How To Provide Customer Service That Wows Your Clients
It’ll keep them coming back again and again
How do you think a high school football team would feel about playing a game in only their pads and underwear? This almost happened for the Bay High Tigers, a high school football team out of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. It was 2005 and their town had just been devastated by Hurricane Katrina, their season nearly canceled, and their jerseys — stolen. Well, not exactly stolen. Things were so grim in Bay St. Louis that residents resorted to using the team’s jerseys as everyday clothing.
One month after the hurricane, the Tigers had a game scheduled. However, they still didn’t have jerseys. Word got out about their situation, and thankfully, a man from North Carolina stepped up to help them out. He donated new jerseys for the whole team. The Tigers looked sharp for their game — which they won — all thanks to the generosity of the gentleman from North Carolina.
Generosity goes a long way when it comes to customer service
Customers love supporting a business that gives freely of their time and resources. Generosity is also a sign that a business isn’t just in it to make a quick buck but really does care about its customers. These days, this is unusual. It’s not hard to set your business apart from the competition by being generous. In this article we’ll discuss how this is possible by covering:
- Accessibility
- Providing value
- Getting personal
Let’s begin by defining accessibility.
How easy is it to connect with a real, live person in your business?
Do current and future customers need to search exhaustively to find out how to connect with someone in your business? Or are contact details in plain view and easy to find? Your level of accessibility is determined by how easy it is for customers to connect with someone inside your business. The easier you make it for a customer to speak to a real person, the better your customer service, and the more impressed they will be.
It’s easy to be accessible
Have a toll-free number that customers can call. Share that number everywhere — on your website, on your packaging, on your business cards. Don’t hide it, hoping it won’t be found and you won’t get any calls. Here’s another thing — have someone who actually works inside your business answer the call. Don’t use a call center that is oceans away. But what if a customer doesn’t want to speak with someone?
Provide multiple online chat options for customers
This includes an online chat function right on your website. Give options for questions to be asked without needing a customer to commit to a conversation. Make sure to check your social media regularly for comments and questions on your posts. And look out for direct messages in social media — it’s easy to overlook these. Don’t forget to provide your physical address — make sure that it is easy to find. Customers will really appreciate the easy accessibility of someone in your business, along with multiple ways to connect. Implement these suggestions and your customer service will have improved. On to point #2 — providing value.
Everyone loves a great deal right?
I know I do. May I assume you do as well? Sure, we all do. We love feeling like we’re getting great value for our hard-earned money. So let’s make sure to extend those feelings to our customers. How can we do this? By going above and beyond to provide extra value to them. Surprise your customers with a little bonus when you fulfill their order. This can include a simple up-size in the product they bought, or a small sample of something new. Perhaps even a piece of merch, or if you have stickers, throw a few of them into their order. Your customers will be very pleasantly surprised when they open their shipment. But providing value doesn’t stop here.
Try to find a way to provide value outside of your product or service
This may involve free training, consultations, or creating a community that helps your customers find solutions to their problems. Customers will perceive you and your business as experts. They’ll remember where they can go for help when they need it. You may not immediately see an increase in your business revenue. But over time, if your customers return to your business more frequently, there’s a good chance they’ll make additional purchases. This you will notice on your business’s bottom line. Does this make sense? Great, then let’s move on to the final point — getting personal.
Friends are happy to support friends
Getting personal with our customers may at first make us feel uncomfortable. It shouldn’t. In getting personal we don’t need to disclose the intimate details of our lives, and really, customers don’t want to know them. What we need to strive for is a friendly, trust-based relationship. Our customers should feel like our business has their back. A business — customer relationship needs to be more than simply transactional. So how do we accomplish this?
One way is by writing a personal thank-you note for each order
If you’re shipping a physical product, slip in a genuine thank-you note addressed to your customer. When they read it and realize you took the time to personally write something to them, they’ll be amazed. If you provide a service or information product, you can personally email your customer, or even better, send them a postcard in the mail. Taking this extra step will engrain your business in their memory. They’ll think of you the next time they are looking for a solution that you provide.
Do you really want to take your customer service to the next level?
Then try reaching out personally to a customer even when they haven’t purchased anything. Send them a message — email, phone call, or letter of some sort — out of the blue. It’s like you’re a friend checking in on them to see how they’re doing. This will take some time, but your customers will appreciate it. We all appreciate a friend checking in on us. But wait — what if you simply don’t have that time available? What then?
Here’s what to do if you’re slammed for time
As a business owner, there’s more to do than hours in the day. Adding extra tasks such as writing personal notes and responding to comments probably sounds like a lower priority than keeping your business running. Please don’t pressure yourself to be all things to all people. Just start small — make it a habit to write ten thank-yous each day, or spend 20 minutes looking over and responding to social media comments. If you have a business partner, share the workload. It’s all about giving a human face to your business. Finally, here’s something else to remember.
Never take your customers for granted
Your business must come to mind for them when they’re seeking a solution to a problem. If it doesn’t, they’ll look elsewhere, and you may lose a customer for life. It’s much more expensive to gain a new customer than to keep an existing one.
In summary, our customers want to feel important
If they are left feeling like a business only needs them for their money, they’ll be very open to supporting someone else. However, if they feel appreciated and valued, they’ll keep coming back. Excellent customer service is the best way to induce those feelings. In this article, we discussed how to improve customer service through
- Accessibility
- Providing Value
- Getting Personal
Just as the gentleman from North Carolina was so generous as to supply new football jerseys for the Bay High Tigers, our business needs to be generous with its time and resources. Amazing customer service takes both of these, but the effort is worth it in the end.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. If you found it helpful, or have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.
