Service, service, service.  It's the nuts and bolts of our business and at least a key driver of your business.  The many articles and training materials we provide mostly focus on customer service because we are passionate about your ability to achieve success through strong service skills. You can't get too many tips, suggestions, or ideas for best practices on this super important topic, but if you ignore them, it may cost you and your business a lot of money.  For our picks this time, we are shaking it up a bit—you will not only get some fresh thoughts on mastering customer service and how to develop better customer relationships, but you will also learn how to navigate through your negative attitude when it shows it's ugly head.  Your negativity can be converted into a productive return, which most definitely impacts your customers' impressions.  So away we go...enjoy!

Our "Picks" this time focus on these very important customer service topics:

1. Implementing cohesive customer service standards and policies that EVERY employee learns, practices, and adheres to.
2. Understanding that exceeding customers' expectations requires an approach that focuses on every single customer touchpoint and all factors that engages their senses.
3. Gaining customer loyalty requires not only exceptional care of your happy customers, but also effective efforts that reengage and impress your unhappy customers. (Teaser alert: below this article you can download our wildly popular eBook on problem resolution.)

Keep on reading to get advice on tackling all three of these customer service topics.

To get to a pot of gold with your business, you must take a path that focuses on exceptional customer service.  Service takes form in many different fashions—it's not just about how you treat the customer (although this is a HUGE part of it).  Customer service is also about:

• anticipating the customer's needs and acting upon them before the customer asks. 
• creating solutions that make things easier for the customer. 
• understanding what needs to be done to tailor an experience to the primary factors that influence your customer's takeaway. 

Hungry for more?  Take a quick read of these great articles so you can hit that pot of business gold by learning ways that you and your team can make positive changes to your customer service strategy. 

The factor that has the highest impact on the impression of a buying experience is how the customer feels they are being treated. Understanding the importance of this is essential for all businesses because it is what is needed in order to build loyalty.  So let's amp up our customer service by making all of our customers feel VALUED and GOOD!  5 easy ways, with supporting tips, to make this happen:

The happiest customers are those who you make feel good.  Do you focus on making your customers feel good?  This goes beyond just delivering a great product or service.  You need to also acknowledge that the best way to make a customer feel good is to say the right things and to do the right things.  When you get these right, your customer will walk away pleased, tell others about you, and come back to do business with you again.  Focusing on what you should say to your customers to reap positive results, here are 8 key things that should be a consistent part of your language and customer communication strategy...