Recession-Proofing Your Customer Service | SMALL BUSINESS ...

By clemens, on August 7th, 2012

The other day in a discussion, I was asked where the economy is going.

My answer? I told the group that global and national economies are going to remain weak for at least the next 3 years? but that you wouldn?t know it from the level of customer services most business continue to provide!

You would think when times are tough a business would pull out all the stops to ensure they hung onto every single precious customer with the?tenacity?of a Vice Grip tool. Right?

Not from what I see!

Let?s stick two well-known statistics together:

Repeat business is 700% more profitable than new business.

70% of customers who leave a business do so because they were treated badly by an employee.

With a few more numbers in place (like your rate of customer retention) you could probably figure out what crappy customer service could be costing your business. But we don?t need to do that math to know that it could be a lot.

So how do you turn that around? Lets look at a few customer service basics that will keep you growing even in challenging times.

1. Keep it real.?The customer experience starts with expectations. Don?t set your customer up for disappointment before they have even walked through the door. Set expecations reasonably high (to differentiate you from the competition) and ensure you can do everything you promise. Then blow them out of the water.
2. Connect instantly and positively.?Whether on the phone, online, or in person, ensure that your customer feels instantly welcome and wanted. Review language, physical spaces, lighting, and body language with your team. Then monitor the whole experience religiously.
3. Give respect.?Friendly doesn?t mean slow. Time is the most precious commodity most of us have and we resent deeply when someone wastes it. From the moment of initial contact, your service logistics should ensure a customer?s needs are taken care of as completely and as quickly as possible. Plan for busy times. Develop flexible staffing models if possible, and provide alternatives and consideration for customers who are delayed for longer than they should be.
4. Empower front line staff.?One of the best ways to waste a customer?s time (and give them the message that you really don?t have a plan for anything) is to say to them ?I?ll have to get the manager? to deal with simple issues. A minimum of 80% of all customer questions and complaints should be resolved by the front line people fielding them, or your system is broken. Get the policies and training in place to fix it.
5. Take charge.?Never assume a customer knows best. Giving only a yes or no answer, even to a yes or no question, is lazy. You are the expert. Your job is not to sell products or services, it is to solve problems. Get at the underlying need and take the time to come up with the very best possible solution. Never assume just because the solution comes with a higher price the customer won?t be interested. That is both disrespectful and bad business.
6. Say Aloha.?One of the beautiful things in the Hawaiian language is that hello and goodbye are the same word.?Adopt?that spirit in how you see your customers out: customers must feel as important going as coming. If you change your tone after the cash register has rung, you failed Customer Experience 101.
7. Train, train, train.?The vast majority of the businesses I encounter professionally or as a consumer have no customer service systems or training. Some dead give-aways are: signficiant inconsistencies between visits, sloppy use of language (?no problem? is one of my love-to-hate customer service expressions), service break-downs at busy times, or the inconsistent resolution of complaints. If you don?t have policies or scripts, or you aren?t regularly role-playing, your customer service practices are costing you money. Tune them up.

This piece is taken from Part II of my Customer Retention workshops called ?Be A Keeper, Not a Getter? To find out how I can help you improve your customer service practices,?drop me a line.

I work with business to redesign their futures. I help them become what their owners first?dreamed them to be? Want more out of?your?business??Contact me.?From my home base on Vancouver Island, I provide planning and coaching support to businesses across Canada.

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Source: http://www.smbfundamentals.com/uncategorized/recession-proofing-your-customer-service

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