Why Good Customer Service is Important
Published April 7, 2014 | Categories: Digital Marketing
While this should be a no brainer for EVERY business, I have to say I’ve experienced bad customer service more and more recently. It seems like more and more businesses that I deal with have bad customer facing employees within their business. This honestly blows my mind. Have those businesses forgot the first rule of business that obtaining a new customer is 10 times harder than retaining an old customer. They must also have forgotten that bad news travels faster than good news.
So with that in mind let’s talk about 3 reasons why good customer service is so important.
1 – Happy Customers will likely be return customers. Not only will happy customers come back but they are also likely to bring people back with them. Let’s take a car dealership for example. If you go to buy a car from a dealership and the salesman avoids answering your questions, hounds you when you leave, or doesn’t treat you with the upmost respect, the likelihood of you returning to that dealership to buy a car is low. However, if you have a great experience you’re likely to buy the car, probably return there to get it serviced and tell people where you got it. Next time you’re ready to buy a car, where will you go first. The dealership you had the best experience at.
2- Negative word of mouth spreads like wild fire. This is especially true for higher priced items. Let’s again take a car for example, when a customer is ready to buy a car they might ask friends where to go. Well if the friends they asked had a bad experience somewhere they are likely to tell the potential customer to stay away from so-and-so place because _____(you fill in the blank). Some people won’t even have to be asked, they will tell anyone and everyone that will listen about their bad experience. You don’t want this to happen which is why you always want to make sure every customer has the best experience. It’s important to keep in mind, bad PR isn’t always good PR. Just think about all the bad stories local news stations report on businesses and how many sales they lose because of it. The last thing you would want is for someone’s story about your business to be picked up by the news media and told locally or nationally…unless of course it’s good news.
3 – Online Reviews Show in Search. Yes, that’s right. Online reviews on local directories and social media can be seen when someone searches your business name. Since your Google + Profile shows on the top of the page and to the right of search results. It’s important to make sure potential customers see good ratings and reviews. The last thing you want is for a potential customer to read about someone else’s bad experience and decide not to give your business. Online review sites are becoming more and more popular, which again is another reason it’s so important to make your customer feel like they are valued. Just think, if you provide the best customer service and don’t give the customer anything to complain about, then it’s less time you have to spend on brand reputation management and responding to negative comments on various sites. Not only that, but think about how many people might see those negative comments on websites or social media. I recently posted a review for a company I did business with on Facebook and saw that friends of mine liked the post. Come to find out, my review showed up in their news feed!
Having good customer service is important for so many more reasons than just the three I talked about. Seriously, the list could go on and on. No matter what kind of business you are or what your job title is, you and your business should always practice good customer service skills. Don’t be like every other business; be better than all the rest! Strive to be the best, so customers continue to come back and spread positive word of mouth! Provide exceptional customer service and make your customers feel special! Go above and beyond. I promise you, it will lead to more sales down the road.
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