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Sable Badaki. I remember working as a salesperson in a retail department store during high school –my supervisor constantly reminding me “the customer is always right”. It was imperative as a service provider we offer exceptional customer service. We went to great lengths to obtain customer loyalty. Was our motivation factor competition? It was one of the many reasons. The major reason -we wanted every customer experience to be remembered positively. 
“We’re no worse than anybody else.” This seems to the customer service slogan for today’s businesses. Many industries have obtained record profits with little or no efforts. For these industries, providing superb customer service is not a requirement. You don’t believe me, how many times have we tried to make a phone call to no avail? Or we are speaking to someone and the call “drops’. Yet, the telecommunications industry is raking in profits of over N70billion a year. Has anyone sent you a bonus credit for the poor service or sent you an apology without blaming another institution for the poor service?
Remember, the playing field is shrinking and many investors are coming from outside to share in our profits. We may not have the award winning infrastructure to compete with them however; our attitude towards our customers can be our competitor edge.
Everyone can think of a terrible customer service experience, too many to remember. When we have said, “I will never patronise this place again. I will tell my friends not to come here”. Recovering from a bad experience is not as difficult or expensive as many think. Actually, it is more expensive not to recover.
When a person has a good customer service experience, he tells 13 people, when a person has a bad customer service experience he tells 21 people
That’s just the customer’s impact on your business – what about how your employees feel about working in a customer unfriendly place. remember, they are hearing all the complaints, trying to resolve all the issues with no training or tools. Research shows when you have happier and more loyal customers; it will help produce happier and more loyal employees. When these two groups are working together positively it has a direct impact on your revenue and profit. Happy customers are going to buy more products and let others know that they’re satisfied.
Customer service, like a brand, is what the customer perceives and remembers of the service they received.
What a customer perceives is the service they received is not necessarily the service they actually received. Several published studies reveal that the mood of the customer has a significant impact on the perception of the service received. For example, if a customer has been waiting for a long time in a check-in queue, the perception of the friendliness of the person at the check-in desk deteriorates. 
Moment of truth
What a customer remembers about a service is not just dependent on the usual suspects of first and last impressions. It is dependent on the “moments of truth”, a phrase coined by Jan Carlson from Scandinavian Airlines. . A moment of truth is when an interaction occurs between a customer and the service provider that can leave a lasting positive or negative impression on a customer.
Understanding the moments of truth that are important to an organisation’s customers is the key to understanding what is good customer service. For an organisation in the service industry, there may be twenty or thirty moments of truth in its provision of service
Moments of truth in the hospitality industry, for example, will undoubtedly include, but not be limited to, booking the room, check-in, check-out, dinner reservations, dinner ordering, dinner presentation, eating (quality and quantity of food) and laundry receipt.
Look at your organisation; what have you done to ensure your “moments of truth” leave a positive impression. How long is the wait in your office? Is there anything to read in your waiting room? Is your receptionist friendly? Is your staff empowered to make decisions without the manager? Are your prices clearly stated?
Having a customer-oriented staff
We are responsible for creating a customer oriented staff. Remember, most organizations are not providing award winning customer service. Most of our staff members do not know what good customer service is therefore we must show them.
First, we must establish customer service standards that everyone from managers to the front line understand and can describe e.g. .All customers must be acknowledged within the first 15 seconds of arrival time or all customer emails must have a reply within 24 hours – no excuses.
Secondly, we must train our staff how to handle irate customers. This means sweating the details such as tone of voice; what to offer the customer in what circumstance, whether it is a replacement, refund or bonus. You say “No way, I can’t give my staff that much power. They will finish me”. If your customers, continue to leave your establishment with unresolved issues you will be finished. Set boundaries, and scenarios to describe the appropriate remuneration for customer recovery.