Get your free PDF, "10 Tools to Organize and Run Your Business From Anywhere"Every business, first and foremost, is in the customer service business.
It doesn’t matter what you do, what you sell or how you sell it…..if you offer something to someone else, your business is built on how well you treat your customers. It doesn’t matter if you’re a one man shop or you have 100 employees, you’re level of customer service doesn’t need to diminish as you get bigger (unless you’re in the telecom industry of course, then you just don’t care what your customers think).
The thing is, when it comes to your competition, they can easily copy your ideas, your products, your look and feel…..the one they they can’t steal is the relationships you build with your customers. Many business don’t realize that it’s the way you treat your customers that makes you different from your competitors. It doesn’t matter if your selling tacos or diamond rings, it’s the same concept.
Every business owner should read Dale Carnegie’s classic book, “How To Win Friends and Influence People“. You should also have your employees read it. Does it have groundbreaking customer service secrets that your competitors don’t know about? Hardly. It talks about basic human principals like how people love to when you address them by name, how little gestures go a long way with people, and how being polite and courteous can change an angry customer into a loyal one. All simple concepts that seem to elude most businesses today.
Want to be stand out from your competition? Instead of thinking of some grand plan to wow them, try treating them like a good friend that just stopped by your house to say hi.
The infographic below, courtesy of Helpscout.net, has some great customer service principals you should check out. All are backed by research and shows that treating your customers like a friend really does help your bottom line.
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Gary Shouldis
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Gary,
The first sentence in this post says it all: “Every business, first and foremost, is in the customer service business.” If every entrepreneur considered this point, much of the marketing and branding we work so hard on would take care of itself. There are probably exceptions to the rule, but it’s really critical to consider how huge a part customer service plays in defining how customers see you.
Thanks for the comments, totally agree, providing great service should be the corner stone of any business model. Many businesses don’t think of themselves as customer service driven businesses, great service makes marketing and sales so much easier. Cheers
Customers are the lifeblood of any business. To survive in this competitive market, quality customer service is a must. At Focus Services, we understand that world class Customer Service is a byproduct of understanding what customers need…
http://www.focusservices.com/focus-services/