Posted by Meredith Estep on Wed, Apr 28, 2010 @ 08:28 AM
In the face of a global marketplace and a sluggish economy, how can a company gain a competitive edge without breaking the bank? This is a dilemma that plagues many different industries today, but the solution is fairly simple. Enhancing customer service is one of the most cost effective ways to build and expand a customer base and increase profits!
By rising to the top in your service skills, you can ride out current challenges and maintain a healthy bottom line. Consider these four reasons to focus on customer service as you are building your business.
Customers Mean Sales
It is amazing how many companies seem to forget that the customer is their bottom line. Meeting your customers' basic needs is not enough. You must be prepared to surpass your customers' expectations by anticipating needs and going the extra mile. You must keep a consistent inventory so the products your customers frequently want are always available. You should train your staff to handle customers' complaints adeptly, so even disgruntled customers will become satisfied once again and come back for more.
Word of Mouth is Cheap Advertising
There are plenty of ways to advertise your business today. You can take out ads on television or create a blog on the Internet. You can resort to mass mailings or email blasts to get the word out. All of these techniques work, but they also cost money.
The best value in your marketing dollar comes from word of mouth advertising. One happy customer tells another potential customer until business is booming.
Disgruntled Customers Hurt Business
You may never know that a customer was unhappy with the service they received from your business. However, others will know. Other potential customers hear about your employee that handles customers rudely, or a product that did not live up to its promises.
Word of mouth can be a powerful marketing tool, but negative words can also hurt a business. Do not let customers leave your place of business until you know they are fully satisfied with the goods and service they received from you.
Quality Service is Cheap
Indeed, you might need to invest in a training program to teach your employees the basics of exceptional customer service. You might need to spend a bit to encourage your employees to provide the best service they possibly can. You might even take a few dollars out of your marketing budget to draw up customer surveys or comment cards to get feedback from your customers. However, the value that comes from a reputation for spectacular service will pay you back tenfold with better customer retention, word of mouth referrals, and happier customers overall.
Your industry may be engulfed in fierce competition, but there are ways to rise above the rest. If you want to stand out from the crowd, invest in better customer service skills for your entire staff. You will never see a better value for your marketing dollar.
- Meredith Estep　
Posted by Meredith Estep on Thu, Apr 22, 2010 @ 08:09 AM
We have all been told it is better to give than to receive. The truth is you must give to receive. This is true in every aspect of life, but is particularly applicable in customer service. I recently read a book, The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann. This book teaches that the true secret to success is to be a giver, but in order to really succeed in giving you must also be willing to receive.
These are the essential elements of "go-giving":
- Give value to those around you in order to increase your worth
- Serve more people in order to increase your return
- Put others interests before your own to in turn add interest to yourself
- Give of yourself authentically
- Always remember you have to be open to receive once you have given.
The story tells of a man named Joe who was struggling to meet his quarterly sales goals. In his efforts to close a business deal he reaches out to the very wealthy and successful, Mr. Pinder in order to learn his secret of success. Before Mr. Pinder will agree to divulge his secret he requires Joe to meet with him every day for one week to learn the five laws of success. Joe must agree to put into practice each law before the end of the day in which he learns it or he should not continue his meetings with Mr. Pinder. Joe agreed.
After one day of lessons, Joe receives a call from exactly the customer with which he's been trying to close a deal. Joe knows that he cannot offer this customer exactly what he needs, but has been pushing to close this deal any way. Against his instincts, Joe gives his prospective customer a reference to a competitor he knows can really help him. As Joe hangs up the phone he can only hope that the laws Mr. Pinder has been sharing will really help.
One particularly trying day Joe returns home late and realizes his wife had a bad day as well. Joe and his wife had a standing agreement that they each got thirty minutes of venting time each evening; everything has to be 50/50. After listening to quite a bit of venting from his wife, she realized she had taken her agreed time (and then some) and dejectedly relented to listen to Joe. Rather than venting himself, Joe took the time to listen to his wife and comfort her until he realized she had fallen asleep. Joe felt he had completely failed and headed to bed himself. He awoke the next morning, late for work and fearful because he did not believe he had practiced the law he learned the previous day "Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests first." Joe then noticed a note left by his wife. She expressed her gratitude in his selflessness in putting her before himself.
Joe learns at the end of the book the five laws he learned truly do work. After his final lesson he is in the office all alone pondering his failure to meet his sales goal for the quarter. While cleaning up to close the office the telephone rings. Joe answers the phone wondering who could possibly be calling this late on a Friday. The man on the line knows Joe, but Joe does not recognize the voice. The voice belonged to the competitor that Joe had referred his big deal to earlier in the week. The competitor needs help because he has had a vendor back out of a huge deal and is fearful of losing the business. The competitor needs a high end, gourmet coffee vendor for his client. Joe knows exactly who to call, Mr. Pinder's cook, who just happens to have a knack for obtaining and roasting her own special coffee.
This book was a fantastic read! It is very inspirational and has raised my awareness to what those around me need and what I can best offer them.
For more information on The Go Giver and other works by Bob Burg and John David Mann, please see their homepage:
www.thegogiver.com
-Emily Clark