For all the time you spend developing and pricing your products or services, managing costs, and marketing your brand, how you treat customers can be the tipping point in driving your small business’s growth and profit.
Here are five simple ways to improve your customer-service game in 2014.
1. Invest in listening posts. “Often, small companies invest a ton of money in advertising to generate leads — only to mistakenly let customer inquiries (by phone and other channels) go unanswered,” says Ben Landers, president and CEO of internet marketing firm Blue Corona. “Today’s customer is always connected. They email, text, tweet, and post feedback across all media. Increasingly, they expect a near instantaneous response.”
To get a handle on all that customer activity, it’s critical to understand the tools your target audience uses to find and share information. Then, invest in creating a “listening post” that ensures someone at your company is dedicated to fielding customer inquiries as soon as they come in. Your customers will receive better service, which can help you generate sales through channels that have a lower acquisition cost than the ones you’re already using.
2. Find a way to compete with larger businesses. Being small doesn’t mean you can’t give larger competitors a run for their money. You just need to think strategically. Mike Dash, president of online auto-parts store Car Part Kings, says that adding free shipping and returns was the catalyst for increased order volume, average order size, and customer satisfaction (which increased by 45 percent), in just three months.
Dash admits it took quite a bit of data analysis to arrive at an offer that benefited both customers and the business, but the effort paid off. “We also offer two-day shipping, and [we] saw an immediate sales lift of about 20 percent just by adding the benefit to the order,” he says. “Our prices may be slightly higher now, but people’s psyche often tells them not to buy online unless it ships free.”
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