The Importance of Customer Service

Customer service in our minds goes beyond meeting the contracted needs and desires of the customer. Some characteristics of good customer service include: promptness, professionalism, politeness and personalization.

Pertinent Aspects of  Customer Service

In the cleaning industry, staff that speak English and who can communicate with the tenants and visitors travelling through your facility can be a great asset. A simple smile and “hello” to someone passing through your facility will brighten their day and make them think positively about your facility/company. This is a learned skill and cleaning staff must be trained on how to work and communicate at the same time. In Day Cleaning, this skill is very important as the Cleaning Staff go into every office in their area of responsibility. Consequently, they need to be able to read occupant needs. Sometimes they will be gestured to leave as the occupant is on the phone. The cleaner should then know to follow up later and see to it that the occupants cleaning needs are looked after; this is but one aspect of customer service.

 When leaving an account, the contractor ought to leave a very good impression by having the facility look the best it can and communicating with the customer any needs that they might have. This should be done right up until the last moment that they are in the facility. To do so is to give importance to customer service. If a contractor does not do so, it can destroy any chance of working with the customer again by not providing cleaning until the last moment of the contract and placing barriers in the way of the new contractor coming on-board. While most people would think this is common sense, we have seen contractors ignore basic concepts of customer service time and time again. With any company it starts at the top and trickles down. Poor customer service can be as simple as failing to pack an order properly and subsequently damaging this goods. All aspects of an organizations day-to-day activities can be jeopardized by one small act of indifference to detail.

Customer service is an attitude. With the right attitude, anything is achievable.

Customer service training is very effective and, given the right tools, anyone can deliver superior customer service. The retail world has very good training programs that have been proven to improve an organization’s revenues. Here at DCS, we use the basic models of those programs, alter them to better fit organizational goals as it pertains to the cleaning industry, and implement these training programs in healthcare and commercial facilities and environments. Something as simple as being flexible for appointments is important to the customer. If you can’t reschedule with the customer, they will feel that they are not a priority and that you are not taking their needs into consideration. You want to leave the customer feeling positive about your loyalty. This will help develop the long-term relationship.