Exceed your customer’s expectations and deliver outstanding customer service. The greats control the service. Don’t delegate it to someone else. Give excellent customer service before the sale, during the sale and after the sale.

See service as an opportunity. A big part of great customer service is minding your manners. I am often very informal for a business man but you'll still want to leverage your manners with me. Calling me sir or Mr. Cardone will help get money in your pocket. Manners are a sign of professionalism and respect that will boost your chances in the marketplace.

Here are six quick tips for better manners:

1. Don’t interrupt.

Don’t make the mistake of not listening to the customer you’re serving. Make understanding your priority. Interrupting shows disrespect and never improves the relationship.

2. Be present.

Don’t be texting or answering calls while serving a customer. This is the one time you don’t want to be multi-tasking -- it's multi-rudeness that will cost you multimillions. Respect the person standing before you with your full engagement.

3. Say thank you.

You can’t thank customers enough. Use every tool possible to show thanks. Text the person 10 seconds after the exchange, then call and email and follow that up with a handwritten note. The message "I just want to tell you again how much I appreciate you as a customer" is a powerful written statement.

4. Use a surname with Mr., Sir, Ms., Miss or Mrs.

No matter how well you think you know a person, calling him or her as Mr. or Mrs. shows respect and communicates you are there to serve. No matter how many times the customer says, "call me Bob," it never hurts to continue with Mr. or Mrs.

5. Hold the door open.

Don’t be the first person to walk through a doorway. Hold the door for all people, no matter their position. Mannered people are responsible people who look for opportunities to be decent to others. Holding a door for a stranger is an act of kindness.

6. Provide a full acknowledgment.

Before responding to a customer about anything, give them a full acknowledgment by repeating their remarks along the lines of "Thank you for telling me that and I agree with you." Just listening without acknowledgment might prompt a buyer to feel unheard and disrespected.

Use these six tips to stay on top of your manners. The bottom line is you need to keep learning how you can do more and more for your customers, how you can help your customers and how you can exceed their expectations. 

Get great at customer service and get great in sales. For those interested, I’m holding a special three-day sales boot camp July 21-23. For more details on how you can attend, visit my Sales Boot Camp page. There are only a few seats left PLUS the price is going up July 1st!

Be great,

GC

Grant Cardone is a New York Times bestselling author, the #1 sales trainer in the world, and an internationally renowned speaker on leadership, real estate investing, entrepreneurship, social media, and finance. His 5 privately held companies have annual revenues exceeding $100 million. Forbes named Mr. Cardone #1 of the "25 Marketing Influencers to Watch in 2017". Grant’s straight-shooting viewpoints on the economy, the middle class, and business have made him a valuable resource for media seeking commentary and insights on real topics that matter. He regularly appears on Fox News, Fox Business, CNBC, and MSNBC, and writes for Forbes, Success Magazine, Business Insider, Entrepreneur.com, and the Huffington Post. He urges his followers and clients to make success their duty, responsibility, and obligation. He currently resides in South Florida with his wife and two daughters.

Originally posted on Entrepreneur.com