Lesson 2: Customer Service Mindset

Exceptional customer service, or as our mission says, to “Delight our Clients,” means more than following a bunch of rules. What we all need to do is adopt a customer service mindset. For us to succeed at delivering memorable customer service, we have to have a genuine desire to please and satisfy our customers.

Who are our customers?

Well, obviously our customers for starters. But our manager and our co-workers are also our customers. Basically, when we are focusing on making relationships work better, a customer service mindset is going to be a great benefit to us and to those around us. A customer service mindset looks like helping a client get an urgent update completed, even though it was their own error that made this urgency necessary. It looks like working with a co-worker who is struggling with an update even though you have five in your own queue that you need to complete before quitting for the day. It is sharing ideas with another designer on a project he or she is working on. It looks like a project coordinator  stepping in to help another PC's team members when they ask for some help.

How do we succeed at delivering exceptional customer service?

• Accept work and projects that you know you can deliver. If you make a promise, keep it. That means budgeting your time and not taking on more than you can deliver. 
  
  
• Find out what your customers’ expectations are and what they need. Asking questions and listening (without assumptions) can usually get you the correct information.
  
  
• Put yourself in their shoes. How could you help meet their needs?
  
  
• Communicate freely. Share your ideas with your manager. Identify barriers to meeting our customers’ needs, and bring creative solutions to the attention of others.

When we deliver what our customers want, they are delighted. We want to build trusting relationships and have clients who can count on us.