Customer Service
From Entrepedia: The Entrepreneurship Wiki
Good, solid customer service will take your venture far; this much is (or should be) recognised by every entrepreneur or business owner. However, sometimes identifying exactly what makes for good customer service – what will make your venture stand out from your competitors – eludes many good entrepreneurs. Of course, recognising that good customer service is all about bringing customers back to your venture is not the difficult part; that's just general common sense for the most part. It's how to make the customer come back, how to ensure that they've left happy and impressed enough to decide to return, and most of all that they pass the word about your venture along to other potential customers, that can get tricky.
That said, there are some key points of customer service that are so simple and so easy that they can go unnoticed, especially as time goes on and you get busier. For example, making sure that there is someone available – if not yourself, than a partner or employee – to listen to the customer. This includes answering the phone (consider a call forwarding service), when they have a question, and especially when they have a complaint. By just listening to what your customers have to say you can learn what they are looking for, what they need, what they don't like, etc. All of this is information that you can use to better your product or service, your customer satisfaction rates, and subsequently your profits, in the long run.
Customer service expert Shaun Smith, of smith+co, in an article for MyCustomer.com pointed out that when it comes to the difference between customer loyalty and customer satisfaction, a lot of ventures tend to get confused: "Loyalty is a misused term. Most organisations think that it is about customers being loyal to them when it should be the other way round."[1] Keep this advice in mind when you are approaching your customer service procedure; of course you want customers who will be loyal to your venture, but you will only get loyal customers if you are loyal to them first.
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Facing Customers Yourself
Molly Gordon, MCC, "accidental" entrepreneur, and author of AuthenticPromotion.com, identifies certain key features that entrepreneurs should work into their customer service. She suggests that entrepreneurs remain up front and clear about a variety of questions that customers want answered (though they rarely ask them directly): "What can you do for me?"; "What will it take for you to deliver consistent value? How much time? How much money? How much energy? What kind of commitment? What support? What resources? What else?" [2]
In addition to remaining up front and honest, you should have a strong sense of what kind of customer service you want to provide: what is going to characterise your interactions with a customer? Gordon suggests that entrepreneurs and business owners consider how they insert themselves into their customer service: "Use language, imagery, colors that are consistent with the way you naturally serve your customers. Are you a funny, organized, motherly midwife? Or a charming, blunt career coach?"[2] Creating a kind of character behind your customer service can make your whole venture seem more personable and relatable to customers. If you combine this with a helpful attitude and the willingness to give the customer something extra – free samples, discounts, information on using the product or getting the best value with a service – then you are well placed to have impressed a customer enough that they will keep you in mind next time, and when they're talking to their friends.
Customer-Facing Employees
Although you may have a fantastic gift for customer service, it won't always be you who is interacting with the customers. Depending on your venture and the stage that it is at, you may have a staff that deals with your customers almost exclusively. Of course, if this is the case you will need to come up with a customer service procedure for employees to follow, but how can you be sure that they will offer your customers the same degree of service that you do?
You may find that it is important to talk to your staff yourself, and to get involved in the hiring and training process; if you know what you are looking for in a person who will be able to uphold your quality of customer service, then you are the best person to find them. It may take extra time, but it will pay off in the long run. Gaebler.com describes some ideal personality traits for a potential customer service employee: "outgoing, but not 'chatty'; assertive, but not abrasive; and responsive, but not a pushover." [3] The article goes on to advice entrepreneurs not to "assume that prior customer service experience translates into a personality compatible with the field. Get to know them and make your own judgment."[3]
Once you've found a good team of customer-facing employees, it is up to you to empower them. Your staff will perform better if they feel that they have the authority to address customer concerns. You may also need to make sure that your employees are familiar with appropriate customer service behaviour: that they are respectful of the customer and will put the customer ahead of work socialising, that they listen carefully to the customer, and above all that they remain friendly and approachable.
David Javitch, president of Javitch Associates and columnist for Entrepreneur.com, offers tips on how employers can communicate the importance of customer service to their employees. He outlines four key points which every employee should be made familiar with, particularly that "optimal customer service means: 1)Your employees can keep their job. Remember, no customers equals no business and no employees. 2)You've created a positive buying atmosphere for both first-time and repeat customers. 3) You're able to satisfy the information or buying needs of your potential customers. 4) You're able to transform prospects into happy, satisfied customers." [4]
Complaints
When a customer complains it can be easy, as human beings, to get defensive or frustrated, especially when they are complaining about something that you have invested a lot of time and effort into. You may not agree with their complaint, or you may find their approach to be abrasive, which puts you in a bad mood as a result.However, the truth is that a customer's complaint offers you an opportunity to identify a potential weakness in your product or service, or in your staff, or customer service procedures. If you take the time to listen to a customer's complaint, you can learn and help better your venture; if you can deal with the customer's complaint right away, or at least try to, then you are much more likely to impress them and can even turn a complaining customer into a loyal customer. Of course, this won't happen every time, but the more often you listen to and address a complaint, the more often you will gain a customer's loyalty than not. Depending on your venture, you may want to implement a follow up procedure in order to learn more from the customer's complaint and make your customer service even better.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Shaun Smith, Winning true customer loyalty and trust in a recession. MyCustomer.com, 20-02-2009 [1]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Molly Gordon, "Customer Service Tips: How to Give Your Customers What They Really Want", Shaboom Inc via. AuthenticPromotion.com [2]
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Gaebler.com, For Entrepreneurs - Customer Service: Recruiting Good Customer Service Employees. [3]
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 David Javitch, "Teaching Good Customer Service", Entrepreneur.com 07-03-2005 [4]
- ↑ Inspired employees mean good customer service, MyCustomer.com, 04-09-2007 [5]
