Almost every company discusses, at length, the need for customer service and the significance of supplying true excellence to its customers. However, very few actually follow through with what it takes to attain this excellence. This is particularly true in the bottled water business since not all providers share the opinion that customer service is of the utmost importance in any business.

The bottled water industry services a wide customer base with numerous companies and individual clients. The industry is characterized by a small number of very large firms and a substantial number of relatively small consumers with specific geographic niches.

The Nature of the Business:

The bottled water business consists of the manufacturing and delivery of spring or purified water in small packages or large containers such as 5 gallon bottles. The product is delivered directly to the customer’s site in either company owned delivery vehicles or through common carriers. Each individual bottled water company provides an implicit promise to its customers that it will manufacture the highest quality product and deliver that product at the agreed upon time.

Many, Many Customers:

The customer base in the bottled water industry is very diverse and ranges from individual consumers with single bottle requirements to large multi-cooler business accounts with significant water needs. Each client has its own specific requirements, which are met by the company providing the services and product.

The Customer Service Promise and the History of the Business:

In the past, various bottled water companies have focused on process rather than customer service. Many firms acted on the belief that the delivery of a superior product completed their obligation to the customer. However, the customer service promise includes much more than a simple delivery of a quality product and requires additional services such as on time delivery, proper pricing, responding to additional delivery requests and other specific needs. One of the most important customer responsibilities is the ability to communicate their concerns not only to the customer service departments, but also to the heads of each company.

Current Status of the Industry (The Unfulfilled Promise):

Although the bottled water industry may seem rather simple, in reality, it is a very complex business. High quality water must be produced and delivered to the customer’s location on time and as ordered. Often enough, customer requests change without warning, which is one reason why flexibility is important to the success of the bottled water company.

Frequently, the water needs of the customer exceed original expectations, which causes shortages . However, in order to avoid such a situation as this, the supplier would have already invested in the communication and stock infrastructure to meet all of its clients’ demands.

For those suppliers who private label water as a means of customer advertising, the design, printing and durability of the label on the bottle is a critical factor. Therefore, companies creating labels of lesser quality in the design and printing of the labels clearly provide a substandard product to their customers.

Communication and the Customer Promise:

Many bottled water suppliers neglect the reality that proper communication channels serve as the basis for fulfilling the customer promise. An overall reliance on voicemail and/or e-mail, an inability to respond quickly to customer needs and the absence of true customer service assistance has created a negative impression of the industry for many customers.

A proper communication system has many technical elements but it should begin with a willingness to include human contact in the communication link. No customer enjoys being dropped into the voicemail void, therefore, the bottled water suppliers that continue to prosper are the companies that uphold the customer service promises and guarantee personally answered customer service calls, which they promptly use to respond to client inquiries and concerns.

Accept Responsibility and Do What It Takes to Provide Customer Satisfaction:

There are many excuses for failure to perform but the bottled water suppliers who are truly world class are those who accept responsibility and persevere with their customer satisfaction guarantees. This often includes obtaining little or no profit on a particular transaction in order to fulfill the customer service promise.

Size is not the determinant in the customer service equation. Often, smaller companies are ready, willing and able to better fulfill the customer promise.

Look for a supplier with a track record of not only achieving the customer promise but also one with a history of fulfillment of the promise.

How much value do you place on your customers? Let’s face it…without customers you have no sales…no profit…no business. Yeah, they’re the keyplayers in the marketing game. In other words, wise marketers keep their finger on the pulse of their clientelle. The know what makes them tick and how to keep them coming back time and time again. Here are a four ways you can keep your customer’s happy and loyal.

Make Customer Satisfaction # 1

Hey, forget about how many sales you make in a day, and look at how many customers you satisfied today! Every satisfied client means repeat sales. Yep, it might be a product that they purchase over and over again, or it may mean different products they pick up every time they walk through the doors. Heck, it might mean both repeat products and added impulse products as well.

Happy customers talk to their friends, and friends trust what their friends have to say about a business. Yep, even though it’s an opinion…they’ll take it as the gospel and set a lot of stock in it. Keep your customers saying good things about your products and services…it’ll pay off.

Deliver…Don’t Promise More Than You Can Handle

No one likes to be let down. Yeah, that means your customers will be happier if you promise less, but deliver more. Think about this…happy customers tell 3 of their friends about you, but disappointed customers gripe to 11 friends about what you didn’t do right. Yep, it pays to keep your word!

What about those unhappy clients? Deal with them as quickly as possible and do what it takes to keep them happy. Yeah, you might lose a little profit today, but think of it like this…if you keep them on your side they’ll come back again and again - and so will their friends.

Keep an Element of Surprise Alive

Have you ever gone shopping and at the counter discovered the item you purchased was on sale? Yeah, it feels great to save money you weren’t expecting to save! Along with your advertised sales, slip in some unadvertised specials. Your customers will look forward to the unexpected savings they encounter at the cash register.

Think about this…would you rather shop at the new store across town where the clerks are unfriendly and you’re not sure of the quality of the product when you’ve already got a good thing going on somewhere else? We all have a zone of comfort and are creatures of habit. When your customers are in the habit of smiling every time they walk out of your door, they’ll be less likely to experiment with an uncertain competitor.

Tell Your Customers You Appreciate Their Business

We all enjoy the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with being appreciated. Yep, a smile…a thank you…a pat on the back…they all leave us feeling great. How can you send your customers out of the store with the knowledge that they are valuable to you? Just say it…I appreciate your business! Say it with a special sale…by letting them in on a new product or service your are adding just for them…or simply with a smile and heartfelt thanks.

Think about this…how do you feel when you know your opinion counts? Yeah, we all like to think people respect our thoughts and ideas. When your customers know you put a lot of stock in what they think of your business, they’ll be more likely to talk it up to their friends and family. Reward them every time they share their opinion about your business. Set up a special referral reward program and watch the news travel.

Invest in your customers…the dividends are great!

Today I witnessed a customer service miracle in action. I took my son to our local fast food restaurant, so he could have some lunch and play in the indoor playground. While I was waiting for our food to be ready, a woman approached the counter with a crushed Styrofoam cup. She said, “This cup fell off of our table and broke. I need another drink and I need someone to come clean up our table and the floor.” The tone of her voice suggested that somehow the restaurant was responsible for her broken cup. And of course, there was no, “Hey I’m so sorry, one of my horrible children was fooling around and caused you a mess.”

It was then that right before my eyes a customer service miracle occurred. Rather than replying with the same nasty treatment they had just gotten from the customer, the staff quickly gave her a new drink. Then a man appeared with a smile and said, “I would be glad to clean that up for you.” The staff never heard the words “thank you” from that customer, yet they acted as if they had. All were professional and conveyed an attitude that said, “We love having the opportunity to serve each and every person in this restaurant.”

Not surprisingly, the place is almost always busy. The restaurant is clean, the management supports our community with various school spirit fundraising nights, the food is better than most fast food, and most of all, the people that work there make you want to come back.

Watching customer service interaction is my hobby and my work, and today’s experience was a living, breathing example of the 21 Rules for Excellent Retail Customer Service that we share with the participants in our courses. Most of them are not that hard to follow. However, they can be hard to follow consistently.

If you work with customers in retail, take a look at the list and ask yourself how closely you follow the rules.

1. Smile when greeting a customer in person and on the phone (and yes, they can tell if you are smiling over the telephone!).

2. Use age-appropriate greetings, and avoid referring to older customers and women as “guys.”

3. Be proactive and ask how you may be of service.

4. Stay visible and available, but don’t hover.

5. Don’t turn away, walk away, start to make a phone call, or duck beneath the counter as a customer approaches. (We’ve all had it happen to us.)

6. The live customer standing in front of you takes precedence over someone who calls on the phone.

7. Never judge a book by its cover–all customers deserve attention regardless of their age or appearance.

8. Leave food and beverages in the break room.

9. A customer doesn’t want to hear about your upcoming break.

10. Makes any personal calls when you’re on a break and out of earshot.

11. The correct answer is never “I don’t know” unless you add to it, “but I can find out for you.”

12. If a customer wants something that isn’t on display, go to the stock room and try to find it.

13. If the item isn’t in the stock room, offer to call another store or order it.

14. Learn to read body language to see if a customer could use some help.

15. Don’t let chatty customers monopolize your time if others are waiting.

16. Call for backup support if lines are forming.

17. Be discrete if a customer’s credit card is declined by asking if there is another method of payment he or she would like to use.

18. Never discuss customers in front of other customers (they’ll wonder what you’re saying about them once they leave).

19. Inspect merchandise before bagging it to make sure it’s not defective or the wrong size.

20. Make sure customers receive everything they’ve paid for before they leave your store.

21. Smile as you are saying goodbye and encourage the customer to come again.

And here’s one more tip: if you can, give people more than what they expect.