Customer Service Needs to be Different for Different Types of Customers – Part 1 – Improving The Customer Experience

Jun 08, 2017 Customer Service Needs to be Different for Different Types of Customers – Part 1 – Improving The Customer Experience

As we have discussed before, different types of customers want a different experience.  Younger customers may prefer speed and efficiency and to be able to do everything at the touch of a button.  Older customers often want a more personal interaction.  Customers from different cultures have different customs and a different approach to making purchases.  For example, Hispanics often want a more social and personal approach to the buying process.  They may even want to have a discussion unrelated to the product or service under consideration.  Many recent immigrant groups may have a lot more questions about a product. (They might be like me, give me the facts, just the facts.)

All of this puts a lot of pressure on your employees.  Besides all the usual characteristics you want from your employees, polite, helpful, etc. you need them to be flexible, adaptable and very aware of cultural, age and other differences.

So, how do you get people like this?  You might find this impossible.  Here is a list of five approaches to get it right:

1. Hire the right person. To some extent, through out what you thought you wanted in terms of skills and experience and look for someone that is the right kind of person for the job, and might only be missing teachable job skills (that unfortunately may mean that you will need someone to teach them). Look for someone with key characteristics (per Bill Thompson): genuine warmth, empathetic, a good listener, conscientious, anticipatory and optimistic.  Now you have a start.

As this is getting long, I will describe the additional four approaches in next week’s posting.