Perhaps the best customer service in the world comes from the Fire Department (and all other emergency responders). If there is a fire, we know that when we call 911 to report the situation, in a matter of minutes, fire trucks and fire fighters will be on the scene.

This efficiency and reliability comes down to the number one lesson from the Fire Department:

• When the phone rings, you answer it immediately.

In emergency situations, you don’t have the luxury of waiting to answer the phone when it is convenient. You do it because people’s lives may be in danger and you must respond as quickly as possible. In business, your customer should come first, and answering the phone goes a long way in assuring him or her that you care.

• Treat every call with respect

Not every call may be life-or-death urgent, but you just don’t know, and must treat each and every call the same. Firefighters will answer the call and then try to determine how to prioritize it. In business, some calls may be about easily resolved issues and some may have to do with larger organizational problems. You don’t know, and until you have determined what the call means, you need to treat each and every caller with respect.

• Have a response ready

When you call the Fire Department, the firefighters will determine if you have a fire, and if so, how many fire trucks may be needed, or if you have a medical emergency, and if so, what type of ambulance to send. They have systems in place to send the right equipment to respond to whatever the situation is. The business lesson here is that there must be an appropriate response to every situation.

A couple more things: In order for emergency response to work it must be reliable and available, and that is exactly what we need from customer service too.

Customer service is generally something businesses and organizations provide their customers and supporters as a way to solve problems, maintain a high standard and be responsive. Some organizations use their degree of customer service as a differentiation with other similar organizations.

In a free market, organizations are free to provide as much or as little customer service as they like. But is a customer problem something the free market can ignore at will? Technically, the answer is yes. After all, if a company ignores or refuses to deal with a problem, the customers can take their business elsewhere, and the company will then be “punished” by the free market. But this is free market theory, and in practice, we believe that when we buy a service or a product, and there is a problem, there is a LEGAL obligation for the company/organization to rectify the situation.

In fact, this legal obligation may be spelled out in a sales contract. But it is not always. This is where regulators would like to step in.  We are seeing this more and more with the airline industry. With the rise in add-on fees and unclear fares, the government wants to make things easier for passengers to understand.

According to this blog post on Forbes.com, the government should NOT be involved in regulating airline customer service. The writer, Allen Howell, believes the free market will take care of this.   As he writes:

The consumer can choose which airline they fly with, or they can choose to not fly the airlines at all.

Companies should voluntarily step up customer service, understanding that customer service always helps the bottom line. Should the government regulate customer service? Perhaps there are situations where regulation is necessary such as when a company has a monopoly on the market segment, or there is a known  life-and-death situation.  But, there are no absolutes in business!

To deliver the best customer service, you should have motivated, happy employees. When you have the best customer service, you have more customers, and those customers are satisfied. With satisfied customers, you have less stress on your employees, and therefore they are happier.  Do you see the circle?

Happy employees=good customer service=satisfied customers=happy employees

A great example of the customer service-employee circle is JetBlue. The airline is known for a providing a good experience. As its CEO, Dave Barger tells the San Francisco Chronicle:

We’ve earned a sixth consecutive J.D. Power and Associates award for customer service, and we’re a good place of employment. This combination works extremely well for JetBlue.

Now, should your happy employees use Twitter to interact with customers? That is what Valeria Maltoni asks in this post over on her blog Conversation Agent. You should determine whether your company is ready to use social media to deal with customer issues. For instance, one issue with Twitter is response speed–it should be very quick. Can your company handle that?

There’s no doubt that Twitter has worked wonders for customers–they can publicly shame a company into action. And companies should be aware (and responsive)  that customers are talking about their problems in a public forum.

What are you doing to keep your customers and your customer service employees happy?

Government legislation is essential in addressing many issues in society, from civil rights to highway safety. But should the government be involved in legislated customer service standards? It seems the answer has to do with the industry being regulated.

The U.S. government is proposing new rules regarding the airline industry. In effect, the new rules would set a minimum customer service standards for all airlines, domestic and foreign, that fly in and out of the United States.  Traveler advocate Christopher Elliott has written about his extensively on his blog Elliot.org. Elliott writes the following:

But what’s likely to cause airlines the most pain — and their customer the most pleasure — is a proposed rule that would set minimum customer service standards. Until now, the existing rule has had an enormous loophole: It wasn’t specific enough (DOT’s words, not mine) for a consumer to have realistic expectations of the types of services a carrier will provide under its plan, or that some carriers may not be living up to their customer service commitments.

Although most of us will benefit from this ruling as passengers, we need to wonder why this is being mandated from the government. It points to an industry where the customer has lost a battle, and the only way to regain footing was for the government to step in.  We have seen the rise of many non-customer-friendly fees and service cuts from the airlines. Of course, part of it is that airlines have been trying to protect their bottom line. But there would be no airline industry if there were no passengers, and many passengers have been increasingly getting fed up with the poor treatment they receive from airlines.  For instance, passengers are being asked to pay to have their baggage accompany them on a trip, yet if the airline loses said baggage, its liability is at a minimum.

What sets the airline industry apart from other industries is that there is a lot fewer choices available for the customer. If you are shopping for a product, and you receive poor customer service, you simply shop elsewhere. However, if you must get to Tulsa for a funeral, and driving would take too long, you are at the mercy of one or two airlines servicing that airport. You have fewer choices and less control.

The take away from the new government legislation of airlines is that customer service is important–in effect it validates the importance of customer service.

There’s lots written about improving customer service, what makes good customer service, what is bad customer service. There are courses to improve your customer service, and software to make customer service easier. But before you read or buy into any of that, think about this:

The basic purpose of customer service is to ATTRACT and RETAIN customers.

Customer service is about your customers–those you currently have and those who you would like to have.  This is why it is mind boggling that there is any discussing at all about the importance of customer service.

Customer service should be part of the business plan. Anyone who has been to business school knows that business plans deals with threats and opportunities, marketing ideas and budgets. How many business plans consider customer service? Customer service will make or break a business, and yet, it is often not even a consideration in business planning, and is often the target of budget cutbacks.

On WomenEntrepreneur, there is an article entitled Boost Sales With Great Customer Service. Author Pattie Simone writes the following:

If you want a steady stream of business, try being service-obsessed. Take an honest look at what you can do to improve the service you deliver.

Providing  great customer service helps to maintain or increase sales.  Sales are the lifeblood of any business.  So customer service is indeed the most important part of your business. What is your customer service plan?