Business Information for Entrepreneurs by an Entrepreneur

3 Simple Steps to Winning Customer Service      

Customer satisfaction is crucial for the success of every small, business irrespective of the market it operates in. Managing your business will be a lot easier when your customers are happy and satisfied with the quality of your products as well as the service you provide.

That said, it is important to deal with any issues before they turn into serious problems that threaten your relationships with customers. There are quite a few things that you can do to ensure that your customers are happy — and stay that way.

Get Customer Feedback

Customer feedback can be of immense help to determine if customers are happy with the services your business offers. You can provide your customers with a feedback form that asks for suggestions to help you improve your products and services, or even offer new ones.

Don't Procrastinate

Customers are likely to give up on your small business if you fail to address their concerns immediately. Analyze the issues and figure out ways to resolve them.

If you respond promptly and appropriately, customers will recommend you to others and give you repeat business.

Communicate With Customers

Communication is the key to solving customer issues — in most cases, they just want to know that you care about their concerns.  When a customer has a problem, all you need to do is listen to what they have to say, be empathetic; if need be, apologize. Customers may say a lot of things in the heat of the moment — however, a simple “I'm sorry” can defuse a volatile situation in just a few seconds.

Winning customer service can be achieved if you incorporate customer centric techniques in your business. Don't forget that if you don't give customers what they want, there are thousands of other small businesses out there who will be more than happy to do so.

In Jim Collin's book Good to Great, he talks about identifying the metrics that are important in your business.  Knowing what to watch is a key component of monitoring your progress.  Accountants have done a great job in creating such metrics in the form of ratios, standardized reports, and others.

Here are a few simple metrics that different businesses can use to monitor growth:

• Consulting: average total sale per project, average hours worked per project, number of proposals in the pipeline, number of leads awaiting proposals, number of prospect appointments set up per week.
• Restaurants: number of seats filled per dining time and day of week, number of bottles of wine uncorked per night, duration of seating per table, total daily sales broken down by food or beverage category.
• Retailers: daily sales per square foot, sales by day of week, repeat visits (use of store coupon or card)
• Publishers: number of paid subscribers, number of free subscribers, ad revenue per page, pages per issue, renewal rate.

These thoughts are just a starting point. There are many other metrics you can create to keep the pulse of your business. These indicators will be your first red flags if something is off.

All small business owners know about that dream client — the one that, if landed, will make their financial lives a whole lot easier. Fortunately, the gap between wishing and reality is not too wide to be overcome.

Below are a few methods that can help unite you and your potential customer-of-a-lifetime into having a smooth working relationship:

• Focus on Cost - Customers sometimes may find your products or services costly and simply out of line with their budget. The real issue lies with the value - and they want you to show them that you can provide them with profitable returns.

If you can show them that the benefit of buying your product or service greatly outweighs the cost, then you'll have a new client for life.

• Save them time - Time is a commodity very much like money, and in some ways even more precious. Show your customers that you know — and care — that they need to do more in less time. First, analyze your customers' business processes and find out where your business can save them time. Then restructure your product or service to help them do more, faster.

• Show product value — Many small businesses generally talk about offers and research, rather showing what they can actually do. The answer to this is to always focus on the business outcome; show your potential customer how they will benefit by using your service or product. And always be sure that the benefits match their specific goals.

• Show product value — Many small businesses generally talk about offers and research, rather showing what they can actually do. The answer to this is to always focus on the business outcome; show your potential customer how they will benefit by using your service or product. And always be sure that the benefits match their specific goals.Landing a dream client takes lots of due diligence and hard work — but few can dispute that the end result is well worth the effort.