Customer Service ? The Key to Business Longevity | THE small ...

This is an excerpt from The Small Business Planner and is protected by copyright. The book is available from your favorite bookstore or on-line. Go to, http://thesmallbusinessplanner.com/sbp.php for a list of retail sites.

Service and retention strategies are often overlooked by companies of all sizes. It is a fact that the cost to bring a new customer on board is much higher than it is to up sell an existing one. Most are lost due to poor service and the beneficiary of this costly mistake is always the competition. There are many negative consequences associated with a lost customer, including: the loss of residual revenue, the added customers you can potentially bring on board from their referrals and the creation of bad publicity that can take years to reverse. Levels of customer service seem to have fluctuated with economic cycles over the past few decades. The 1980s were a boom time in the economy and many businesses got very fat. Unfortunately many also got complacent and customer service suffered. The recession of the early nineties witnessed many business failures, mergers and acquisitions with larger, stronger, customer driven companies emerging into the next period of economic growth. Many new companies emerged and unfortunately as these businesses get portly through renewed economic prosperity, service again became lean. The companies that maintain high levels of customer service will generally emerge as the strongest players out of every economic downturn.

Customer service is more than just a couple of words that a company puts on their brochure or mission statement. It is part of the corporate culture and a way of doing business that all employees, regardless of position, must believe in. It is evident in companies where all contact with customers is met with a friendly disposition and sincere attention to needs. It means unconsciously going the extra distance in problem solving to provide solutions and value that will not only make the client want to come back repeatedly, but also encourage them to refer their friends and associates to do business with you. There are some great service driven companies ? unfortunately they are becoming harder to find. One such company that comes to mind is The Home Depot. I have always found their associates in most stores to be friendly, and in accordance with corporate policy, they actually seem to enjoy meeting customers and assisting until their needs are met. At the other end of the spectrum, the poorest customer service I now encounter is at fast food outlets ? all of them. With few exceptions, these employees seldom make eye contact, most don?t smile and I have performed a little test which convinced me that they are almost all robotic and don?t listen. Whenever I order, I will say very clearly at the end, ?Make that to go please.? After keying in the order, they will always say, without looking up, ?Is that for here or to go?? Try it sometime then make sure your employees don?t act the same way with your customers.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

How will you know if your customers are not satisfied with your service? For many businesses, it is when they start buying from the competition, and then it is too late. Assuming that your customers are satisfied is dangerous. Markets are very turbulent and continually changing along with customer needs. The company that responds to those changes in the most efficient and timely fashion can make loyalty a thing of the past at your expense. The proven effective method for determining satisfaction levels and understanding changing customer needs is through the survey, either formal or informal.

• Formal Surveys: The contact management database is the tool that marketers use to generate and deliver customer surveys. They can be sent by mail; however, Email is preferable as the message will provide a link to a special page that can be created on the company web site. The most honest answers result from anonymity. The most important questions that must be answered are as follows:
  • How would you rate the level of service we provide?

?Excellent ? Good ? Fair ? Poor

• What do you like about us?
• What can we do to improve?

Retail outlets can also provide ballots in the store for existing and new customers to submit. For new customers, these questionnaires on the ballots should include valuable contact, demographic, and intention to buy information thus producing very rich additions to the marketing database.

• Informal Surveys: In lieu of conducting formal surveys, it is possible to get direct feedback from customers. You must brief your employees to always ask the same questions and ask for honest answers. Unfortunately, most people are not willing to provide negative feedback in person.

Other questions to consider would be industry related and relevant to determining if customer needs are changing and in which way. It is important to conduct these surveys on a yearly basis and analyze the information objectively. The results should affirm your strengths and expose your weaknesses. Planning and action tactics can then be implemented to leverage the strengths, eliminate the weaknesses, and change the way you do business if necessary to keep your customers from going elsewhere.

Methods to Improve Customer Service

• Employee Education:??????????? Great customer service starts at the front line. Provide training sessions, access to seminars, and impress on all staff members the advantages that satisfied customers have for all stakeholders. Create a reward program for employees who generate good customer feedback by displaying service awards on a wall of fame and running contests with prizes geared to the winning employee?s personal interests. Staff will always be on their best behavior in your presence. Some companies utilize secret shoppers to provide management with feedback on good and poor service practices. Employee contact with customers over the phone should not be overlooked for appropriate etiquette. Those staff members with Email access must adhere to Internet etiquette protocols: never use all caps when composing messages as this is considered shouting, use upper and lower case properly, return all correspondence promptly, watch the tone in the message and proof the draft before sending. Once a piece of electronic mail has been sent there is no chance for retrieval. The message can be forwarded by a recipient to multiple addresses and it may never disappear.
• Business Culture: Treating employees with respect and instilling in them a buy-in to the advantages of great customer service can be contagious. These positive feelings will be passed on to customers and all other company stakeholders.

Retention Strategy: Include customer service in your planning by developing a retention strategy. This should include employee input as they probably know the customer best and what it may take to retain their business. In a B2B enterprise, it is important to count your eggs and make sure they are not all in the same basket. Look at your ten largest customers and the percentage of revenue they account for. Here comes the 80 : 20 rule again. Your largest customers will need personal contact on a more frequent basis while a majority of smaller clients may be satisfied with telephone service. Think of ways to encourage referrals. The use of patronage awards, such as discounts and coupons, is widely utilized. Finally, stay on top of the competition?s service methods and when it comes to customer needs, don?t assume anything.?

Service and retention strategies are often overlooked by companies of all sizes. It is a fact that the cost to bring a new customer on board is much higher than it is to up sell an existing one. Most are lost due to poor service and the beneficiary of this costly mistake is always the competition. There are many negative consequences associated with a lost customer, including: the loss of residual revenue, the added customers you can potentially bring on board from their referrals and the creation of bad publicity that can take years to reverse. Levels of customer service seem to have fluctuated with economic cycles over the past few decades. The 1980s were a boom time in the economy and many businesses got very fat. Unfortunately many also got complacent and customer service suffered. The recession of the early nineties witnessed many business failures, mergers and acquisitions with larger, stronger, customer driven companies emerging into the next period of economic growth. Many new companies emerged and unfortunately as these businesses get portly through renewed economic prosperity, service again became lean. The companies that maintain high levels of customer service will generally emerge as the strongest players out of every economic downturn.

Customer service is more than just a couple of words that a company puts on their brochure or mission statement. It is part of the corporate culture and a way of doing business that all employees, regardless of position, must believe in. It is evident in companies where all contact with customers is met with a friendly disposition and sincere attention to needs. It means unconsciously going the extra distance in problem solving to provide solutions and value that will not only make the client want to come back repeatedly, but also encourage them to refer their friends and associates to do business with you. There are some great service driven companies ? unfortunately they are becoming harder to find. One such company that comes to mind is The Home Depot. I have always found their associates in most stores to be friendly, and in accordance with corporate policy, they actually seem to enjoy meeting customers and assisting until their needs are met. At the other end of the spectrum, the poorest customer service I now encounter is at fast food outlets ? all of them. With few exceptions, these employees seldom make eye contact, most don?t smile and I have performed a little test which convinced me that they are almost all robotic and don?t listen. Whenever I order, I will say very clearly at the end, ?Make that to go please.? After keying in the order, they will always say, without looking up, ?Is that for here or to go?? Try it sometime then make sure your employees don?t act the same way with your customers.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

How will you know if your customers are not satisfied with your service? For many businesses, it is when they start buying from the competition, and then it is too late. Assuming that your customers are satisfied is dangerous. Markets are very turbulent and continually changing along with customer needs. The company that responds to those changes in the most efficient and timely fashion can make loyalty a thing of the past at your expense. The proven effective method for determining satisfaction levels and understanding changing customer needs is through the survey, either formal or informal.

??????? Formal Surveys: The contact management database is the tool that marketers use to generate and deliver customer surveys. They can be sent by mail; however, Email is preferable as the message will provide a link to a special page that can be created on the company web site. The most honest answers result from anonymity. The most important questions that must be answered are as follows:

o?? How would you rate the level of service we provide?

?Excellent ? Good ? Fair ? Poor

o?? What do you like about us?

o?? What can we do to improve?

Retail outlets can also provide ballots in the store for existing and new customers to submit. For new customers, these questionnaires on the ballots should include valuable contact, demographic, and intention to buy information thus producing very rich additions to the marketing database.

??????? Informal Surveys: In lieu of conducting formal surveys, it is possible to get direct feedback from customers. You must brief your employees to always ask the same questions and ask for honest answers. Unfortunately, most people are not willing to provide negative feedback in person.

Other questions to consider would be industry related and relevant to determining if customer needs are changing and in which way. It is important to conduct these surveys on a yearly basis and analyze the information objectively. The results should affirm your strengths and expose your weaknesses. Planning and action tactics can then be implemented to leverage the strengths, eliminate the weaknesses, and change the way you do business if necessary to keep your customers from going elsewhere.

Methods to Improve Customer Service

• ? Employee Education:??????????? Great customer service starts at the front line. Provide training sessions, access to seminars, and impress on all staff members the advantages that satisfied customers have for all stakeholders. Create a reward program for employees who generate good customer feedback by displaying service awards on a wall of fame and running contests with prizes geared to the winning employee?s personal interests. Staff will always be on their best behavior in your presence. Some companies utilize secret shoppers to provide management with feedback on good and poor service practices. Employee contact with customers over the phone should not be overlooked for appropriate etiquette. Those staff members with Email access must adhere to Internet etiquette protocols: never use all caps when composing messages as this is considered shouting, use upper and lower case properly, return all correspondence promptly, watch the tone in the message and proof the draft before sending. Once a piece of electronic mail has been sent there is no chance for retrieval. The message can be forwarded by a recipient to multiple addresses and it may never disappear.

• ????? Business Culture:?????? Treating employees with respect and instilling in them a buy-in to the advantages of great customer service can be contagious. These positive feelings will be passed on to customers and all other company stakeholders.

• Retention Strategy: Include customer service in your planning by developing a retention strategy. This should include employee input as they probably know the customer best and what it may take to retain their business. In a B2B enterprise, it is important to count your eggs and make sure they are not all in the same basket. Look at your ten largest customers and the percentage of revenue they account for. Here comes the 80 : 20 rule again. Your largest customers will need personal contact on a more frequent basis while a majority of smaller clients may be satisfied with telephone service. Think of ways to encourage referrals. The use of patronage awards, such as discounts and coupons, is widely utilized. Finally, stay on top of the competition?s service methods and when it comes to customer needs, don?t assume anything.

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