Customer Service: You’ve probably had the importance of customer service drilled into your head at every job since you entered the workforce. And you’ve probably heard, “the customer is king” or “the customer is always right” more times than you can count. But has anyone ever explained to you what providing good customer service actually looks like? Or why it’s so important?

People always talk about customer service as if it’s something we instinctively know how to provide, but the truth is customer service isn’t something that one just knows, it’s something that must be learned and practiced.

To start, let’s reframe “customer service” as “customer experience.”  This subtle shift is a good reminder to guide us as we approach providing amazing customer experiences.

Walmart and Sam’s Club founder, Sam Walton used to say, “There is one boss: the customer. And she can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending her money elsewhere.”  In this statement is a key factor of customer service that is often overlooked. Providing good customer service is not just about customer satisfaction in a single interaction (though that is an important factor); instead, the end goal is to draw returning customers and earn their loyalty. As Sam Walton says, the customer can choose to spend their money anywhere. You want your customers to want to spend their money at your company and nowhere else because they enjoy the experience.  

According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, loyal customers are worth up to 10 times more than their first purchase. So remember, when providing exceptional customer experiences, it’s not just customer satisfaction from a single shopping interaction that you are striving for, but rather long term customer loyalty.

Now that you know why customer service is so important, here are a few articles about the how-to’s of customer service:

• Favorite Stories of Exceptional Service
• What Disneyland Can Teach Us About Customer Service
• Providing Stellar Service in Conflict Situations

Tasha Harris is the Content Associate at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau. She graduated with honors and a degree in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  She also holds a certificate in Publishing from the Denver Publishing Institute at the University of Denver. Contact BigSpeak at info@BigSpeak.com or call at (805)410-4879.