Be friendly! No one wants to send a check to people who seem to be bothered by their call.

Ask permission before putting a caller on hold. If a customer is greeted with “Hold, please,” what customer really hears is “Hang on! Someone much more important than you just called in.”

We tend to be creatures of habit, get up at a certain time, take meals at a certain time, retire day at a certain time....plugging through each day much same as day prior.

The internet has changed a great deal since it began in 80's--the evolution has brought forward a great number of changes in our 'day to day'. The way we advertise and way we do business has changed.

Back in good old days, a businessperson was out there in world, greeting and speaking with those surrounding them in their lives--most important; they were taking hold of people’s hands in a friendly shake. Many others sit behind a screen, waiting for someone to swing by their cyber-world so that they can meet them with a cyber-shake. Even though most do a great deal of internet marketing, it is very important to remember that there is a person behind that digital transfer of words through email or page.

In speaking with a friend of mine who has both an online and a brick and mortar store I asked him this morning how he felt about experience he was offering to his customers these days and how important cyber-business was to him.

His answerers surprised me, but prove what many of our customers are all saying—if you take time to listen.

Through his doors each day will pass thousands of customers—who fought traffic, rushing here and there to run all their errands, make it to work on time or in a hurry to get home from work. He realized that even his life had become much same congested rat race we all enter in to accomplish what we need each day. This past year brought many changes—all thanks to his cyber customers.

This caught me off guard for a moment—and he allowed me a few moments to digest his comment—he has always known importance of brilliant silence. He knew my mind was running on that last comment and awaited my response, eager to share what he meant.

So I took bait and asked him how his cyber-customers changed his way of thinking. In 70’s he purchased his shop—and over years has grown till he owns most every inch of block his store now resides. Through years he has remodeled and built some of most amazing layouts. The original was cluttered with rack after rack of everything he wanted to sell—it was hard to move through everything to see his wares. Let’s not forget 80’s when everything was bright colors—still so many racks you could hardly move around. The 90’s produced some great displays of metal, track lighting and glass—still so much you could hardly move around. He said his sales were going strong offering nearly everything created under sun, which focused on his corner of market so that all of his customers had everything available—if they could manage to find it.

I asked him what in world this all had to do with his cyber-customers. He replied—“a year ago we slimed website down, removed much of ‘clutter’ and got to bottom line—listing only key elements and key products which his market were looking for. If they want something they can’t find, they can pick up their phones and call us—chances are we have it and can ship it right out to them”. He was proud to admit that his internet sales have tripled—even though they offer less.