Thursday, August 7, 2014

Improving Your Customer Service



Three Keys to Amazing Customer Service to Grow Your Business

legitimate home business, customer service skills
Great customer service is the most important aspect of growing a loyal and happy customer base. When a customer is treated in a friendly, respectful manner and given the things they believe they deserve, it will have them coming back to your business over and over again. But, in many cases, great customer service is a lost art – not many businesses nowadays have made this crucial aspect of customer relations a priority or have forgotten how important it is to the growth and prosperity of their business and with advances in social media, unhappy consumers have more places to let other know about their bad experience. If your business is struggling with customer service, here are some tips to get back on track.

Be Proactive, Not Reactive

Part of providing great customer service is handling issues and problem when they go wrong and making it right for the customer as quickly as possible. The best way to accomplish this is to have a process in place to handle problems before they even come up. Think of the most common customer complaints and how to solve them, this way when a customer does report an issue, it can be solved quickly and efficiently. Additionally, make sure to express the most sincerest apology for their issues, even if it is not the business’s fault – when customers feel your sincerity and your willingness to make the problem right for them, they are more likely to calm down, making the restoration process that much easier.

Have Quality Products and Services

Another important aspect of great customer service is providing customers with high quality products and services, another way the business can be proactive instead of reactive. When a product or service is worth the money it is being sold for not only are consumers more likely to buy but employees are much happier and more eager to sell the product or service as well. Additionally, high quality items will usually satisfy a customer’s needs and wants exactly how they are, making customer service complaints less likely and less frequent. When a business starts off on the right foot with what products and/or services it offers the public, it is much more likely to succeed in the area of great customer service.

Speed is Key

With advances in technology and social media and the continuing competition that continues to grow in many industries, consumers have lost a lot of their patience and are quick to wag their fingers at businesses with poor customer service in these public forums. Customers will not take the time to wait for a business to correct a problem before moving on to the next closest competitor and hurting the original business’s reputation and possible profits along the way. A great way to counteract this is, again, to have processes in place to handle customer complaints quickly. Also, when a business provides great customer service, consumers who have experienced it are more willing to wait for a resolution.

Customer service is one of the key pillars of a profitable and successful business. It is important to remember that the consumers who purchase your products or services is what makes having a business possible – their purchases help to pay your employees, your overhead and other aspects of running your business. Providing great customer service and making customers feel important to you and the business is key in building a large, loyal customer base. When a business masters these customer service tips, it will help to make their customers happier and send profit margins through the roof.

Learning how to properly communicate with customers and satisfy their needs is a basic survival skill for small business owners. If your legitimate home business is struggling, you may want to contact Stacy O'Quinn to see how he can help you become more profitable. For more information, click here.

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