Be F.I.R.S.T. in Customer Care

Your business centers on your customers especially the 20% of the customers who give you 80% of the business. What can you do to take care of the customers? It is about keeping the customers happy, satisfied, and willing to come back for more business. The way to do it is to be F.I.R.S.T. in customer care


Friendly: Treat the customers like your friends but be polite. Talk and find out more about what they want and their preferences. Ask and obtain feedback from them.

Initiative: Empower the front line staff to do whatever necessary to meet the needs of the customers. There should be no delay in dealing with your valued customers.

Responsive: Listen carefully and take prompt action. Be sensitive to the requests of the customers.

Sincere: Take a genuine interest in your customers and treat them with a kind H.E.A.R.T Do not over promise and under deliver. Be efficient and reliable to honor your words.

Tactful: Customer complaints are to be handled immediately. Do not be defensive and be ready to admit your own mistakes and offer to take remedial action. Look at a complaint positively. If you can resolve an issue to the satisfaction of a customer, he or she will be even more likely to do business with you. If there is a genuine problem, you should be thankful to the customer for pointing it out.


Be ready to match your products to meet the requirements of the customers so that you offer value for money. The most important thing is to provide superior services to your customers the F.I.R.S.T. time and every time.

Customer Relationships - Some Practical Tips

Customer Relationship

My wife did not study positive psychology, neither had she studied customer relationships but she is good at human relationships and customer relationships. She owns a small stall selling desserts (糖水tang shui) such as red bean soup and green bean soup. While she is on the job she always wears a smile. There is a saying: When you smile the whole world smiles with you and when you cry you cry alone. The first impression is the most critical to attract customers. 

 She has no knowledge of marketing but she is an excellent marketer. One of her customers will always ask her to buy some dumplings (包bao) on her behalf at the weekend. Actually, it is none of her business but she gladly accepted her request. Do you know that by going all the way to help the customer she makes more business? Because when she orders the dumplings the supplier has to deliver the item to her. And when he delivers the dumplings, inadvertently, he will order a few bowls of the herbal soup for himself and his friends, thereby she makes more business. When you give more you will receive even more in return. Sometimes at the end of the day when there is leftover, she will distribute it to her customers for free. It is a good marking strategy. In the first place, you don’t waste something that is still can be consumed. Another thing is that her customers will be pleased by her kind gesture. Needless to say, her customers will come back to give her more business. She will listen to her customers to improve the quality of her goods. When your focus is on quality and customer relationships, the income will take care of itself. This is a universal truth in conducting a successful business. She is a satisfied, contented, and happy woman.