Poor customer service can kill your business. By knowing how quality customer service translates to business stability and growth, you can better train your employees and associates to exceed your customer’s expectations.
clashgraphics.com gathered the following information on what quality customer service is, how it improves customer relationships with your business, and how it translates to growth.
What Is Quality Customer Service?
Quality customer service is comprised of the following traits:
• Providing fast, efficient, and friendly service
• Building strong relationships with your customers
• Receiving and quickly handling complaints
• Responding to all customer feedback
• Positive email, text, social media, and website interaction
Success in any business is reliant on its customers. The quality of your customer service plays a significant role in making them loyal to your brand.
Benefits of Quality Customer Service
When you consistently provide superior customer service, your business will benefit from increasing:
• The number of times your customers shop at your business
• The “basket size” or dollar value spent per customer, per transaction
• The customer’s lifetime value (CLV)
• The number of customers attracted by impeccable word-of-mouth advertising
• Customer satisfaction and favorable reviews
• Customer loyalty to your brand
• Your competitive advantage
Among the most significant rewards of quality customer service are your employees beaming with pride and the ability to dramatically reduce your marketing costs over time.
At times, businesses are so similar in their products, prices, location, etc. that the only striking difference is in the quality of their customer service.
Today’s consumers tend to repeatedly shop where they feel comfortable, welcome, and heard. Whether you have a brick and mortar location or do business online, your customers will respond to how they are treated with their wallets.
How To Improve Customer Service in Your Business
By investing the time to improve your business’ customer service, you are investing wholly in the growth of your brand.
To put this concept better into perspective, think about where you do your grocery shopping and answer the following questions:
• Is parking readily available, or are you dodging shopping carts to find a spot?
• Is the entryway to the store clean and free from foul odors?
• How do you feel once you are in the store?
• Is the store clean?
• Are the items you need in stock and readily accessible?
• How long did it take before you were greeted or acknowledged?
• Do any of the employees know you by name?
• Are there enough open registers to keep lines short and moving?
• How was your experience checking out and paying for your purchases?
You will be grocery shopping in-store or online your entire life (unless you have someone do it for you). It’s a household necessity. Why would you give your money and patronage to a store or brand that doesn’t, at least, make an effort to exceed your expectations?
As consumers, for the most part, we readily give our long-term patronage to businesses that treat us with respect and make us feel like the most crucial part of their business. Consider the following to improve your customer service:
Product Knowledge - The more knowledgeable your staff is about your products and services, the easier it is to answer customer questions and doubts.
Work Environment - The more satisfying and rewarding your workplace is, the more committed your staff will be.
Employee State-of-Mind - Within your work environment, are employees heard when they express concerns? Is your staff encouraged to think independently and responsibly during their shift? Micromanagement often creates a poor atmosphere for staff and customers alike.
Cleanliness - Keep your location inviting, pleasant, and tidy.
Maintenance - Keep your production equipment, refrigeration units, etc. in good working order to avoid production slow-downs and customer frustration.
Training - Observe, coach, correct, and encourage your staff to continuously seek improvement in dealing with customers.
Customer Complaints - Establish a fast and straightforward policy for handling complaints or product returns. Take ownership of their problem and provide them with a solution promptly.
Trust - Trust is built by honoring your word. When you tell a customer you will provide or do something, do it. And do it right the first time.
Availability - Be available to your staff, willing to help them whenever they have questions or problems. Then encourage them to practice the same availability with each other and your customers.
By focusing on the well-being and betterment of your staff, you are supporting a superior level of customer service. You can measure this and the growth of your business by the following:
• Online Customer Survey
• Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Annual Sales
• Average Basket Size
• Customer Count
You can also have survey cards printed. Hand the survey to your customers and encourage them to fill it out. Provide a box or container to maintain their anonymity (this also encourages them to be blunt when needed).
Customer surveys are only valuable when you are committed to acknowledging their concerns and making proactive changes.
Read more about increasing your company’s revenue at clashgraphics.com/printing-tips/4-strategies-guaranteed-increase-your-companys-revenue/
Customer Service
In this article, you discovered what quality customer service involves, how your business benefits from it, and how it converts to growth.
By promoting the highest level of customer service to your customers, you also foster a sense of pride amongst your employees and create an environment for your business to grow.
When you continuously provide mediocre service to your customers, you can expect your business to decrease and your revenue to tank.
Sources:
bizfluent.com/about-5437915-quality-customer-service-important.html
business.tas.gov.au/managing-customers-and-suppliers/the-importance-of-customer-service
www.k-state.edu/cecd/docs/pdfs/Session%201-%20Option%203%201.pdf
Clash Graphics Print Shop Atlanta Flyer Printing
2233 Peachtree Rd NE Ste 202 Atlanta, GA 30309
(678) 235-3464
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