5 Ingredients of Great Customer Service

Regardless if it is done in-house or outsourced, the 5 essential ingredients of great customer service apply across. 

It is not a secret that great customer service is necessary for any successful business. What will propel your business to the top is not only the quality of the products you are offering to your consumers, but also the kind of help and support you give them when they need it. It is also quite a waste of time and energy to see everything you have built crumble down with customer services as the sole liability.

Pick up the phone

It is obvious, but the first ingredient to great customer service is to answer the phone. Let these statistics speak for itself. 

• 30% of callers will not bother to leave message when their call goes unanswered. You lose a valuable prospect and a chance to make an impression.
• 62% of callers will not bother to call back if the phone is busy. Why would they bother right?
• 79% of callers will not call back if no one picks up the receiver. Who would anyway?
• And to be put on hold is the last thing any caller would want to be. 60 seconds or less is eternity. We've all been a caller at some point and to be put on hold is not in everyone’s 

Always answer the phone. Do not let it ring on purpose unless you cannot pick up the receiver immediately. 

Make no empty promises

When pacifying an angry client, promising them what you cannot deliver won't do anything good. While it is easy to over deliver just to calm them down, it is best to remain practical at all times. Deliver only what you can and what is allowed by the company. It might even get you in trouble if you promise customers of a solution or an upgrade that you are not in the right position to call. 

Listen at all times

More often than not, the reason why we fail to deliver what our customers expect from us is we fail to understand what their concern is all about. Listening is the only way to avoid misunderstanding what customers need from us. It is also true that listening calmly allows us to understand what the customer’s issue is all about. 

Be kind and respectful

Nothing will make customers warm up to you than a kind and respectful tone on the phone. The voice you keep can also help pacify them on the get-go since they know you will take their problem or request well. A kind and respectful tone will be received well regardless of the demeanour the customer currently has. 

Own the situation

Especially if there is a problem that is completely the fault of the company, you need to own the situation and make the necessary amendments. Own the situation by making the caller aware that you will personally see that the problem will get resolved the soonest time possible. If you need to escalate the issue, inform the caller about that so they know their problem is being treated seriously and with urgency.

Invest on good customer service by hiring people who are best on the job. Invest on training too so you get the customer service reps who will not disappoint you and will not disrupt the smooth flow of your business.

Ways Small Businesses Can Lead the Game

A good number of small business owners like to think of themselves as invincible; they can do everything, be hands on as much as possible and have the level of expertise required for them to be successful at their small start-up venture. 

Even if small business owners have the drive and the will power to do it all, even the most organised and experienced small business owner need help running their enterprise. This is where outsourcing, among many other ways to cope and manage, enters the picture.

Although the idea of outsourcing is having offshore employees do the work for you, it is not just about sending work outside the country. It is about outsourcing expertise that you may not readily have available onsite. While small business owners like to believe that they have it all, it is a fact of life that there are professional expertise that can never be attained. Professional expertise such as IT support, marketing, advertising, logistics, bookkeeping and web development are examples of tasks that are best outsourced if not immediately available at hand.

Aside from outsourcing, another way for small business to lead the game is to have a web presence. More often than not, visibility is all it takes for businesses to be known, to take off and to be sought for their services. Poor and limited visibility in the commercial scene not only decreases one’s growth potential, but decreases the morale of the people invovled. After all, what good is the promise of being able to provide quality products and services if the means for exposure is not exhausted along the way?

The beauty of having a website for any small business is the cost-efficiency. There are websites that you can build on your own for free or websites that someone able can do for you at a reasonable cost. You can even outsource web developers, designers and writers for your website requirements. 

Advertising online is essentially free, but the time you need to invest on it comes with a price. If you can dedicate a small portion of your time updating your website, adding new content to your blog or engaging with your customers on your social media channels, then you will be surprised at how much you are able to save from the cost of advertising by investing time on these free tools. 

At the end of the day, it all boils down to the time a small business owner can ably put to the table. Even owners of large and well-established businesses need to invest on ways to properly manage and expand their time simply to accommodate the mountain of tasks that need their attention. 

Also, make it a habit to tap free tools that are widely available for anyone’s use. 

Aside from time and the use of free tools, it also boils down to the selection of the right people. Getting well-capacitated people to work for you is the best way to achieve success. And when resources for hiring manpower is not that high, there is always outsourcing to save the day.