The Customer Service Trenches

When running a business, you may find yourself removed from the day-to-day operations of your company. You have a lot of administrative tasks that only you can handle. While all business owners find themselves in this situation from time to time, it would be wise to step out of that role and deal with your customers one on one.

You will often see this arrangement at busy restaurants and retail stores. Managers will greet guests, make sure their needs are being met, and even walk them through their business transactions. They will go through the steps that their employees would do to ensure a sale, and interact with customers on a personal level.

Why is this important for a business owner? There are a number of reasons why you should take time to work in the customer service trenches.

• Your customers get to know you. People enjoy meeting the owners of the shops that they frequent. If they see you and your business as a human operation, and not a corporate conglomerate, they will identify with you personally. This builds customer loyalty, as they will return often to enjoy the camraderie you bring to your business.
• You will inspire your employees. When they see their boss working just as hard as they are, unafraid to do any menial task, they will increase the level of customer service. They realize that you genuinely care about the success of your business, and that the customers are precious to you. Workplace morale will increase, and everyone will benefit.
• You will have hands-on experience about what works and what doesn't within your business. Practices that sound good in the planning stage don't always implement well. When you have tried them out for yourself, you can see what needs changing, and will have a good idea of what will work best for your business and your customers.

You may not always have time to get your hands dirty and personally work with your customers one on one. Yet every time that you do, you will learn a lot of valuable business lessons. Take time to meet with your customers and bring them the satisfaction they are looking for, and you will see your business flourish.

Set Your Goals Around Your Customers' Needs

Many businesses focus on the bottom line when they set their goals for the year. The amount of profits they want to earn, or the amount of new customers they want to draw to their business. While these are all clear, measurable goals, they miss a key component of customer service.

Your goals may not be the customers' goals. Your customers may never know how much money that their purchases really earn you. They will not know that they are included in the statistics of your PowerPoint graphs at the third quarter sales meeting.

The customers will only be aware of the experiences they have when purchasing and using your products. Very rarely will any additional concerns come to their minds.

How should you include your customer service needs into your yearly goals? Here are some ways to make the customers' goals your goals.

• Include increased customer satisfaction as one of your goals. Set a percentage you would like to strive for. Arrive at a base number, by sending out surveys to your customers, and let them rate your services on a scale of 1 to 10. Then send out the same questions at the end of the year.
  
• Allocate a higher percentage of your budget to increasing the quality of the services your customers did not rate very highly. The more time and energy you devote to what your customers ask for, the better your customer service quality will be.
• Spend time retaining your existing clients. While a business will surely grow by attracting new customers, it will flourish when it provides existing, loyal customers with the ultimate care. The increase in word-of-mouth advertising that your customers will provide will make these efforts worthwhile as well.

Have you set your business goals to include your customers' needs? What has worked for you, and what has not? Share your experiences here.

Go To Where Your Customers Are

There are many times when your customers will not come to you when they have a problem with your business. They may have the impression that you are too busy to address their concerns, or they were not as interested in your product as they originally thought. However, they will most likely tell their friends about their experiences with your business, whether in person or online.

As a business owner, you need to be aware of what is being said about your company. There could be easily fixed problems that you would never know about, because none of your customers thought to tell you directly. In person, there is not too much you can do, besides reading the letters to the editor section of your newspaper, or listening to the conversations your customers are having within your store walls.

However, online communications can give you a bit of an edge. You can set up searches for your business name, so whenever someone talks about your business, you will be notified. Google search notifications are a good place to start. These will appear in your inbox daily, letting you know what word of mouth press your company is receiving.

You can also use the search function on Twitter, to see if anyone is addressing your company. Surprisingly, many people tweet about a company, just to see if they will get a response. Use this to your advantage, and respond as soon as possible to any customer concerns.

There is another great service available for business owners who want to keep track of their public image. Social Mention is a search engine that tracks your business name on blogs, microblogs, comments, and even video. This tool could prove to be very valuable for your business.

Using the online tools available to you to address customer concerns is an excellent way to build customer loyalty. Once they know that you are listening, and are ready to address their needs, they will come to you with any additional concerns they may have. This technique will build your business, and soon you will only be hearing good word of mouth advertising from here on out.

Keep It Simple For Your Customers

To draw customers to your business, you need to keep their options as simple as possible. The moment a customer is frustrated with your business is the moment they disconnect from you in their minds. They may not leave right away, but they will have one eye open to your potential competitors' offers.

Keep the customers' purchasing options simple and well-defined. For example, many cell phone service providers offer unlimited calling plans where customers are charged a set fee per month, no matter how many phone calls they make. While many customers may never test the limits of such a plan, they enjoy knowing the exact cost up front. This is a much simpler arrangement than calculating what time of day is cheapest to make a phone call.

Include petty costs in your overall price. Restaurants are a prime example of when this can make or break a sale. If you find that you are losing money because many of your customers request extra tomatoes on their sandwich, you have two options. You could require a 5 cent charge whenever they ask for extra tomatoes, or you can add additional tomatoes to your sandwiches and increase the price by 5 cents. Customers naturally question any additional charges to their meals, and may feel taken advantage of over such a small amount. When you include your operating costs in the product prices, your customers understand the tiny increases.

Limit the number of options you present to your customers. The more choices given to a customer increases the feeling of making the wrong choice. This unintentional indecision leaves customers grasping at straws, or not making a purchase at all. Show customers exactly what you have to offer, and how it stacks up to the competition. With the necessary information, they will be able to make an informed choice. They will also feel confident when purchasing from you, since you make the choices as clear as possible.

Making the buying experience for customers as simple as possible is not difficult. Think through the options you are presenting your customers, and make sure they are the best ones for you and your customers. When you make life easy for your customers, they will be happy to return to your business, assured of exactly what they are getting.

View Your Business Through the Customer's Eyes

You may have all of your systems in place to give your customers the best possible service. Yet it is important to give these systems a trial run before your customers use them. You may come across unexpected hang ups, that could turn business away.

Go through the steps your customers would take to find your business. If you are online, make sure your ads are pointing to the correct page on your website. If you own a brick and mortar business, follow the directions you give out to arrive at your storefront. How easy is it to find and access your business? Is there any way you can simplify the process for potential customers?

Attempt to find out more about your business. Your website needs to clearly explain what you do, and how it benefits the customer. Your about me page should explain who you are, what your company does, and why you are passionate about your product. In your community, you should be involved in local business organizations, and your chamber of commerce. Be sure any public listing about your company has accurate information.

Purchase your product. Check all the links that your customer needs to click on to process their order. Make sure they are easy to read, easy to find, and work correctly. Make errors throughout the shopping process, to see what pages your customers might see. These pages should make it easy to fix the problem and continue shopping. Go to your store and purchase a product from one of your employees. Ensure that all quality systems that you have put in place are being followed.

Allow a friend who doesn't know much about your business repeat this process. Allow them to research your business naturally, using the systems they would for any business. Ask them what was easy and what was difficult.

Make any necessary changes, and then let your customers try out your system, and accept their feedback. No matter how intuitive your business is to you, it is brand new to your customers. If the process is not as simple as possible, your customers will be unlikely to purchase or to return. The more times you look through their eyes, the more chances you will see to improve your business.

Admit Your Business Mistakes

We all make mistakes. It is part of what makes us human. However, as business owners, we develop a strong sense of perfectionism that makes it difficult for us to even recognize our mistakes, let alone admit to them.

Yet you can turn wary customers into loyal ones, by being transparent and direct when it comes to admitting and fixing your mistakes. Customers will stick with a business that is open and honest with them, and will flee from one found to be covering their tracks. Here are some tips on how to deal with your business mistakes.

• Have quality checks. Whether these are weekly reviews or point by point inspections, you need to have systems in place to be on the lookout for potential mistakes. This reassures the customer that you are looking out for their best interest, and are committed to offering a quality product.
• Admit to yourself when there is a problem. Many business owners put up the blinders when evaluating if mistakes have been made. If you cannot admit it to yourself, you cannot fix the problem for your customers. Do not let your pride or fear of failure hinder you when building your business.
• Decide on the best way to fix the mistake. Do whatever it takes to make things right for your customers. Then, choose the best way to communicate the error and the steps you took to fix it to your customers. If you can tell your story before irate customers tell all of their friends, you will appear to be in control of the situation. This will establish you as a strong business who isn't afraid to get your hands dirty to deliver ultimate customer service.
• Ask for feedback. After you have done everything you can think of to rectify the situation, ask your customers if there is anything else you can do. Their answers may surprise you, and give you new insights about your business practices.

Have you seen any examples of a business freely admitting its mistakes? Or have you dealt with a business that handled their mistakes poorly? Share your stories here!

Listening to Your Customers

How do you know what your customers want? Have you ever thought about asking them? Listening to your customers is one way to guarantee that you are providing the best possible products and services that will meet their needs.

In order to listen to your customers, you need to create methods of listening. Here are a few possibilities.

• Create a poll on your website. Ask them something simple, as in "What would you like to see more of on this website?" Be sure to leave an "Other" option, and include a contact box where they can leave additional comments. It may turn out that what you thought they wanted couldn't be farther from the truth.
• Ask them about the quality of your service. When your transaction is complete, ask your customers if there is any area in which your business could improve. You can do this face to face, via email, or through a survey. The answers may surprise you.
• Offer customer support. Have a telephone number or email address they can contact at any time to get immediate answers to their questions. What may be an easy process for you may be difficult for the average consumer. Give them the chance to explain their problem, and offer solutions as soon as possible. Without this in place, customers may turn elsewhere rather than continue to puzzle through your business.
• Value their opinions. Nothing is worse than the feeling that you are not being heard. Once you have gathered information about your customers' needs, follow through. Implement necessary changes that will make their experience better. Be sure to let them know that you were listening, and are striving to improve the quality of your business.

What methods of listening does your business have in place? Have you seen a business that truly values what its customers have to say? Join in the conversation