As a business, small or large, it’s important to make sure your customers don’t have a reason to shop around. Customers are an integral part a successful business. Without them we would not and could not exist.
“If you think you can get away with sub-par customer service, logistics or any other function that affects your customer’s experience with your brand, think again,” says Steve Tobak, contributor to Inc.
Five Customer Service Mistakes To Avoid
Tobak provides common pitfalls every business should avoid.
Failure to Deliver
There is no excuse when a business fails to deliver a product or service to a customer as promised. Failure to deliver on a promise is what effects customer perception most.
Fix: Always set expectations and deliver what you promise.
Wasted Time
Customers don’t want to spend their day on the phone with you to figure out what is wrong and have the problem fixed. It’s a waste of their time.
Fix: Respect their time and keep communications short and sweet. Put a system in place to answer questions quickly and efficiently.
Create More Problems
Some customers aren't pleasant and it’s not easy to deal with them. “You’d think companies could do better than having customer service people who are like crazed lunatics that went off their meds,” Tobak says.
Fix: Most people just want to get through the transaction and support in a speedy manner while being treated with respect.
Ignore Feedback
Some companies don’t take feedback to heart and make it difficult to contact them directly. In the age of social media, it’s easy for customers to post negative feedback for the world to see.
Fix: Get regular feedback, encourage, and welcome suggestions about how you can improve. Listen to what they say and apply it to improve your business.
Hinder Employees
Sometimes the problems are caused by bad management and bad processes. “The most important thing I learned in quality training back in the 80s was that 90 percent of all problems are management problems,” says Tobak.
Fix: Treat your employees with the same respect you show your customers. Whether you have a large or small company, you can always improve your company culture. You just have to set the rules.
A customer complaint is a great opportunity to secure brand loyalty. One happy customer can create hundreds of potential new ones with a simple Facebook post. Customers demand a personal experience and they have a limited tolerance for mistakes so treat them that way.
What other customer service problems have you come across? How have you fixed them?
