What Is Service?

The generic clear-cut, complete, and concise definition of the service term reads as follows.

A service is a set of singular and perishable benefits:

• delivered from the accountable service provider, mostly in close co-action with his service suppliers,
• generated by functions of technical systems and/or by distinct activities of individuals respectively,
• commissioned according to the needs of service consumers from the accountable service provider,
• rendered individually to an authorized service consumer at his/her specific request,
• consumed and used by the requesting service consumer for executing and/or supporting his/her day-to-day business tasks or private activities.

To enable your staff to render excellent customer service, you should ensure that you:

Get to Know Your Regulars: Do your utmost to remember faces and names, as well as the reason for their previous visits. You can devise some or other informal system to record their previous purchases – a good memory can often do the trick. Certain waiters in restaurants have the uncanny ability to remember what the customer ordered the last time and surprise the customer by this remarkable recollection of his/her favourite drink! Good salespeople easily recollect what the customer bought earlier and use this knowledge to anticipate the next request or to recommend something that will complement the previous purchase.

Ask the Customer: To establish the needs and wants of your customer, you should never let an opportunity go by to ask as many questions as possible. The adage that it is better to listen than to talk very much applies here. If you ask customers what they expect, and you give them the opportunity to tell you, you are in a much better position to pose a solution and make a recommendation. You also inspire much trust and confidence in the person, because your attitude speaks of a willingness to learn more about the unique needs of the customer.

Encourage Complaints: When customers complain, it should be obvious that they are expressing dissatisfaction with some or other aspect of the service. Complaints should be listened to, because it often provides us with clues on how we can improve our service. Hotels encourage guests to fill out guest questionnaires to establish in which areas the hotel manages to satisfy them and also to solicit information on areas where service is not satisfactory. Never forget to act on this valuable information!

Too many service providers continue to make the same mistakes repeatedly, whilst they had ample opportunity to establish what their customers expect, need and prefer. Too many service providers still believe they know what customers should be getting, what is right or wrong, what is good enough for the customer, and so on without ever really getting to know them. And still they wonder why they are losing customers!

Once you have established the needs, expectations and preferences of your customers, you can consider the importance of service encounters.