Customer service is a crucial component of any business. Whether done in-person, online, or via phone, customer service plays an integral role in the overall success of a company and its sales team. Here are three reasons why customer service matters to sales and how businesses can improve customer service experience.
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You don’t want to make an amazing first impression with your clients, only to then neglect them down the line. You want to retain happy and loyal clients, and you want to increase their happiness over time rather than reduce it. Keeping your clients the happiest they can be may take some forward planning, but every extra effort is worth it to retain that business.
Here are some helpful ways to ensure client satisfaction.
Be Prompt with Your Communication
If your clients are sending emails, making calls or asking questions via social media, always be sure to have a system in place to ensure that no client is kept waiting - or, worse, ignored altogether. It might not always be possible to answer straight away, but be sure that clients always receive a response, and if it’s later than anticipated, then always acknowledge the delay, or set up an automated system which can reply to emails to advise how long it might take to receive a response.
Manage Your Time
You have a wealth of clients that keep your business busy: that’s great. However, you’re finding that you might not have adequate time to give every client the attention they need and deserve: that’s not so great.
Your time needs to be managed and understood to always deliver the best possible service, if you simply don’t have the time for certain tasks, don’t let your clients suffer for it. You can seek help and external services for processes you need assistance with by teaming up with Click Intelligence to deliver the best marketing service and ensuring that your clients still receive what they need.
Listen to Your Customers
If your customers have something to say, whether that’s feedback or advice, you should always be open to listening. You shouldn’t dismiss any customer’s input and perceive your own business to always be right. Customers may be able to help you improve your service if you take their comments on board - and they will be very happy if they can see that you have listened and understood them.
Don’t Make False Promises
There is nothing wrong with being honest. Although you are trying to sell your product in the best possible way, this doesn’t mean that you should oversell and make exaggerated promises which might be impossible to fulfill. If a delivery is going to take a certain length of time, tell your customer that. If you promise that something will be delivered overnight and it isn’t, your customer is not going to be satisfied.
It's much better to provide a realistic and honest service, delivered in an excellent fashion, rather than risk delays, dishonesty, and disappointment.
Don’t Hide Anything from Customers
As a business, it’s your job to deliver what is expected from a client. However, this doesn’t mean that you should never be able to make mistakes or be open with your customers. Customers will appreciate being informed about any mistakes or delays, and will still be supportive of your business if you fix any issues in an honest and open way.
Trying to hide any problems from customers and keeping them out of the loop will only breed distrust.
Before the internet, email marketing, and social media, brands, and companies had the ability to build personal relationships with customers and stakeholders offline and in person. Yet today, brands and companies must use social media platforms, video, email, and live chat sessions to build relationships and engage with customers and stakeholders, which isn’t always easy.
However, I put together are seven simple ways to build strong relationships in today’s highly-digital age.
1). Surveys - Christina Crawford, CEO of e-commerce beauty brand BubblePopBeauty.com says she likes to survey her customers to find out what they want instead of trying to guess what they want. Not only is this a cost-effective way to find out what your customers want, it’s also a way to show that you’re listening to them. She conducts her surveys through email and SurveyMonkey.com.
2). Pinterest - Boston-based psychotherapist, Angela Ficken of ProgressWellness.com uses Pinterest as a way to build relationships with her audience. When she publishes a new blog post or newsletter, she pins it to all of the relevant pin boards on her profile, which links back to her newsletter opt-in on her website. This enables her to have a two-way dialogue with her readers.
3). Proximity, Kindness, and Time - Former Hollywood actress-turned-entrepreneur, Michelle Lewis of VisibilityVixen.com says that "Proximity part is easy because we’re online entrepreneurs, so we can pretty much get in touch with whoever we’d like to easily.
Kindness is all about authentic compliments mixed with personal experience. Whether it’s a specific social media post, course or class, if it meant something to you, let that person know.
And, if you want something from someone (like to get them on your podcast or to collaborate on a project), it’s time to dig into what they will receive in return. Make it a better deal for them than for you.
When their benefit is your focus, you will continue to build lasting relationships online that lead to partnerships, collaborations and most importantly, friendships.”
4). Customer Service - “Be responsive to all inquiries whether it’s through email, social media, or live chat,” says Mike Coughlin owner of the lifestyle apparel website, Blue Ocean Life. “As an e-commerce website, customer service is paramount so I strive to respond to all inquiries within 48 hours.”
5). Privacy Policies - With today’s privacy and spam laws, we have a responsibility to protect our readers’ and customers’ privacy. At FemFounder.co we’re transparent on how we intend to use all of our readers’ personal information. We also provide a contact for questions or inquiries.
6). Early Access Promotions and Events - Tayelor Kennedy, celebrity makeup artist and the Editor-in-chief of the women’s online magazine TheHauteRebel.com, builds relationships with her “readers and customers by offering access to VIP events and sales via email. They appreciate it when we provide early access to exclusive promotions before we offer it publicly. We also send our best customers little gifts on their birthdays. A little goes a long way.”
7). Blogging - Cindy Georghiou, owner of Los Angeles-based skincare brand JaquaBathandBody.com likes to use her blog to build relationships and stay in touch with customers. She strives to publish educational and promotional blog posts twice a month. Not only does blogging help with search engine optimization, it also helps her collect emails and build her list.
FemFounder is a one-stop shop for creative entrepreneurs and small business owners who need PR, Instagram, Pinterest, and email list building help.
