Good diary management is important for customer service in several ways. At heart, they all revolve around showing respect for your customers. When you’re rushed and busy, you not only don’t properly focus on your customers, you make mistakes and forget things.
Value your customers time
The first reason, and in my opinion one of the most overlooked is that showing you value your customers time shows respect for them. That means turning up on time and not keeping them waiting; giving them and their work your full attention; and not leaving them hanging whether it’s waiting for a response from you or not responding when you said you would. Any of these things show your customer that you see your time as more important than theirs.
Don’t make promises you can’t keep
There are a couple of ways this happens. Firstly, you may make an appointment that you know may not be able to make it on time. Secondly, you may promise to have something done, or provide a finished product by a date you don’t think you can manage. Either way, you’re basically lying to your customer. It’s far better to schedule your meetings with plenty of time to get there and promise to deliver with a realistic timeframe. Then you’re likely to delight your customer and show respect for their business.
Overscheduling doesn’t help
You may think that scheduling your day with tight timeframes will help your time management. The opposite is true. If you schedule customer meetings too closely together, you’re not going to have time for a proper discussion with one or both customers. Then, it’s also likely that anything you’ve agreed to do won’t get done in a timely manner. If you want to schedule your time tightly, schedule plenty of time for meetings and include time for travel, and for noting your further actions. Then, it won’t be a problem giving your customer the time they need, and getting any tasks resulting from your meeting done.
Get it right first time
When you rush you make mistakes. If you’re trying to finish off a project before you rush out the door, or if you’re multitasking on multiple projects at once – you’ll make mistakes. Then your customer will have to come back and get you to redo parts of the job. Even worse, your customer might not check and instead send something out into the world with errors. Taking the time to give your customers work your full attention saves time for both of you in the long run.
On time delivery
It’s important for your customers to be able to trust that you’ll come through on your promises. If you say something will be ready on Monday, make sure it is. You may do this by working furiously over the weekend to get it done at the last possible second. It’s better if you promise to get it done by Tuesday instead and spend enough time to get it right. Then you can also do a last-minute check. And can be sure that what you’re sending your customer is fit for purpose. If it’s done a little ahead of schedule, your customers will be happy. If not, you’re not inconveniencing anyone.
Good diary management is important for customer service and showing respect to your customers.
