The life force of a business is its customers. Without customers, you gain no profits, and without profits, your business cannot stay afloat. This is why it’s not only important to get the job done right, but also to take care of your customers.
Even if you have a steady stream of customers, if they have a bad experience with your company, they’ll go somewhere else next time. The test of a good company is not really how many customers or clients they have, but how many of these customers and clients keep coming back. Customer loyalty is important nowadays and to get that, you need good customer service.
- Training Your Employees
If you offer a particular type of service, like home repair or gardening, you don’t face your customers every time. Sometimes you’ll only meet them if they come into the office to inquire about your services. The person they will talk to the most is your employee – the one who makes house calls and does the job. This is why it’s important to train all personnel how to deliver good customer service. The worst thing that can happen to your business is to have someone who sounds as if it’s such a chore to talk to your most valued assets — your customers.
Sometimes you’ll hear requests from customers asking for a particular plumber or gardener. This is because that particular employee has delivered good customer service and the customer now feels comfortable and trusts that particular employee to do the job well. In the service industry, you must know how to put the customer at ease so they’ll look for you again the next time they need something fixed.
- Customer Service Hotlines
In whatever business you have, no matter how small, you need a customer service center. Be it through email, chat or the phone lines, your customers must have some way of contacting you if they have complaints, compliments or suggestions about your product or service. Nowadays, it’s a big mistake not to invest in even the most basic customer service tools.
Big companies spend millions in call centers, either in-house or outsourced, just to keep their customers happy. However, some companies falter in this aspect and make a bad situation even worse. There is no shortage of customer service horror stories from people who have received bad customer service from a call center. Even nowadays, word of mouth is still powerful and you wouldn’t want people telling others about how awful your company is.
- What You Need To Deliver Good Customer Service
To deliver good customer service, you need people who are as dedicated and passionate as you are in the company and what it offers. If a customer calls in about poor service or a deficient product, you wouldn’t want to worsen the situation simply because the person manning the phones has a temper. Invest in good people who are patient, resourceful and empathic. You will also need people who won’t falter under pressure since there are bound to be instances where the caller is angry and downright rude. Crying will do no good and will make the customer think that your representatives are unprofessional.
You also need good hardware. Stable computers, a decent business VoIP system, good Internet service and phone service providers, and a crew of skilled technicians that can take you very far in your endeavors. After all, customers hate experiencing dropped calls, long wait times and bad call connection when they’re already having a bad day. By ensuring that you have all that is necessary to provide excellent customer service, you save yourself from headaches in the future.