It doesn’t matter whether you are a consumer, entrepreneur, manager, employee or volunteer.  Customer service is a topic that has significance for us all.

We all want good customer service when we are doing business with someone and it is important to acknowledge others want the same from us.

Customers are what makes the world go around for organizations of all kinds.  Without customers, citizens, donors or bosses to serve, we have no jobs.  Your livelihood would cease to exist.  When the pocketbook closes, paychecks stop coming.

It is a good idea to occasionally stop and ask yourself, “Who is my customer and how well am I serving them?”

Poor Customer Service Phrases We Hear All Too Often

We have all heard some pretty ugly customer service horror stories.  MSN Money even conducts an annual Customer Service Hall of Shame survey to chastise those companies that do an exceptionally poor job of meeting customer expectations.

Hopefully, your organization is not a part of the hall of shame, but we’ve all probably been guilty of providing less than stellar service.  We’ve all also probably been victims of it.

Here are a few poor customer service phrases we hear all too often:

• The computer won’t let us do that.
• I don’t know and don’t care.
• You’ll have to call or come back later.
• We can’t take care of that here.
• That is not my responsibility.
• I can’t help you with that.
• You’ve called the wrong number.

I’m sure this list could go on and on, but you get the idea.  On top of these poor customer service phrases, we often get caught in perpetual automated phone system hell!  You know what I’m talking about, “Please press 1 for…”  Of course, none of the options ever match what I need and there never seems to be an easy way to access a real, live human!

Okay, just thinking about these things raises my blood pressure!  Let me move on before my blood starts to boil. 

Enthusiastic Customer Service Phrases I’d Like to Hear

What is it that our customers want and that we want when we conduct business?

I think mainly we want someone who will listen attentively to our issues, take ownership of the situation and do their best to make us happy so we will return, ready to spend our money with them again another day.

Basically, we want companies to make it easy for us to do business with them.  We want them to remove as many of the obstacles as possible for us.

Customers are valuable and often hard to come by.  You know this if you ever been in sales or if you’ve operated your own business.  Every customer that is willing to give their money to you in return for your product or service is a gem that you need to protect and coddle.

The difference between good and poor customer service has a lot to do with how you make your customer feel.

Here are some enthusiastic phrases we’d all like to hear more often:

• I can take care of this for you in no time at all.
• I’m going to personally make sure this gets resolved for you.
• This is a little out of the ordinary, but I can handle it for you.
• I’d be happy to help you with this.
• I’m not sure, but let me find someone that can help you.
• What can I do to make this right for you?
• We stand behind our products, so this won’t be any trouble.
• You don’t have to wait, I can take care of you now.
• We’d be happy to refund your money if that’s what you want.
• It won’t cost you anything to get this corrected.
• We’ll be there today to make this right for you.
• Your satisfaction is our top priority.  What can I do for you today?

Beyond these, you might also want to check out The Top 7 Phrases to Use With Unhappy Customers.  This article is just one of several I found on Top7Business that I thought were very useful and practical for improving customer service.

We Are All in the Business of Improving Customer Service

It is in our best interest to please as many of our customers as possible.  Giving them what they want will ultimately lead to us getting what we want.  It really doesn’t take all that much effort to impress customers with our level of service.  We just need to put ourselves in their shoes.  Treat others like you want to be treated and your service will be golden!

What enthusiastic customer service phrases would you like to hear?

UPDATE: This article received a very nice write-up on MSN Smart Spending that really compliments what I wrote.  I’d encourage you to check out Customer-service phrases we hate.  I hope you enjoy it!

Photo by ann-dabney