Excellent customer service will never be forgotten

By getting it right for our people, we create the right environment for our colleagues to deliver high-quality service to our customers. For this edition of the “Understanding the Role” series, we’re featuring Branch Manager Paul, who explores what delivering exceptional customer service really looks like and the leadership behind it.

Our leaders provide a very process-driven structure, which creates a sense of accountability that not only provides great service to our customers, but an easy way for any new colleague to come aboard and learn how to perform at our expectations right out of the gate. Exceptional customer service is instilled as job #1, and no action or process created supersedes putting the customer first. By nurturing that culture within our trainings and our team, no one will knock on the door and take one of our customers away, regardless of the costs.

Good customer service can be provided by anyone who is just performing their basic duties, such as showing up on time, completing the work assigned, and going home. It’s a service that is not remembered. However, excellent customer service leaves the customer with an unforgettable, exceptional experience every time. If you have only performed a service to the standard, but your customer has forgotten all about you by the time you have driven from their driveway, then that was not exceptional service.

Empowerment comes with expectations and accountability. As a leader, what you expect soon becomes the expectations of your team. Therefore, to ensure exceptional service as a leader, you cannot tolerate anything less because your people will follow you. It does not have to be imposed by force, but it must be taught in a nurturing and respectful manner. Before any decision is made, we must step back and ask — ‘What does the customer want?’ and ‘Is the decision being made in the very best interest of putting the customer first?’ If the answer to either question is no, then the issue must be readdressed, and a process may need to be created or tweaked to ensure the answer is a yes for the given instance and moving forward.

In my career of dealing with customers, my biggest lesson is that customers want what they want, when they want it, and they want it done with integrity and safety in mind. If you want to build a relationship with a customer, you must ensure they trust that you will always do the right thing and prioritize what is convenient for them. Therefore, when you create your processes, they must be designed to put the customer’s concerns and job safety above all else. If you can balance that scale, you will have a customer for life. Customers don’t remember or care that you performed routine maintenance and left a bill on their door when they didn’t need you. They remember how you responded when they needed you the most. It must be an exceptional and unforgettable service every time, and it is even more important when they call us for an issue they have entrusted us to take care of.

How you perform in the presence of your customers becomes their expectation of you. If that expectation falls short of what they were looking for, then they will move on to someone who can provide them the security that they were looking for when hiring you to do the job for them. It is as simple as that. First, you must set your expectations higher than your competition and what the company may expect from you. Then, you must live up to those expectations. The higher you set the bar for yourself, the stronger the relationships you will maintain with your customers. By doing so, you will also attract additional customers whom you will attain and retain.

Want to be part of a team that continuously defines what it means to deliver exceptional quality service? Check out our open roles to discover if we are hiring in your area! careers.rentokil-terminix.com/jobs