The Recipe for Customer Service

Almost everyone has followed a recipe at some point in their lives; two cups of this, one tablespoon of that, bake for 25 minutes and you’re done. It’s fun and easy and everyone enjoys the outcome. Creating outstanding customer service is similar to following a simple recipe: the filling is made of equal parts honesty, responsibility and customer focus atop a layer of solid relationships. Like most recipes, if one ingredient is missing, the whole thing falls apart.

Honesty and responsibility follow hand-in-hand with one another in regards to customer service. At 4 Color Press we strive at maintaining open lines of communication so that our customers are always on the same page as us. We do what we can to make sure that our customers always get exactly what they want but we don’t stretch our limits if we can’t. If a customer wants something we can’t provide we’ll send them somewhere that can. When you run a business, your focus should be on what the customer needs. By doing this, you build stronger relationships with customers and potential customers who are willing to do work with you because they are certain of what they will get: a great product and equally great service.

Of course, it’s also important to be conscious of what you’re not putting into your recipe. One thing you can throw into the mix to kill your attempt at great customer service is a monetary surprise when the invoice comes. Throwing in expenses you didn’t inform your customer about will almost guarantee an angry phone call. It’s not even the extra expenses; it’s that you weren’t up front about the actual cost. You can’t throw in peanuts to your recipe and call what you’re baking a chocolate chip cookie- it just doesn’t work. If you tell someone you’re serving one thing, that’s what you give them; most people don’t like when they bite into something they weren’t expecting.