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Guest post by: Paul Donehue Become an Author

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There are many components to business development and many ways to grow revenue - and strategic customer service is definitely one of the often-overlooked pieces of the puzzle.

Growing a business or sales territory is hard work, especially in more challenging economic times when referrals and leads are less plentiful, customers are spending less and the competition is tougher; and it is especially in times like these that the value of a customer becomes most clear.

Assuming there are no extenuating circumstances such as a poor payment history, the simple rule is that we should do everything within our power to avoid losing a customer... and providing consistent, high-quality customer service is critically important to that end.

When asked, most people say they do their best to provide good customer service. However, the methods vary sigificantly and tend to be inconsistent. To maximize the effectiveness of your team's customer service effort, it's best to develop and implement a measurable, strategic approach that leverages your organization's unique benefits and that can become both consistent and cultural.

Simple & Strategic

Creating a plan, setting goals, enhancing communication and monitoring results are the key elements of the process. Here are some specific ideas on how you might get started:

• The first step is to learn three key things about your customers- what they like, what they don't like and how they feel about your organization
• Next, identify your organization's unique offerings- from a products and services perspective (what you offer/do) as well as a cultural perspective (how you offer/do it)
• Note the alignment between these first two items, and then determine the things associated with your culture and unique offerings that your customers value the most- the real benefits
• Develop a communication style that expresses these benefits in terms that are relevant to your customers (rather than to you and your staff)
• Define action steps that exemplify and reinforce your group's culture- keep in mind, in most cases an organization's most distinguishable assets are people
• Create and implement a system in which your organization consistently executes the action steps and communicates in the style noted above
• Monitor and measure results... continually discuss and refine the process- regularly include this topic on staff meeting and sales meeting agenda

Growing a business or sales territory is not easy work, but it will become easier if we can delight and retain our customers.

Possibly Matthew Tashjian, a Senior VP at Merrill Lynch in Hartford, CT sums it up best as he often says, "One way to make money is to not lose any!"

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