What is customer service?
Customer service means supporting your customers, before, during and after they buy your products. Excellent customer service makes buying from you more enjoyable, and means customers are more likely to buy from you again. Customer service is important wherever you engage with your customers, including at markets, via email, on your website, through text messages, and on social media.
If you want to build strong relationships with your customers, and attract new ones, customer service is very important.
Are you meeting your customers’ needs?
Is your customer service helping you to keep current customers, and attract new ones? Here are some questions you can ask yourself:
- Is it clear to your customers what your business offers?
- Are you friendly and engaged and help customers meet their needs?
- Do you offer a quick, accurate phone or email service?
- Do your systems, website and online sales platforms make it easy for customers to buy?
- Do you follow-up with customers quickly and resolve issues and complaints?
Customer expectations
Most customers expect certain things from businesses. If you give a customer what they expect, the customer is more likely to keep buying from you.
- Customers like businesses that are reliable; that do what they promise.
- They like businesses that help customers and provide quick service.
- They like businesses they can trust.
- They like businesses that are caring and offer personal service.
Reliability is very important to customers. For example, a customer will think that your business is doing a good job if you deliver your product quickly and at the cost that you promised.
Review your customer service
Review your customer service regularly to see there are any things you can do to make things run better. Here are some things to consider to improve your customer service:
- Develop customer service standards.
- Put in systems and processes to ensure all areas of your business run smoothly.
- Regularly monitor and measure your performance.
If you offer excellent customer service, your customers will be happier and more likely to return – and to and tell their friends about you! This will help your business and profits grow.
Further information
This article is adapted from the Business Victoria Resource, Keeping Customers with Excellent Customer Service.
