Mahoney_007 said:
Most bike shops I've been to have this part down pat, but other places(fastfood joints the local supermarkets) need to take this lesson........ BE POLITE and say HELLO very fucking simple.
Yep, you have to respect the customer. It's funny when I think about it though, my greetings vary depending on the person, from;
"Good morning sir/madam, how can I help you?"
to
"G'day mate howzitgoin."
It can be a little embarassing when you pick the wrong one.
Josh also makes a good point, if you've got a good happy shop environment it tends to rub off on everyone else. I'm lucky, the business I'm with is a family business (except for me, I'm the outsider) and they're great people, so usually we're all pretty happy (except for the regular occasions when I manage to jam my foot well and truly down my throat....).
I think customer service is very much a two way street. I mean I'm polite to all the customers that come into the shop, you have to be. But people that are rude or are simple time wasters will never experience the same level of service from staff as people who are friendly and understanding. I'm not saying that we go out of our way to be nasty to assholes, like I said you have to be nice to everyone, but at the same time I'm not going to go aover and above the call of duty to please someone who has been a pain from the word go.
If you're after an example of what I believe is good customer service then this is mine: A month or so ago I sold a couple of bikes a cheapish mtb and a bmx to a couple for their kids; anyways, time came around for their free service and a new BB for the mtb, dodgy cartridge, but the family was going on holiday the next day, and needed the bikes for then, but didn't have a vehicle to get the bikes into us. So I drove out (20mins each way) picked up the bikes took them back to the shop, did the repairs and then dropped them off on my way home, a bit of a hike but nothing too drastic.
It's not the sort of thing we do all the time, but I thought it was the only decent thing to do. We were left with some very happy customers which made a recommendation to some friends who came in and bought 3 bikes the next week.
There's something nice about knowing that the customer's happy too.
(I apologise for the incoherence post, I'm really not over last night....)