How to Improve Your Customer Retention in One Afternoon
You’ve heard the sayings forever – patience is a virtue, and good things come to those who
wait. While sound advice for nearly every other aspect of life, small business owners don’t
always have the luxury of time to sit on their hands while time works its magic – time is
money and money keeps the doors open.
Fortunately, when it comes to one of the pillars of every small business, no matter the
industry – customer service – incorporating just a handful of simple and straightforward
best practices into your company’s customer service can yield significant results. Whether
you’re a mechanic, dentist, gym owner, or real estate agent, improving your customer
service can be a quick but extremely beneficial boost to your bottom line that can be easy
on the budget as well as your already busy schedule.
Integrating a more personal but professional approach to your customer service that
incorporates first-person interaction with your customer base will breed long-lasting
loyalty that can serve as a powerful driver towards expanding that base. Following up that
direct communication with a simple email only magnifies that personal touch that, when
combined with the original interaction, can help your small business solidify steady cash
flow and stave off competitors in a hypercompetitive environment. Yes, customer service
really is that important.
The Benefits of Better Customer Service
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of customer service in such a dynamic, fiercely
competitive environment. It’s the face of your small business, the image you present to your
customers, and will ultimately be one of the most significant factors – if not the most
significant factor – in your company’s long-term success.
Furthermore, given the amount of time, effort, and money needed to attract new customers
to your small business, it simply makes sense to do everything you can to retain those that
you already have while continuing to expand your base. Poor customer service pushes you
backward, not forward.
Put differently, your small business cannot afford to have poor customer service. When over
half of consumers will never again do business with a company after just one poor service
experience – and those customers tell an average of 15 other people about that poor
experience – a single instance of bad service can have far-reaching consequences.
Alternatively, 70% of consumers are willing to spend more if it means working with a
company that has excellent customer service and, of course, will continue to frequent them.
Building on that idea, if your small business can increase its customer retention rate by just
5%, your profits can increase anywhere between 25% and 95%.
Take a Direct Approach With Your Customer Service
Technology is always most effective when it works in conjunction with the human hand, no
matter if that’s in customer service or a production line. In other words, while chatbots and
automated messaging certainly have their time and place in your company’s customer
service, they should in no way function as substitutes for direct interaction with your
customer base and their service needs.
Budget permitting, dedicating either an entire position or a significant portion of an
existing one to customer service will give your business an advantage over competitors that
are more frequently relying on purely automated customer service demands. Once again,
while there’s certainly a need for technology-driven efficiencies, both concerning cost and
time, they are not replacements for direct human interaction.
Furthermore, merely having a person on the phones fielding incoming service calls is not
enough. Whoever is providing that direct interaction between your business and your own
important customer base needs to be appropriately prepared with well-worded but
straightforward scripts to increase efficiency and overall customer satisfaction. As
evidenced by the previously referenced, somewhat foreboding statistics, an ill-prepared
customer service representative can do more harm than good if not adequately equipped
with the proper training and resources.
Follow-up Emails Only Increase Customer Service Satisfaction
Your customer base wants to feel like they’re more than just a number on a spreadsheet. To
that point, recent research has shown that small businesses that exude a sense of empathy
towards their customers are far more likely to retain them in the future. One of the most
impactful ways to create that vital sense of empathy is by following up with your customer
after a service need.
Granted, given our original premise, there’s only so much time to go around for small
business owners so, between the resources devoted towards direct interaction and
follow-up emails in customer service, such efforts might strain already thinly-stretched
schedules. In this instance, utilizing an automated platform that can follow-up with your
customers after a service call can provide the essential human touch without a considerable
investment of time. Whether you choose a manual or automated approach, however, try to
send your follow-up emails within 24 hours of the initial call to enhance the excellent
service impression you’ve already created with your efforts.
As both innovators and experts in email marketing for small businesses, we are committed
to providing you simple strategies to help grow your company, along with convenient yet
powerful technology to drive that growth well into the future. Contact us to see the
difference a few customer service improvements made in a single afternoon can make for
your company’s long-term success.
Let’s Face it. The “New Customer Funnels” that you see advertised on Social Media Daily… Don’t Freaking Work.
Learn the Honest Truth behind why you’re not getting new Customers with Facebook Ads.
References:
https://hbr.org/2014/10/the-value-of-keeping-the-right-customers
https://www.xconomy.com/boston/2018/07/05/the-empathy-economy-emotional-intelligence-in-customer-service/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2018/04/01/your-best-opportunity-for-growing-business-the-customer-experience/
https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Customer-Service-Channels-That-Frustrate-Consumers/1013637