Good Customer Service Pays Off

Have you ever experienced the punch in the gut that is bad customer service? Customers have long memories and it only takes one bad experience to turn them against your business forever.

You don't have to be a small business to feel the pinch of a sour reccommendation or thumbs-down from an angry customer. People talk to family members, coworkers, church members and strangers about the experiences they have had with bad customer service. The horrific stories of how your employees handle customers gets passed on and on...this negative publicity could haunt your business for years to come.

Jill Homer of http://www.customerservicepoint.com/ makes a sad point: bad customer service has become all to normal in our society. One could speculate as to why this might be. I suppose there are a number of viable reasons: cities are large, unfriendly, and impersonal places; the values that encourage patience and kindness have been lost amid a sea of performance objectives, sales quotas and a number of other marketplace ideals; and people aren't trained properly to perform adequate customer service tasks. Whatever the reason may be, poor customer service is enough to damage any small business.

Here are three great ways to provide good customer service:

1. Take pride in your product/service and let that pride stand out!

Any customer can tell when an employee that hates their job. They will sabbotage a sale by being rude or unenthusiastic; they will fail to adequately address customer concerns, or worse, complain about the company's defective products or unreliable service - bad staff costs small business thousands of dollars a year.

Screen incoming employees to make sure that their customer service skills are more than just adequate. Company loyalty and pride is worth investing in: instill company values in workers and break down the mission statement and why it is vital to job success.

Teach workers that customer service is a company priority and that bad customer service will not be tolerated. Personnel that are proud of their company's values, products and services will do a better job of conveying those values to any customer.

2. Be open to negotiation.

Customers hate by-the-book companies and the people who represent them. Every situation is not alike. If you have a restaurant, be open to substitutions. If you have a repair shop, offer a discount to repeat customers. Show customers that you appreciate their business by treating them as individuals and dealing with them on a case-by-case basis.

3. Be on time all the time!

Customer perception can be irreperably damaged if they perceive that your business does not stand by its word. Customers rely on businesses to provide services in a timely and efficient manner, anything less is unprofessional.

Don't let your customers down by missing deadlines and showing up late.

Need help with your small biz's customer service or business development strategy? Better-Biz Consulting Services would love to help.

Check out the website at http://www.betterbizservices.com/ AND email us at betterbizservices@yahoo.com for free quotes.