Behavioral Science Reveals Customer Service Secrets

(1) Save the best for last and finish strong. Think of ways to end on a high note. Why? Recent events have more impact. Look at it this way: it works on TV where episodes almost always end with a big bang or cliffhanger!

(2) Give the bad news early. Why? Delivering bad news early does two things: it clears the air and lets buyers focus on the good stuff later. It also shows your trustworthiness, that you didn’t wait until the customer was hooked before you broke the bad news.

(3) Combine pain but spread the joy. Deliver all the bad news at once. For example: We’re sorry to tell you the shipment was lost. It could take several days to track it and we’ll do our best to find it quickly.” Add a call after soving the problem just to check in and/or a note of thanks for buying, etc.

(4) Choice minimizes the sting. Providing customers with choices can increase satisfaction. For instance, when blood donors are asked whether they wanted blood drawn from the left or the right arm, they reported less pain. Hmmm. Give the customer some control.

(5) Rituals matter. If we start calling at a regular time on a regular day, customers will start to expect the call, even look forward to it and, most importantly, expect it. Don’t start regular rituals unless you can maintain them, though, and make sure their timely. Calling weekly to a customer of a product or service in a longer selling cycle will become annoying.

Source http://sbinformation.about.com