Company Culture | Lawline

Customer Service Perspective: Treating Customers as Friends

Written by admin | Sep 10, 2010 11:59:07 AM

When most people think of customer service, they think of long hold times and robotic representatives reading off of a script, who have no interest in hearing about your actual problem. We all know that at Lawline.com we pride on our customer service. Customers speak to someone as soon as they call us, they never wait on hold.

Even more important than no-hold times is the fact that by the end of the conversation, whether it was a general question or sales question, most attorneys will hang up the phone with a sense of relief, comfort and even happiness. The reason for this is that we treat them as they are our friends. We love them as if they are our friends.

We talk to customers casually and on a first name basis. This creates a really soft interaction that allows the customer to feel relaxed when calling us. It’s important for us to let them know that there are no bad questions, and that we are ready and willing to tackle any issue they may have. Since we don’t read from a script, we have the ability to focus on the conversation itself, and not reading something. Additionally, we can cater to the needs of each individual customer.

In my personal experience, by treating customers as if they were a friend whom I was trying to help out, they grow to love us just as much as we love them. Whether it’s an outbound call or an inbound call, I talk as if I was old friends with the customer, just trying to help them out and/or catch up. The tone that you use is alsoreally important, if you’re mood is a little casual, the person on the other line will likely feel the same. The response that I get to this is incredible. I’ve literally made friends with customers by talking to them this way. This guarantees that they will return to purchase again, and that they will rave about you to all of their friends.

Here is some verbiage I use with customers that I think really adds a personal touch:

“Hey John, how’s it going?”
“I could take care of that for you.”
“Is there anything else I could help you out with?”
“Listen if you have any other questions give us a call back, my name is Christie”
“Send me an e-mail anytime, I usually get e-mails on my blackberry, so I’d be able to respond to you”

Using phrases like these and talking in a positive tone, with a smile will guarantee happy and loyal customers, and will also leave you feeling rewarded.