3 Signs You're Doing Your Customer Service Job Wrong

Submitted 11/14/2013 by Kaloyan Georgiev

Customer service isn't something reserved exclusively for call centers and complaint departments, customer service includes cashiers, servers and many more professions with which we collide on daily basis. Actually, there's a huge chance you work or have worked a customer service job. But if you are currently working such a job, there is also a chance you are not doing it right. Here are the signs you're doing it wrong:

1. You do the minimum of your job - let's say you work at the supermarket, you had a long day, it's Friday, you dream about the weekend, when you'll get to relax, probably go fishing or something, when suddenly - a customer appears and asks you where can he find a certain brand of wine, for example. You tell him to check the spirits aisle and you get back to daydreaming, while the customer goes in the wrong direction and get's lost for the next half an hour, unable to find what he's looking for. Now, from you perspective, you have done your job perfectly, right? You answered the customer's question, you gave him the information he needed, right? No. This is you perspective. The customer isn't stupid - he knows that the wine is in the spirits aisle, but he doesn't know where the aisle is. You could've showed him where the aisle is or even better - go with him to the aisle and help him find the wine he is looking for. It's a little additional effort (it takes seconds to show someone something), but it's what doing your job means;

2. You get too comfortable with clients - let's say you work at the restaurant, you had a long day, it's Friday, you dream about the weekend when you'll get to relax, probably go bowling or something, when suddenly some customers appear and sit on a table in your area. So, you whip out your notepad and your pen, you greet and you prepare to write down the order. And then you hear "How was your day?". Finally! Someone cares! Now I will tell them everything about my day, right down to the smallest detail, explaining my feelings and emotions along the way and, hey, I just might tell them about my plans for the weekend! And than you do it. And than the customers get irritated. Remember, when a customer asks about your day, this is just him being polite and not actually curious about your grudge with the chef, so unless he is you BFF or you mom, you should just answer with "Fine, thank you!" and get the order...

3. You look and sound bored - we have all been there - the moment in you life when you job just feels monotonous. You do the same thing all day, all week and things just don't change. You work starts becomes a boring routine, which starts affecting the customers, too. You know why? Because at some point you start looking and sounding the way you feel - bored or even depressed. Now, I am not saying that you need to be cheerful all the time, helping customers while telling jokes with a helium voice, popping a can of confetti every time a customer pays, but you shouldn't act like the customer was the last straw needed for your bridge towards suicide to be complete. Be in the middle, sound cheerful but don't overreact. Keep it calm - don't be Bozo the clown, but don't be a member of the Addams family either.

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