Occasionally, into each life, a little rain must fall… in this case, the “rain” is an unhappy customer; this isn’t an “if”, it is a when. When you are in business, and you deal with customers, be it internal customers (employees), external customers (paying customers and clients), or your service partners (distributors, vendors, etc) – eventually someone will feel unheard, uncared for, or mistreated. Should this unhappy customer ruin your day?

The largest financial services providers in the world are concerned that their younger customers don’t really like them. The number of dissatisfied customers is increasing as even the older generations adopt new technologies and models of interaction.

This is not about building an online presence to respond to your younger customers. You need to be at the cutting edge of wherever your customers will be, anticipate expectations and concerns, understand what they value and proactively take actions to increase loyalty.

You need to be young again – curious, passionate and fast.

It has been well documented that providing excellent service to your customers will reap both personal and financial rewards.

But what happens when service falls short? What happens when your staff members, your procedures, or your operations fails to fulfill the corporate goal of quality? Worse yet, what happens when even the desire to provide great service fades away?

The American Express Global Customer Service Barometer tells us that a lack of quality service is far more costly than most people realize.

How much is an Uplifting Service Culture worth to you?

Many people think quantifying excellence in service is an exercise in “fuzzy math”. Do you think so, too? Can you put a hard dollar value on consistently delivering uplifting and outstanding service? Do you know how much money is left behind when your service doesn’t measure up?

Do you really know your customers well enough to stand apart from your competition? Do you want to?

Many people say they know who their customers are. But an alarming number, especially in the B2B world, have only a shallow clue.

Ask yourself these questions, and then think again:

Each time you explore, agree, deliver and assure, the possibility for trust grows between you and the other party. In fact, this may be the only way human beings can build trust with one another.

1. EXPLORE: Find out what is important to the other person.
2. AGREE: Make a promise to do something on their behalf.
3. DELIVER: Do what you promised.
4. ASSURE: Check and make sure they are satisfied.

Are you building powerful partnerships where you work?

Amazon’s customer service has always been recognized and applauded as world-class. This is remarkable, especially since it is a purely online retailer. Amazon has hardly any ‘human’ interactions – often considered crucial perception points for increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty – in the value delivery chain.

Many companies try to emulate Amazon and cost-effectively provide higher levels of service through leveraging technology. But Amazon does not only ‘deliver customer service’ – they build powerful partnerships with their customers.

How do they do it?

Leading organizations in many industries have sharpened service recovery into a potent competitive edge. They understand the power of effective recovery as a customer retaining and employee engaging technique.

To build a powerful culture of service recovery in your organization, focus on these key areas:

Want to add more value to your customers? Be sure you know what to add!

Here are eight proven ways to get close to your customers and find out what they value, what they care about, what they really want.

Regardless of whether Toyota was slow, ignorant or delusionary to the faults in its vehicles, one thing it has finally done is to say “We are sorry”. But this is only Step One in a successful service recovery.