One of the most obvious, yet overlooked, points about customer service is to use your common sense when you’re making decisions. The immediacy of social media makes it even more obvious that this is overlooked.

In honor of Customer Service Week, here are my 9 Ways to Deliver Common Sense Customer Service.

1. First impressions matter (a lot!) – The first thing your customer sees or hears is REALLY important, and it sets the tone for the rest of the transaction. Take some time to make this a good one. Smile, comb your hair, take a deep breathe, and smile some more.
2. Tune the customer in and the world out – When your customer is talking, listen to what they’re saying. Turn off your iPod, don’t answer your cell phone, don’t play on Twitter, just tune your customer in and tune the rest of the world out.
3. Please and thank you still count – Remember those manners your parents taught you? Use them…ALL THE TIME!
4. You don’t know everything (but you better still find the answer) – When you read it, you know it’s true. You can’t possibly know everything…but some customer service people think they do. If you’re in customer service, admit it when you don’t know the answer…and then do what you can to find the answer as fast as you.
5. Customers aren’t always right (but they are always the customer) – Customers may not always be right, but that doesn’t mean you should stick it up their butt that they’re wrong. Customer service reps do NOT need to be right to make the point. The customer is ALWAYS the customer, and if you force your desire to be right, you may make your point…and lose the customer forever after. Treat the customer with respect and find a way to let them win if you can…or at least save face. 
6. People’s names are like gold (learn them fast) – The sooner you can find someone’s name, the sooner you can begin using it to create rapport with the client. Dale Carnegie was right: The sweetest sound anyone will ever hear is the sound of their own name. Learn the name and use it and your customers will be much happier.
7. Your name matters too – Take a few moments to introduce yourself too. Tell your customers your name, so when they have a question, they can use your name to ask the question.
8. Complaints are great– Complaints are an opportunity to fix what’s wrong. If folks don’t complain, you can’t make things better. Let your customers know you welcome their complaints and appreciate the opportunity to make things better.
9. Service recovery matters (a lot!) -  If you screw up (and you probably will if you work in customer service for more than a day), you need to practice your service recovery. How you recover from a mistake is often MORE important than the actual service delivery. I’ve had many places where I had something done wrong, that when they finally fixed it, they made it GREATER than if they had never messed up in the first place.

What are your best ways to deliver common sense customer service?

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kasthor/93217483/

PS: Join me TODAY (October 8th, 2009) at 12 noon central for a customer service week webinar where I talk in depth about some of these tips. I just found out you don’t have to be a member to attend, and it’s F-R-E-E!

This week when you go to your favorite coffee shop, get your hair cut, talk to your cell phone or cable company, or even go grocery shopping, pause for an extra second and thank those who serve you.

It’s Customer Service Week and all week over at Slacker Manager, I’m going to be sharing my best tips on making a GREAT customer service week.

If you want a little inspiration this week, I’m doing a webinar this Thursday called Recession Proof Your Customer Service, along with 4 other great sessions from:

• Rich Hand, Executive Director of Membership for HDI
• Chris Dancy, Founder of ServiceSphere
• Brandon Caudle, Author of Customer Service Voodoo
• Pete McGarahan, President of McGarahan and Associates

If you’re a member of HDI, all 5 webinars are complimentary. There are many levels of membership for HDI, so if you’re an IT service and support professionals, I encourage you to sign up and join us for the webinars!