Customer service in a tank full of sharks

This globalized world has become a massive fish tank full of all kinds of fish, including of course, one of the fiercest: sharks . They are famous for eating any distracted animal in the water, being good "smellers" and having quite precision when it comes to attacks. For a new fish in this tank, it's going to be trouble not being eaten or injured in any way, but there's a secret weapon some fish develop and that is, customer service.
While I'm writing these lines, it keeps coming to my mind the movie "Shark Tale", where we had Oscar, this little and smart fish who made the rest of the town believe he had won to a shark in full attack, but in the other hand, he was helping a real shark running away from his reality. When you think abut that, it's easy to understand the concept of customer service. This concept is as old as time and it goes like this: the customer's perception that the product has met his/her standards. Sounds easy, right? But have we found out our customer's truly standards and more so, his/her desires? There's the catch in this tale.
If we look at company monsters like Walmart or Pepsi, we see that they create a need in their customers and they work to fulfill that need: these are the sharks, looking for new flesh to capture and attracting them to be involved in the game of commerce; but what happens to new entrepreneurs trying to make their way among these giants? They have to use all the tricks they can.
The satisfaction of the client is crucial for the achievement of the business, since only with clients who feel satisfied with a fulfilled service and with the obtained results is that greater clients can be expected and the repetition of the previous clients.
There are some general rules that become standards of attention for the organization. Some of them are:
• Respectful treatment to the client
• Punctuality in the fulfillment of the service
• Indicate in all cases the risks to which customers are exposed once the products have been applied
• Maintain communication with the client, so that he understands the steps to be followed, as well as the need to carry out subsequent visits for applications or other exterminations.
Now, what else can we do to stand out and make our clients stick to us and no to the big sharks? The answer is simple: listen carefully to them. Try to listen not only with your eras, but with your eyes and experience as well, otherwise we wouldn't call instinct a sixth sense, right? Every client has his very own specific expectations and not all of them are capable to describe them, therefore is your turn to do you job and LISTEN. Pay attention to little details like body language, frequency of visits while preparing the product or service for him and most of all, do it without forgetting the principal basis of customer service: with a smile. Be patient and start writing this data down, in order to begin you own data warehouse that allows to make informed decisions when you have to invest in the improvement of your business. Check frequently this data to know when to make this decisions and never forget you are working for your profit and self regarding but also, you are working for others, including the big sharks.