What is one of the best kinds of advertising for your business? The answer, Great Customer Service!! Not only is it one of the best ways to advertise, it’s also one of the cheapest and everyone can do it with a little extra effort!
What are some great customer service tips you can use and what do they cost you?
- Put a smile on your face when greeting a customer in person or talking to them on the phone. The cost is FREE and definitely worth the effort! Who wants to be greeted by a grumpy person?! Not me, so put that smile on, exercise those facial muscles and reap the rewards of happy customers!! Customers who are happy with the people they do business with are more likely to increase what they purchase from them and purchase more often. A Win Win for you and your customer!!
- Have a positive attitude when dealing with customers, especially a difficult one. The cost is FREE but sometimes difficult to execute. When dealing with an unhappy customer, listen to their complaint and then let them know you are sincerely sorry they are unhappy and assure them you will do everything you can to correct whatever is wrong. DO NOT be afraid to accept responsibility if you have done something wrong. No one is perfect and mistakes happen. A sincere apology goes a long way to making things right again. Consider offering the customer something for FREE (such as FREE shipping or a FREE item) to appease them and keep them as a customer. It’s much easier to keep a customer than to find a new one.
- Be consistent. This is especially important when doing reminders each month. The cost is FREE but does require you to plan and make the time to do them every month. If you are consistently sending reminders 4 or 5 days before order deadline, you are giving your customers enough time to look through the catalog and put their orders together and get them to you. If you procrastinate until the last day, one or more customers may not have time to look and will just pass placing an order until next month and you’ve lost a sale. Being consistent with your reminders is key to great sales!
Great customer service is one of the best forms of advertising because when you take care of your customers, they are going to take care of you by telling others about you and how happy they are having you for a sales rep and having someone else vouch for you will speak far loader than you tooting your own horn!
Great Customer Service is treating EVERY customer as if they were your BEST customer!
Becky Price, RSM