The business world is like a jungle filled with highly competitive entrepreneurs facing endless challenges. And while some may rise to the top, others face a less favoured reality. Their downfall? Undermining the value of customer service.
Lets take a minute to put this into perspective:
Imagine John socialising with his friends, casually chatting about life and work.
Paul congratulates John on the recent launch of his business website, and John, pleased with the service and website he received from Web Partner cannot recommend them enough.
Paul himself has been looking for someone to redo his website, and given the pleasant experience John had, he feels comfortable to entrust Web Partner with his web design requirements.
Moral of the story:
Give a customer a great product, and they will talk about it for 5 minutes. But deliver excellent service, and they will talk about it forever.
Here are 7 reasons why you should make customer service a priority.
1. Increases your revenue
All business decision entrepreneurs make is dependent on revenue. And while a profitable business is not solely built on customer service, it is an important factor that must be considered for short and long-term financial growth and sustainability.
2. Free advertising
Advertising a business costs money. But you can turn your existing customers into brand advocates who will not only purchase more but will potentially bring in new business by word-of-mouth recommendations.
Studies indicate that 69% of customers who have a positive experience with a company are bound to recommend them to others.
That’s right, you can get people talking about your brand at no cost by simply delivering great service to your customers.
3. Customer retention is cheaper than customer acquisition
If you work on keeping your current customer base happy, you’re almost guaranteed to have them as repeat customers in the future. The more loyal customers you have, the more your business is likely to grow. To some extent, this could significantly bring down your customer acquisition cost.
4. Strengthens your company culture
When you set a precedent and create a culture of adding value and serving others, your employees will do the same. More so, it allows them to work better as a team and boosts the team morale.
5. Gives you a competitive edge
Competition – every business has it and now more than ever, more businesses are entering the market. Great, value added customer service will help you retain your existing customers and attain new ones. It also attaches value to your brand and sets you apart from your competitors.
Having worked with more than 10 000 small businesses over the last 7 years, offering web design services and marketing solutions to our clients, much of our success has been because of great service.
We know that if we nail customer service, it positively impacts all other aspects of our business and motivates us as a team. Likewise, if we fail at it, we feel its negative impact too.
Customer service ought to be at the core of every business, and if your aim is to make headway, you need to listen to your customer’s needs and respond to it with their best interest at heart.
