HER BUSINESS: Customer Service & HR for your Business

Hello friends: I am back with you again introducing a new segment already :) The HER BUSINESS video segment will appear once a month on the blog and share my interviews with the amazing professional women of Nashville.  It will feature their behind the scenes stories, the culture of their business, how they can be essential to you, as a woman, and much more. 

First up! As a part of Nashville Small Business Week I sat down with Executive Coach and HR Consultant Paula Farmer of PM Faith Consulting, www.PMFaithConsulting.com, to discuss HER BUSINESS and the inspiration for getting started, and how to effectively engage your customer base and implement HR into your business.  I have also given some of her amazing Customer Service tips after the video. Thank you to the Nashville Minority Business Center, Regions Bank, and the Small Business Administration for allowing me to participate.

Here is a quick reference guide for effective customer service for you and your business!

How to grow your customer base:

             Identify your customers

             Acknowledge who your customer is

Understand your customers’ needs and wants

Engage your customers (have them involved)

Satisfied customers are our best ads (what’s the word on the street)

              Proven results

Empowered decision making authority (employees have limited authority)

Service with a smile

Continuous improvement

Mission driven

Keys to Recover from Customer Issues:

            Listen & Acknowledge the complaint

            Take responsibility for the problem

            Let them know you can do better—mistakes will happen but be genuine

            Ask what you can do

            Keep the customer informed

            Thank your client

Additional strategies for effective Human Resources:

            Create a hiring strategy. Benchmark.

            OnBoard correctly; new hire orientation (company handbook)

            Follow your own rules; revisit your own tools

            Set goals. measure. reward

           Congratulate in public. Correct in private.; share where employees missed the mark