about Customer Service
What does good customer service mean to you? Does the quality of your customer service really matter that much to the success of your business?
Figuring out the answer to this question will help to provide the necessary motivation for great customer service in the future. Just knowing good customer service helps make you more sales may not be a good enough answer. Here’s a look at why customer service matters so much to your business.
The first item to look at is responsiveness. Even if you are very busy, it’s important to find time to answer your calls, and to follow up with people. If you are simply stretched too thin, then it may be time to hire some outside services to handle incoming calls, and perhaps even run your dispatch or your order processing.
The second thing is standing behind your product. If a customer has an issue with a product they’ve purchased from your company, and it is not working as advertised, they are going to want the situation, or the product fixed.
After a customer makes the attempt to contact your company regarding the issue they’ve experienced and they don’t receive a satisfactory response, you aren’t going to get a rave review for either your products or your customer service. Keeping in mind that their negative experience can be shared via the internet, not just by word of mouth.
Good Customer services means you and your company need to take responsibility for the faulty product, or for a less than satisfactory service call and take the time to get the matter resolved. Period.
Why it matters
Word of mouth. Or, in this day and age, word of Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Your business won’t last if you have angry customers, and the introduction of social media to the business world makes this all the more important.
Any issues with customer service are now magnified 10-fold because as all the other customers of your company can see what’s been posted. Potential customers who don’t know you yet will shy away from doing business with you. The more negative that is said, the less likely that new customers will deign to use your products or services because they don’t want the same experience.
What you should do
Make customer service actually matter. Take the time to treat each customer as though their issue is unique and take the time to get it resolved correctly the first time. Always apologize for the issue.
Have a system in place of working to handle issues. Resolve whatever the issue is promptly and resolve it the first time. Treat each customer as though their business matters, and as though you value their opinion. Keep all negativity about the situation or about the customer to yourself. Treat each situation as though it could make or break your business, because it could. Once you’ve made customer service your priority, you have a solid foundation upon which to grow your business.
The bottom line, customer service can make or break your business. Nobody wants to pay extra to be treated as bad as or worse than a big corporation might. However, many consumers will pay a little extra to support a small business if they know they will gain personal service they cannot find from the large corporations anymore.
Central Comm
