Ask any small business owner one of the most important aspects of her business, and she will say, “Customer service.” Unfortunately, in the busy midst of bills, taxes and employee issues, quality service can get left behind. What follows are a few helpful tips – or simple refreshers – on how you can ensure quality customer service, every day.

1. Under promise, over deliver.

Never promise your customers more than you know you can deliver. It’s always better to exceed expectations than to leave customers disappointed.

2. Don’t keep them waiting.

If you’re on the phone with a customer, don’t keep them on hold for more than 30 seconds or so. If they’ll need to be on hold for a while, offer to call them back as soon as you resolve the issue.

3. “Thank you” goes a long way.

Remember to always thank your customer for calling, even if it’s a complaint call. In fact, especially if it’s a complaint call: if he or she hadn’t called you, you never would have had the opportunity to turn the problem into a productive solution.

4. Ask for feedback.

Ask customers often, if not every time, if there is anything you can do to make their experience with your business even better. They always appreciate the question. Sometimes you will get priceless feedback that changes the way you do business.

5. Be conscious of your email tone.

When communicating with customers via email, keep in mind that your tone may not be perceived the way you intended. A quick “yes” or “no” on your part may not effectively convey a complete answer, and may be taken as short. Take a few moments to fully explain your message.

6. Go the extra mile – it only takes a minute or two.

Try following up with a phone call after corresponding with a customer via email. Or send a handwritten thank you card.

7. Listen beyond the words.

Listen closely to what your customers say to you, using not just their words, but also their body language. Customers offer clues about how they would like to be served, even though they might not be communicating verbally.

8. Train your front line well.

How can you be sure your customers receive quality service when you're not around to deliver it? Make sure your employees have gone through proper training. It doesn't have to be expensive: check out TAB's great tip on making customer service training videos.

What are some of your favorite ways to provide great customer service? Share them with us here!

If you've ever attended an event hosted by The Alternative Board, you may be familiar with the story of WOW service called "The Rose."  The story is about standing head and shoulders above your competitors (if you want to hear the whole story, visit our event calendar and join us for an upcoming open Business Owner roundtable).  WOW moments are those experiences that so impress us that, unsolicited, we share with anyone and everyone we can. 

I recently experienced a WOW moment when a nasty virus wormed its way onto my laptop.  Remembering a friend's email that said "save this number if your computer ever goes down," I called the number thinking "Worst case I spend 20 minutes on the phone while looking at a Staples flyer on laptops."  What happened next was one of the best customer service (and sales) approaches I have ever experienced. 

In a world of computer repairs where increasingly self-service and phone tree roulette is the norm, a live person answered the phone after 1 ring.  The conversation went something like this:
Ring, ring.
"Help Desk, this is Sean."
"Umm, Sean - my name is Marcy.  I've never called you before, but here's my problem." 
I described the problem and what I had done.  Within 5 minutes Sean had walked me through fixing it, and said if I would like I can go to their website and select additional options to have a complete checkup done and to have a nice day, it was a pleasure speaking to me.  And that was it.

No fee.  No hard sale.  No asking for my email address or phone number to put on a mailing list.  I immediately went to the website to learn more about this company.  Were they crazy? 

No, they are smart at service, smart at marketing and they know the value of word of mouth.  If they can help with a quick fix by phone they do so.  If more work is needed, they have a flat fix fix rate.  $89 and the customer doesn't pay unless it's fixed.  That's it. 
Simple, fast, easy.  I'm sold.  In fact, I am beyond sold.  I've experienced a WOW moment.  And I've shared it with friends, family, clients and colleagues.

Every business owner can incorporate WOW moments into their business. They don't have to be expensive for the returns that come back to be better than any advertising you do.  And like the virus that originally led me to write this article, it will become infectious in your company. 

PS The phone number I dialed?   888 392 2785; visit their website at www.onlinecomputerrepair.org

I recently had the opportunity to listen to Malcom Gladwell describe how spaghetti sauce changed the concept of marketing, consumer tastes and product offerings through a great new site, Ted.com.   His discussion on consumer choices raised an interesting dilemma - how do you maintain profitability if you constantly expand options for your customer offerings. Certainly larger companies can do this, but what can you do as a small to mid-sized business?

Flanking pricing is one strategy that can help.  Develop varying options (service, delivery, maintenance, accessories, etc) for your offerings.   Set your richest feature offering with the highest (premium) price and your bare bones offering at the lowest (value or budget) price.  Your target pricing/offering (features and options your customers most want) is priced between these.  This is effectively flanking your pricing and creating value for your offerings and can increase the price your market will pay for your offerings.  If you find you are getting more sales at the higher end or the lower end, adjust your pricing accordingly until the majority of your sales fall into the range you desire.

I recently had an opportunity to experience an industry-who-shall-not-be-named’s version of “Customer Care.”   Followed thereafter by another industry’s version of “Customer Care.”   Both companies incidentally have been in the news recently.  Before anyone starts thinking this is a statement on health care reform or the airline industry, it is not.  This discussion is about how the drive for efficiency and streamlining can sabotage any company, big or small – regardless of industry.  For discussion purposes, allow me to share some background.

My experience began simply enough – my physician and insurance company had decided to part ways, and I received a letter informing me of their impending divorce and instructions on how to successfully and smoothly transition (hah!  I should have known something was up).  No less than 8 phone calls later spanning 12 hours (during which I established a friendly first-name basis with supervisors who quickly learned of my ability to speak fluently in truckdriver-ese), my issue remains unresolved.  Every step of the way I’ve had to explain the history over again, refer to past recorded conversations, re-submit paperwork, and experienced far too many transfers to other departments that “take care of that and can help” (the important point here being by "help" they were referring to helping increase my aforementioned foreign language skills).  Each time I have reminded the call centers that I had gotten 3 letters (from them!) which both supported and contradicted previous conversations and letters, and had to clarify that I was not in fact a crazy person, while assuring the call center representative “YES I AM SURE I live in New Jersey and NO I do not see my doctor in Massachusetts.”  Even my specialist and primary care physicians’ offices joined in the discussion.  Having more experience than me as a newbie in this healthcare-company-who-shall-not-be-named version of appeals process, both offices gave me sage advice (“Good luck.”)

Why do I bring this up?  Because I am passionate about customer service.  And there are so many opportunities to enhance customer experiences while improving your bottom line.  Customer Care (Call Center) models were developed years ago to take components of customer service and make them repeatable and scalable, while delivering consistent levels of service, which could then be improved upon.  Had I been working with a Customer Care model that had a solid Customer Relationship Management system that all employees had access to and were well trained in, as well as standardized processes for delivering customer service, the experience would have been quite different.  Call Centers [that are] implemented well, and their approach to segmenting components of customer service can provide tremendous benefit to the company and the customer.  The challenge becomes when companies look only at the short term returns and ignore the care and feeding of their Customer Care Operations which in turn can enhance and improve the longer term customer relationship (and corresponding loyalty, referrals and cross and up sell opportunities). 

How are you improving your company’s customer experience?  Have you experienced great customer service recently?  Let us know your thoughts!

Think Social Media is for other businesses?  Think again.  Facebook is now the most used application on the planet with Fan Pages growing rapidly as a way for companies to promote their businesses outside of their websites.  In one message posting Twitter can undo years of work a company has put into building its brand and loyalty (just ask Southwest Airlines how Kevin Smith's sharing of his treatment on a recent flight impacted their loyalty).  And get ready for the latest.  Chat Roulette.  A new website ChatRoulette.com allows you through a random process to connect to others around the world and have video chats with people you may never have had an opportunity to meet otherwise.  That's the fun news.  The not so fun news is that you may never have wanted to chat with some of these people to begin with.  But you can quickly move on to others and gain new experiences and insights through the process. 
Social media now allows us to create conversations in whole new ways with new people that we've never been able to before.  Which is the key point. Conversations.  It's not about one way or one to one discussions.  It's about two way conversations one to many and many to many.  So the next time someone says Social Media doesn't matter, post a twitter comment on that and see how many replies you get back joining into the conversation. 
Want to learn more about Social Media Matters?  Join us for one of two upcoming complimentary sessions taking place in Sussex New Jersey and Flanders New Jersey on Social Media Matters for Small Business and get a customized website effectiveness report for your company. Email us to learn more.

With all the emphasis on customer service, you would think companies would remember how important it is to gain and maintain trust. 

I received a call last week from my cell carrier provider who wanted to provide me an offer I couldn’t refuse.  I was going over on minutes, so they were going to let me upgrade for one month.  “AHA!  I thought, they’ve done this before.  And I’ve gotten tricked into contracts that lock me in for 2 years.  There’s no way I am falling for it again.”  I declined the offer.  Even while the lovely customer service representative assured me there were no strings.  The more they assured, the less I believed.  It came down to a matter of my perception that they had clearly exhibited a complete lack of integrity for my well-being as a customer and so completely missed the boat on servicing my account in the past that there was no way they could ever regain my trust.  The poor CSR.  I politely shared that she was very nice indeed and that had I not experienced such bad service in the past I would take her up on this, but I was just biding my time until April when I can finally set free of the contract binds that are keeping me tied to the carrier-who-shall-not-be-named.

Why do I bring this up?  Because one of the fundamental tenets of business says it is much easier to keep a customer than gain a new one (not to mention a happy customer spends more and is more profitable for you).  It is less expensive (think marketing & sales costs) and it takes less effort (think how much pain the prospect has to be in to move from a safe, known factor to you – someone they don’t know).  And yet, companies consistently do not consider loyalty efforts and initiatives as strategic in their companies.  Bear in mind that right now, another company is spending money to take them from you.  Given enough time, some competitive pricing and some compelling messaging and your customers may just decide to give the others a try.  Consider this – what are you doing to keep your customers?    

And while you’re at it, consider what your customers are saying about you.  I recently had an opportunity to meet someone at a local deli, which was a halfway meeting point for the two of us.  While looking for the address online, I came across a review -  “Bad food, bad service and bad attitude – bottom line, don’t go there”  Yikes!  Since I’m a sucker for the underdog, I called the owner to share the bad news (the review) and the good news (easy to take care of, have your fans sing your praises online).  Rather than consider that this could be a learning moment, he shared that he doesn’t go online so it doesn’t bother him.  Really.  Consider jobvent.com, consider Facebook, consider twittering.  Consider what Social Media makes your customers.  Your biggest marketers.  So treat them well.  It’s a matter of trust.

How often have you seen companies invest time in marketing efforts only to fall short by not following through on the service side?  I’ve seen this a lot lately with Twitter and Facebook.   Though both social media seem to scream the marketer’s equivalent of Alice in Wonderland’s bottle “Drink Me,” neither will make a company successful unless the basics are there.  Regardless of your product, service or solution, your customers must first trust you enough to take the leap of faith and give you their business.  How do you do that?  By listening to what they want, need and care about, by communicating responsibly and efficiently with them, and finally by delivering what you say you will.

I recently came across a fitness company that does a remarkable job of Twittering and using Facebook.  Good following, good messaging, with impeccable timing and frequency of messages.  Their goals are to reinforce loyalty amongst their studio members, while gently keeping themselves front of mind with their Twitter/Facebook followers.  All good.  But the problem is in the follow up and follow through – almost non-existent.  The company doesn’t return phone calls nor email requests for information.  Class schedules are changed without advance notice, oftentimes leaving the students waiting at the door with no instructors.  And, as a result all that time and effort spent on messaging via social media is going to waste as attrition is now becoming a huge issue for the company.  It is only a matter of time until their followers turn on them and start using the very Social Media that brought them to the company to voice their displeasure.  The old adage that nothing will kill a business more than consistently setting expectations and then missing them rings true today – regardless of the communication tools used.  

Make sure before you start messaging you have the commitment, focus and accountability built in your company culture to get the things done you say you will.  Consider our upcoming Time Management Seminar, Workshop or Class to help you and your staff and complement this with one of the myriad of time management systems.  One of my favorites is Getting Things Done by David Allen.  It doesn’t matter which you choose – you’ll find what’s right for you and your company.  The important thing is to make it a cornerstone competency in your company.