When the Customers become Friends!

You stick with a job, you’re bound to grow a bond .. With your employees AND your customers.

I have a handful of customers I deal with on a daily basis, especially working for a multimillion dollar company that has a high traffic flow and demand.

I’ve grown to know a lot of my customers personally, there are times they just call in to talk. Nothing about audio, nothing about much of anything, just for reassurance that they have someone on a personal level as well as a friendly level.

But there are times where you do have to draw the line, not rudely. You don’t want to brush someone off, but you do not want to be overly nice and easily pushed over.. Customers do tend to get into stories and reminisce, it’s your job as a customer service representative to know when the conversation is supposed to be at a halt, and which conversations should even be discussed.

Funny story – This one customer, and oh boy is Mike W. one of my favorites! He called in one summer day, just fishing. He wanted the DB-AAB-4900.1D, but everyone had it priced high above map and for that price he wasn’t budging. He called Big Jeff and got me! 5 minutes later, and a sweet discount with some freebies, he placed his first order.. And interactions like those, GOOD customer service experiences get you long lasting customers. Now Mike used to call almost every other week, sometimes twice a week, and the phone conversations were always short of an hour. Now being close to a customer, you learn their jokes and how to speak sternly but not rudely. One morning I texted Mike, “We now have a 10 minute maximum phone call limit.” And as funny as he thought that was, he was VERY understanding that my position in the company is busy, and there are other customers to help.

So in short, take the time to get to know your customer, their quirks, what sets them off and what makes them mad. You’re usually in for a long-lasting business-like friendship.