Recently, I was at a hotel and I asked a question which the two desk clerks obviously didn’t know the answer to. One of them answered with a very sincere and apologetic, “I don’t know,” while the other one said to me “If you can wait a few minutes, I will see what I can find out.” Ordinarily, I would have been quite understanding and appreciate the apologetic “I don’t know.” After all, I would much rather someone simply tell me when they do not know the answer than to try to bluff. But, I realized that the clerk who was willing to go the extra mile to try to find the answer was much more impressive.
I am not advocating that you spend all your time seeking out obscure answers for customer and client questions, but what I did learn was that having someone put extra time into helping to find answers does make a big difference. I appreciated it and I remember the exemplary customer service. While the other clerk was not giving me bad customer service by admitting to not knowing the answer, the other just did a better job by going a little above and beyond to try to help me.
How can you incorporate this philosophy to customer service into your home business? Many of us get asked questions by our clients, customers, colleagues, etc. There are going to be times when we don’t know the answer and we don’t know how to find it out; but there are other times when we may not know the exact answer, but we can figure it out relatively painlessly and provide that extra burst of service and attention in the process. Why not strive to answer any questions you can, and take the extra time to find those answers and get back to those individuals who ask?
Also: Prompt Service and Attention