About Customer Service:

How to Improve Perceptions
of Your Business
and Quality of Service

It might seem extraordinarily difficult to beat your competition, particularly if they already have a large customer base and good brand recognition and have successfully managed their businesses for years. Is quality of service an answer?

Most business people aim to grow their businesses, sell more and enjoy life. This sounds simple enough, but the "growing" part usually causes the most significant problem.

To a certain point, you can handle everything on your own, but as your company grows, you will have to learn how to employ people and delegate responsibilities. This is tricky because you must decide when and how to do so; if you delay for too long or hire the wrong people, the quality of your service will suffer. This is the same for every company.

The Perception of Your Business is What Makes Your Register Ring

It is in fact quite ironic that small companies make every effort to appear large, while big corporations spend huge amounts of money on marketing, public relations and advertising agencies to create more direct and personal connections with their customers. The problem is that these companies focus too much on appearances and not on delivering high quality products and services to their customers.

Perception is very important, but customers see you through your products and services. Of course, you must look and act like a healthy business, but instead of spending your money on advertising and wasting your time making false impressions, use these resources to improve your product or service and become genuinely interested in what your existing customers really think about you.

Remember that a happy customer will bring you much more business over a longer period of time than an ad in a newspaper or a nice brochure. Focus on quality, and money will follow.

Don't Add Insult to Injury

Mistakes happen, and customers become disappointed from time to time; this is normal in every business. People are buying from you because something made them believe that you are capable of delivering a good service. Don't stop! Fix the problems in a timely manner, and you will restore this faith in your brand.

When something stops working, such as your landline or Internet connection, you can ring your supplier to fix the problem for you. Unfortunately, when you call, it seems that no one is actually listening to you, or even worse - they cut you off before you even finish explaining the problem. This is a bad service.

Image Credits to katybate

If the support agent sincerely apologises and assures you that your problem will be fixed immediately, you would be happy, and you would consider this a good company. It is not the mistake or malfunction that angers people-it is when you, as a company, do not take responsibility for the problem. Every customer is important, and to every customer, their problems are critical. Keep this in mind, and you will quickly surpass your competition.

How to Handle a Dispute:

apologise for the situation, even if it is not your fault
take full ownership of the problem or assign a person to handle it
ring the customer with updates (even if there was no development in the case) to assure him or her that you are taking care of the problem
once the problem is solved, ring the customer to confirm it has been solved and apologise once again
if it was the customer's fault, do your best not to embarrass him or her and inform the customer that it happens to other people all the time
ask/investigate what could have been done better
implement the changes to prevent such problems in the future and improve response time

Organise and Act Promptly to Improve the Perception of Your Business

Image Credits to Garrett Albright

Another way to impress your customers and beat the competition (especially big companies) is to act promptly. Whenever you receive an e-mail, instant message, or phone call that you have missed, reply as quickly as possible. Be the first to the finish line every single time, and people will appreciate your efficiency.

Most people are emotional buyers-once they decide they want something, they want to have it right away. Nobody wants to send enquiries to receive a quote or to wait in the queue for a long time. If you offer your services more quickly, reply to your customers promptly and display the price information on your Website, you are better than most of the companies out there. You will be sending an invoice, while they will be sending out quotes.

To act this way, you must be well organised, and the more people you employ, the harder it will be. There are plenty of great tools to help you in this, like HighRise and BaseCamp from 37signals, but there is a learning curve, and whatever system you employ to organise your tasks, you must spend some time mastering it.

Build Two Way, Long Term, Business Relationships

You have to make the right impression, not only on your customers. All contacts you make while running your business should be equally important to you. You never know when a friend or a person you meet at a networking event will become your customer.

Image Credits to Caitlinator

After attending a networking event, do not send the same e-mail to all the people you've met. You might think people won't notice, but they usually do. You will not make a good impression if you fail to personalise your interactions with people. If you made an effort to participate in a networking event, spend some time writing personalised e-mails and don't try to sell. For example, set up a meeting to develop the relationship further. The other person might not be interested in your product, but his or her friends might seek your product later.

If someone sends you an e-mail, reply immediately. Don't postpone your response. Eventually, you will have to write back anyway, and it only takes a minute or two. This way, you are communicating to the other person that he or she is important to you. If you really have no time to reply immediately, mark the e-mail as unread, so you will notice it the next time you open your inbox.

If There Is Time Left, Don't Waste It

Running a business is difficult-it drains your energy and consumes all your time. It is too easy to forget about everything else. Be careful: if you act like a robot, you will start thinking like a robot. This will not help your business.

You should spend enough time with your family and take good care of your health. This is the real reason you run a business-to make your life more rewarding and happier. Take your time to enjoy life and all its benefits. This is the best way to enrich the quality of your company. The better you feel, the more you can achieve.