The Competitive Advantage of Amazing Customer Service

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Top Takeaways:

• People can steal your ideas or create the same products. What they can’t take away is the level of service and relationships you’ve built with your customers.
• Everybody has customer service. You can win by focusing on creating customer connections and building relationships with your customers at a higher level than others.
• You can coach people on the technical aspects of the job. But, having empathy is something one just has or doesn’t have.
• Customer service starts with leadership. Leaders create the service vision and hire the right people to carry it out.
• When hiring someone, let them interact with other people in your business. You can tell a lot about a person by how they talk to other people that are not from a high-level position within your organization.
• Leaders need to participate in the onboarding process and set the tone of the business’ culture.
• Service aptitude is a person’s ability to exceed expectations. It comes from 1) Life experiences 2) Previous work experience 3) Current job experience. Teach your employees about your own culture of service.
• Figure out what makes your business stand out. You can have the same product or service as your competition but if you can out-service them, you will always win.

Quotes:

“No matter what business you are in, it is extremely competitive. The only way to stand out is by delivering an outstanding service.”

“Make sure the people you bring in is a culture fit, first. Hire based on traits and not skills.”

“As your business is growing, you cannot sacrifice culture just to get more employees through the door.”

“You gotta care more about your customers than your competition.

About:

Hank Ebeling is the founder of H4 Training and author of Crushing the Competition with Service: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Delivering Outstanding Customer Service & Customer Experience.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions … and more:

1. What is customer service aptitude?
2. Should you hire for personality or skill?
3. How can businesses successfully hire someone who fits with their culture?
4. How can small businesses compete in today’s highly competitive landscape?
5. What is the leader’s role in establishing work culture?