Simple Ideas to Improve Your Customer Service
What Are You Doing to Continuously Improve Your Customer Service…and How Do You Measure It?
by Robert Piller
Austin, Texas: It is amazing how low the bar has been set for customer service….and how easy that makes it to really shine.
From cavalier attitudes by doctors’ office to flippant remarks by my auto mechanic to no service by my waitress last night – it seems that businesses need to teach Customer Service 101 again to all staff members.
Front line personnel are your contact points with clients– so the weak link can easily ruin the reputation of your business that you have tried so hard to build.
Your customer service rep had a bad night last night? Well, will it reflect in their communications today?
In this day of age of Yelp, Twitter, Facebook and other social media apps, it takes seconds for someone to post a negative comment about your business.
Don’t think that matters? Well, more and more people are using social media and review sites before making their purchasing decisions and these negative comments add up.
Negative reviews and comments go viral much more often than positive reviews.
What are you doing to improve your customer service at the point of contact?
How are you training your staff? I mean the entire staff!
How often do you search social media outlets for the name of your business to see what people are saying?
Do you interact with your clients and prospects on a regular basis and ask for feedback?
How often do you return phone calls?
How easy is it to get your phone number and email address from your website-or does it take 5 clicks to find that (if they are lucky to unearth it)?
How long does it take you to answer email messages? Do you even track this? (We respond in 59 minutes or less – and it is usually within 15 minutes.)
Do you respond on your business’ Facebook and Twitter page to comments – or do you ignore them and hope the comments will fade over time.
People like to do business with people and companies that they like.
How likable is your company?
What are you going to do about it?
