Customer Service:
It's Not Just a Department, It's An Experience - January 2009
Happy New Year and welcome to the January issue of "Customer Service: It's Not Just a Department; It's an Experience." Most of us make New Year's resolutions concerning our personal life: I will lose 10 pounds, I will quit smoking, I will pay off my debt. Those are all well and good, and can help us personally, however, have you made any resolutions that can help your business?
This is the perfect time to resolve to take better care of your customers and clients in 2009 and beyond so that they remain your customers and clients.
Read on to learn more about the lifetime value of your clients and to find out what business you're really in!
Here's to a successful 2009 that brings you many new customers and clients and strengthens your relationship with your current ones.
In This Issue:
You're in the Customer Service Business | All It Takes is One | What is the Lifetime Value of Your Clients?
You're in the Customer Service Business!
Did you ever stop to really think about what business you're in? If you ask most people, they'll say things like sales, healthcare, banking, insurance, computer software, retail, etc. If that's the kind of answer you'd give, you'd only be half right! Answer this: If all of your customers went away for good, would you still have a business? Of course not! Therefore, that's an indication of the just what type of business you're in:
YOU'RE IN THE CUSTOMER SERVICE BUSINESS!
And that means you not only need to know the right way to fix computers, create widgets, run equipment, or whatever, you also need to know the right way to serve customers. You need to know it, and more importantly, you need to practice it, every day, with every customer.
When you look at what most organizations say nowadays, it's obvious that they recognize the importance of good customer service. It seems that everywhere you look you find businesses proudly hanging signs that say: "Customers come first," "We're here to serve," and "We go the extra mile." Does that sound familiar? Of course it does, and the irony is that while all this noble, well-intended talk is on the rise, it's apparent that the quality of service, in general, is on a steady decline.
Look at your own experiences as a customer: Hasn't great service really become the exception rather than the rule? Don't you find yourself pleasantly surprised when people go out of their way to serve you? Haven't you at some point, with some vendor, taken your business elsewhere because of poor service?
What about the service that YOU are providing? Are you delighting or disappointing your customers? And how would you even know? You might find out after it's too late, when they've already left. The fact of the matter is, when customers are dissatisfied, they often don't tell us, they just leave!
The bottom line is this: Businesses are losing customers every day because they aren't walking the customer service talk ... they aren't treating customers the way they say they will. That needs to change and it needs to be changed today.
We need to talk about how you meet one of today's most pressing business challenges: satisfying and keeping the customers that pay the money that pay your bills. That last part - paying your bills - should be reason enough to pay attention.
Unfortunately, these days satisfying customers isn't enough. Satisfied customers aren't loyal. And they are quick to leave and take their business and referrals elsewhere if their needs aren't met.
Here are some simple yet powerful techniques, strategies and a few things to remember - all designed to help you successfully deliver the absolute best type of service. Most of them don't cost anything, are easy to implement and can have a huge impact on your business.
- Hire for attitude, train for skills.
- Smile, even if you're on the phone.
- Use your customer's name. Make it personal.
- Do what you say you're going to do, when you say you are going to do it.
- Follow up, follow up, follow up.
- Thank your customers, for the first order, and the fifteenth order.
- If you make a mistake, own it, and then fix it.
Don't wait until your customers leave to take action. Remember, your business IS customer service!
All It Takes is One
One bad experience that is!
A colleague was trying to get into a company that he wanted to do business with. I was able to make an introduction for him. Great, a foot in the door. What he found when he got to the door, was that it was about to be slammed in his face, and it had nothing to do with him!
You see, several years ago another sales rep had this account and the company had a bad experience with the sales rep. They vowed never to do business with that company again.
All it takes is one! Make it a good one so this doesn't happen to YOU!
What is the Lifetime Value of Your Clients?
Psssst... Have you asked yourself? What is the lifetime value of my clients?
If you have taken the time to calculate the monetary value of your existing clients then you know how imperative it is to retain them - for life!
Studies are conclusive that it costs much more to find and secure a new client than it does to retain existing ones. We know from these studies that we should spend most of our advertising dollars and efforts on retaining customers rather than prospecting new ones...yet most businesses don't follow this strategy. Why not? Many businesses or individual sales representatives don't have the time or manpower to take the steps necessary to stay in front of their clients on a consistent basis. When faced with an "either or" situation of committing valuable time and resources to existing customers or placing it on sales efforts, many times the quest for new business will win out.
Here's how Client Keeper NY can help.
Greeting cards keep your name in front of your clients in a friendly, non-intrusive way. Creating a consistent greeting card mailing program will help you establish the kind of personal business relationship that will keep your clients for a lifetime. Best of all, once you choose the cards - they'll do all the rest. This frees your time to stay focused on prospecting (their cards can help with that too) and following up on the referrals you'll receive from your existing client base as your relationship with them grows and grows...
While you choose the cards and supply the mailing list, they customize the cards for you, print your name, company name, and phone inside the card, hand-sign each card with a first name signature similar to yours, insert your business card, affix commemorative postage to a colorful envelope and mail.
The best part? All this for less than the price of an average greeting card! They do the work while you reap the benefits. What could be better than that?
Please check out their website, and give them a call or send them an email. Tell them Randi sent you!
You won't be disappointed.....And that's no bull!
Jodi Weiner
Client Keeper NY
www.Clientkeeperny.com
clientkeeperny@hotmail.com
631-363-2315
"You work hard to get them, and even harder to keep them. Let us do the work for you!"
In Conclusion...
Thanks for taking the time to read this edition of "Customer Service: It's Not Just a Department; It's an Experience". It is our hope that you not only get the customer or client, but that you also hold onto them! If you have clients, colleagues or friends who wants to hold on to their customers too, do them a favor and forward them this newsletter.
Until next time, take good care of your customers, or someone else will! See you next month!
Sincerely,
Randi Busse
Call us today to set up a free consultation:631-598-5598
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