Make Customer Service Your Number One Priority
Many small business owners do not know where to start when it comes to customer service. While you may have no direct experience with customer support, or maybe some, the best thing you can do for your small business is provide excellent customer service, and being a small business owner your ability to provide customer support is far easier than that of a big company. When it comes to providing excellent customer support you need to remember a few things.
The first thing to remember is to treat people how you like to be treated yourself. You know what it's like when you call a big company with a service issue, you get put on hold and after some time you get the feeling that the individual you are dealing with does not really like their job. As a small business owner you will not have that problem.
You'll soon discover that one of the things that is typically seen as a mark against small business, that is, the smallness of your organization is actually one of your great strengths when it comes to customer service. While you'll never get to hide behind the blanket of 'company policy' you will actually be able to offer the person on the other end of the line real solutions that have all been approved by the company CEO, that is, you! You'll find that when a customer can constantly deal with a single person, or even a very small group of people that he or she will start enjoying the personal attention and the ability to really communicate with the people who are doing the work.
Customer service is something that can be very fluid when you are thinking about dealing with customers. Some customers simply want to be told when their product has been taken care of, while others are more interested in the process and might need to some handholding and more update than that. You can tailor your approach to each client and treat them in a way that makes the comfortable, rather than being forced by policy to deal with them in a very frustrating manner. Keeping good records is something that you have to work on, but when you are thinking about profits and expenses, keep some notes on the client. The more that you can remember about them, the happier they will be.
Never give up on providing your customers with good service; sure you may not be able to do this around the clock, as you may not have the resources to do so. However when the doors are open you need to provide the best service you can, and when you do your customers will thank you for it by doing more business with you.
Did you know that 68% of people will quit doing business with companies that have poor customer service? Learn the keys to good customer service - get effective customer service tips at http://hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Give-Great-Customer-Service
Published May 5th, 2008
Filed in Business




