10 Reasons Good Customer Service Should Be Your Top Priority
Whether you’re a seller or a consumer, you know how important customer service is.
Imagine that you walk into a store and no one says hello or asks if they can help you find something specific. You start to browse and can’t find a shirt in your size. There’s no employee around to ask, or when you do find one, they seem preoccupied in their folding task to actually help you.
You leave without buying anything, frustrated at the lack of enthusiasm from the companies employees.
Now imagine a much different scenario: you walk into the store and there’s someone waiting to greet you. They ask if you need help finding anything, and reassure you to ask if you do.
Even the cashier is friendly, asking if you found everything okay and if anyone helped you during your shopping experience. You leave feeling successful and happy with your experience, making a mental note to come back just for the customer experience.
Though we may not realise it at the moment, good customer service has a huge impact on our shopping decisions — as a consumer and an owner. If customer service isn’t your top priority as a business owner, here’s 10 reasons why it should be.
1. Customer Loyalty
As company owners, we know most business is good business. Though we love the customers who come back time and again, too many business owners focus on attracting new clientele.
However, it costs about five times more to attract new customers to your company than it does to keep existing customers.
It comes down to customer loyalty. Financial speaking, it isn’t worth losing loyal customers to attract new ones who are less likely to come back.
Customer loyalty is key, and to get that you need amazing customer service.
2. Buyers: New vs. Returning
So, now we know customer loyalty is important, but in more ways than you might think.
Though it’s less expensive to attract new customers, it’s also more likely that returning loyal ones will buy from your company.
3. Problem Reduction
Despite trying our hardest, we know our company will run into some problems every once in a while. Even though you can train your employees to say the right things, customers may still have complaints.
A huge part of customer service comes back to the age-old saying “the customer is always right”. While we know that isn’t always the case, making the customers feel like they can be heard and taken care of properly will ensure their loyalty and business.
Not only will this help with customer retention, but it will reduce the overall problems associated with your business and any potential legal issues. Poor customer service will decrease your customer following and could have a fatal impact on your business.
4. Brand Awareness
With today’s technology, word spreads like wildfire – good or bad.
If one person has a bad experience, they’ll be sure to tell their friends and family not to shop at your business. The same goes for a great experience – people are more likely to recommend you to others.
Customer service is paramount when it comes to building your reputation and spreading brand awareness.
Clients will recommend your brand if they know the customer service is better than other stores they’ve shopped in. You’ll have to continue the high quality of customer service to ensure their loyalty and positive reviews.
5. Service Over Price
Though sales and discounts seem crucial to consumers, they may not be the most important thing to them when it comes to companies. Studies show that consumers are willing to pay more to get the right experience.
Let’s go back to the example from the beginning of the article: if the store from the first experience had lower prices, would you felt differently? Probably not.
But if the store from the second experience had higher prices and a better experience, you’re more likely to go back – that’s right – just for the experience.
Already convinced that customer service should be your top priority?
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6. Customer and Employee Retention
We already discussed the importance of customer retention, but did we mention great customer service will also increase employee retention?
Employees who already have customer service experience are people-persons. If the employer treats them well, they will stay with the company longer.
To ensure your employees are customer service ready, ask them what the quality of customer service means to them. Test them with hypothetical customer scenarios and see how they would respond and react.
Not only will this give you a sense of how they will interact with your customers, but it will also show you how your company will be represented.
Happy customers equal happy employees, which equals a happy you.
7. Free Advertising
Remember when we talked about brand awareness? This goes hand-in-hand with advertising (the free kind).
Just like we mentioned earlier, if a consumer has a bad experience, they are sure to spread the word. However, if they have a good experience, they will likely recommend you.
Spreading good reviews by word-of-mouth is the best advertising your company can get. All you need is great customer service.
8. Opportunities and Partnerships
In the business world, we are always competing. We want to attract more business, make more money, have more customers. Simple, right?
Sometimes, customer service won’t necessarily help you with attracting more business, but it will attract potential partnerships. When other businesses see how well you’re doing with customer loyalty and brand awareness, they’ll want to be a part of that.
Few companies value their customers, which hurts their brand in the end. When other companies see you’re doing something right, they’ll want to collaborate and work together.
Who knew customer service could do so much?
9. Business Life
Let’s face it: every time we turn on the news, we see another business closing its doors. Whether it’s a well-known retail store or a mom-and-pop shop down the street, only four out of every 100 businesses last through until the 10-year mark. But why?
Most of the time it comes down to – you guessed it – customer service.
Companies have a lot of responsibilities to focus on, but pushing the customer needs to the side only hurts your business in the long run. Without customers, your business is nothing. That’s why it’s so important to focus on them and give them the best possible experience.
10. Customer Surveys
Most companies will hand out customer surveys at the end of a transaction to fill out. These typically ask what the company is doing right, what it is doing wrong, and how they can improve.
But does anyone look at these surveys? Are improvements ever made?
We can’t stress it enough – the customer is the most important thing to your company. Hearing what they say needs improvement based on their experience is what will drive the business forward. This, in turn, will continue great customer service.
Strive for Good Customer Service
Good customer service is hard to come by when it really isn’t hard to ensure at all. There are so many ways to give your customers the best experience in just a few steps.
Other important qualities that may help improve customer experience is a phone answering service. Having someone there to answer customer questions will give your company a better experience and top-of-mind awareness.
To learn more about phone answering services, visit our website. Have questions? Contact us!