Would you want YOU as a customer?

Customer service is important to us. We want the companies we buy from to have friendly return policies, (native) English speaking support staff and satisfaction guarantees (“is that valid for the lifetime of the product or my life time?”). More than ever, I would argue, both the customer and bussineses know that the customer’s satisfaction is extremely important. So we usually get our way. Hey, if we don’t we can tweet about it, blog about it or (old school) call to complain. But we pay for that privilege. The time and money businesses spend to make our experience more enjoyable (less likely we’ll complain) will ultimately be built into the price we pay for the product or service.

What makes a business’s customer service exceptional? When they do things to help us out even when they don’t really have to. Deep down, whether we express it or not, we value and appreciate that. Customers also have the potential to stand out. Every business has favorite customers. And the smart businesses reward those customers and show their appreciation. In an ideal world it’s a lovefest between customers and businesses. That’s an odd concept but it’s possible. Not all businesses or industries are good at realizing or showing their appreciation for customers. We’re more powerful than ever. Businesses spend a lot of money for us to look at their imagery and listen to their sounds. We don’t need to be nice, someone else will take our hard-earned cash. That dynamic is what makes good customers so unique and appreciated by businesses.