These Inspirational Quotes Teach Us Valuable Lessons in Customer Service
There are often times when a few words or sentences convey some deep meanings and profound insights that large pages filled with words cannot convey.
Usually everyone of us loves to read quotes by successful people where we are given incredible life lessons in summarized form. These sweet phrases seem to strike a chord in our hearts.
However inspirational quotes are not just meant to delight us. They can teach us valuable lessons, if we care to put them to use.
As we all know the importance of customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry, let us check out a few such quotes which can give us very important lessons in customer service.
1 – “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates
Many businesses love to boast and show to the whole world again and again what their satisfied customers said about them. Lot of businesses spend too much time thinking of their satisfied customers.
While there is nothing wrong in thinking or discussing about your satisfied customers, as well as feeling delighted at their positive feedback, it is not the only thing you should be focusing on.
If you are serious about improving and growing your business then you should not shy away from analyzing the negative feedback received from dissatisfied customers. This will help you uncover important problems and shortcomings in your business, thus providing you an excellent opportunity to address them at the earliest.
2 – “Well done is better than well said.” – Ben Franklin
You can speak for hours and hours telling everyone about your devotion to customer service. But that is not going to have as much effect upon the people as your actions will. Your actions will speak louder than your words, and are likely to create a lasting impression upon your guests.
So your actions need to back up your bold claims. You really should show your commitment to customer satisfaction by fulfilling your promises, resolving their complaints, and going the extra mile to satisfy them. Only then your words will carry any weight.
3 – “The customer’s perception is your reality.” – Kate Zabriskie
This quote is another gem, offering some profound truth. All businesses and all people have a mental image and a mental opinion of themselves. But what you think about your company or yourself is not important. What others think about you, specially your customers, is what really matters!
If your customers have a different perception about you then you really need to analyze and find out the reasons why this is so. Try to find the cause behind a negative perception about your hotel so that you can take steps to make amends.
4 – “If we can keep our competitors focused on us while we stay focused on the customer, ultimately we’ll turn out all right.” – Jeff Bezos
Here is another powerful lesson, from none other than the Amazon founder – successful companies are not too much obsessed about their competitors. Rather they focus more on their customers.
Let your competitors fret and worry about you, and try to watch your every move. You, however, should keep your eyes on your customers and how you can satisfy them more. This is a powerful approach which can help you surge far ahead of your competition.
After all, customers are the key to your success, not your competitors. So it makes sense to focus more on them!
5 – “How you think about your customers influences how you respond to them.” – Marilyn Suttle
If you want to excel in providing excellent customer service you need to begin by liking and loving your customers first. If you don’t genuinely love your customers you are unlikely to serve them properly.
How you think and feel about your guests seriously impacts the way you deal with them. If you feel the people are always nagging, complaining and are unfair, these perceptions will drive your behavior with them.
6 – “Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.” – Simon Sinek
Leadership expert Simon Sinek doesn’t mince words in stating an important fact. Companies that don’t treat their employees well may not go much far.
If your employees feel undervalued, unfairly treated or resentful then their feelings are likely to show up in their work performance. These feelings are likely to be passed on to the customers. So if you want your customers to love your hotel, make sure you do your best to make your employees love you first!
7 – “Courteous treatment will make a customer a walking advertisement.” – James Cash Penney
Nothing much needs to be said in connection with this quote, it is pretty self-explanatory. Almost everyone in the hospitality sector is likely to agree with this statement.
Customer service is the name of the game. Courtesy, politeness, respect, humility, cheerfulness, compassionate understanding are some of the basic qualities that every hotel should display with their guests if they want to win the guests’ hearts.
Action Time:
Now that you have learned some valuable lessons in customer service and customer satisfaction, it is time to put this knowledge into action in your hotel business. Just knowing something may not bring much benefit unless that knowledge is put into serious awe-inspiring action. So its time to get into massive action!