Ways to improve your customer service!

Here's a list of Tips that I believe relate to business  both On and Off Line.  Let me know what you think, and if there's any I could Add that I missed.

The single most important thing you can do to increase customer satisfaction is to treat your employees well.  One disgruntled employee can easily alienate dozens of customers. Find out what is wrong and fix it.

Keep employees in the loop so that they are in the know and FEEL like valued insiders.  With the power of the Internet your employees can find out corporate news before you do. Don't let this happen to your company. Talk to employees often and in-person.

Teach employees to think of themselves as business consultants rather than employees.  Empower them to make customer-pleasing decisions without having to call a supervisor.

Ask employees to change their viewpoint.  Have them look at all customers as multi-million dollar businesses and treat them accordingly.

Embrace new ideas and reward innovation.  Seek and act on advice from your frontline because most of the time they are the only contact a customer has with your company.

Recognize and reward each other.  Think in 360 directions. A manager needs praise from a subordinate a much as from her boss. Encourage peer-to-peer recognition for helping each other resolve customer issues.

Constantly seek innovation.  Ask everyone to study the competition and find out what they do that makes them better. The frontline will see what a higher-level manager will not.

Seek and act on customer feedback.  Don't bother with customer surveys. Assign an employee or employees to scour the Internet for both positive and negative conversations about your company.

Make your current customers feel important.  Offer them price cuts or coupons, make every transaction with them pleasant, communicate transparently and have a live person answer your phones, thanking the customer for his business .

Seek and reward referrals from current customers.  One local chiropractor provides a free adjustment to any patient who refers someone else. She gets dozens of referrals every week and her practice thrives even during economic turmoil.

I'm sure there are a lot of other suggestions we can add to this list as it's not exhaustive, But I believe if more marketers followed these steps, their business will improve.