Customer Service Lessons from Leading Entrepreneurs

Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, has built around 400 companies in different industries while simultaneously establishing the gold standard for customer service throughout his career. One of the core values at Microsoft, the revolutionary company co-founded by Bill Gates, is to have ‘’passion for customers’’. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc. continuously advocated for customer service excellence at Apple, making the company one of the very best at providing customer support.

Entrepreneurs such as Bransonand Gates breathe customer service because they believe in the power of the people. They believe in people-to-people contact and in empowering those people to prioritize customer service as a means to garner value for the company.

Here is a list of the actions needed to enable businesses to focus on customer service and experience.

Hire People with the Right Attitude

Every company should be selective when it comes to hiring the right people for a specific task. Hire friendly, positive, and optimistic people who see the glass as half full and are ready to go the extra mile to serve customers. Successful entrepreneurs hire people with a zest for life, a can-do attitude, leadership potential, and above all, an inherent need to better serve customers. Customer service is always a top priority.

Empower Your Employees

Once you hire the right people and give them the best training, empower them to effectively solve problems by being creative, original, and thinking outside the box. When people know that they are completely in control of their tasks and activities, and that they will be rewarded for great work, they will give their utmost and go above-and-beyond to perform better at their job. Empowered employees tend to take the lead, face the challenges, and relish the chance to make the impossible, possible!

Treat Employees as Company Assets

Your employees are your greatest assets. Successful entrepreneurs treat their employees exactly as assets. Employee productivity relies on how they are treated by their seniors and if they are properly rewarded for their hard work, they are encouraged to perform even better and help customers.

Foster Commitment to Serve Customers

If every employee is trained to make customer service a priority, it will undoubtedly become the most valued service at your organization. When employees treat customers with an aim to provide the most memorable experience for them, customers want to return to the company. Organizations which proactively focus on customer experience, tend to make loyal customers.

Don’t forget to have fun!

The secret to delivering great customer service is not just in the commitment to deliver memorable customer experience, it’s in having fun while you’re at it. Entrepreneurs like Bill Gates make it a point to laugh and have a good time while interacting with employees. They encourage hard work along with having a good time. This is the main reason why the hiring process at companies such as Microsoft is highly stringent. They look for competent people who are ready to take on any challenge, and enjoy that challenge along the way.

In a nutshell, great companies are built by people with a vision. A vision that stays with them throughout their lives and is reverberated through their companies. These entrepreneurs have taught us the significant power of the people, and how the main focus should be on providing memorable customer experiences; and actually build companies around service excellence.