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LOGOWORKS NEWSLETTER |
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Customer Service and Your Brand
Q & A with HostedSupport.com
It takes more time for a small or medium-size business to build a brand than a large company that has a lot of money to spend on marketing campaigns, and the sad fact is that one bad experience with customer service can kill everything a small business has done to build its brand. On the other hand, great customer service and support can do more for a brand than almost anything else. Recently, we sat down with Steve Hartert, director of marketing at HostedSupport.com, to talk about how a brand is affected by customer service and what small businesses can do to create great customer experiences through stellar customer service.
Q. What role does customer service play in building a brand?
A. Your brand hinges on customer service. Generally, smaller businesses are competing against much larger businesses and the only thing that differentiates you from the big guys is customer service. You have the ability to be personal and give and more focused interaction, and bad customer support can sink a business very quickly. You probably can’t compete on price, but customers will pay a little more if they feel like they are important and get an experience with you they can’t get at the bigger stores.
Q. Can you think of an example that illustrates how great customer service can give a small business an advantage?
A. I know a gentleman that runs an office supply store that’s very small. He’s completing against the Office Maxes of the world, and people ask him all the time how he competes. Recently, he got a call from the president of a company who needed some office supplies over the weekend so he called this owner and asked for the supplies. The owner drove out to his house to take him the order, and it wasn’t even a very big order. This is what differentiates him from the bigger guys and this is how he competes. He can’t really compete on price but people realize that he can give them a different level of service and that is what he’s able to do. He’s carved out a really nice niche for himself.
Q. What is the most common mistake you see small businesses making with their customer support?
A. Trying to do a “one size fits all”. What I mean by that is they will send an email that says, “We received your email and will respond.” That’s not an answer. Customers want to be listened to and have their specific questions answered and they get stuck behind an auto answer and they don’t feel like they’re being listened to. Your question goes into that big black hole. This is not the way to show customers that you care about them.
Q. What is the most important pieces of advice you can give an employee when dealing with a frustrated or angry customer?
A. Patience is key. You cannot take it personally. You have to get past yourself. They aren’t mad at you most of the time, they’re mad about the situation. If they feel like you’re generally really trying to help them, that you really do care about fixing their problem and making things right, it drastically calms the situation down.
Q. Can you think of an example of a company who negatively impacted their brand because of poor customer service?
A. There’s a huge online company whose name I won’t mention, but they got so big and so cocky their attitude became, “Hey, if you don’t like us, there are five people right behind you.” They spent so much money on advertising and building a brand only to make a lot of customers mad and look elsewhere. It’s a simple fact that it’s much easier to hang on to your existing customer than get new ones. Customers will chase down their options until they find the company they are happy with.
Q. What advice would you give to business owners on training their staff to deal with customers?
A. Train your staff to answer every customer’s questions. If a customer asks you if something’s available in the large size, don’t try to sell them on colors. Your employees should know how the business operates. I don’t care if you have 10-15 employees, each one of them should know how to answer almost every question that is asked. And you don’t have to get back to them immediately, but you should do it in a reasonable amount of time, give them a deadline and stick to it. Customers are okay with hearing, “I don’t know. I will look into it and give you an answer in the next two hours.” You just better call them within the next two hours because the customer will watch the clock. This has a huge impact on the customer becoming a repeat customer and referring you to their friends.
Q. What are a couple of things that stand out in your mind that really annoy customers?
A. When employees say, “I don’t know. That’s not my job.” Or, when an employee won’t work with the customer and instead says, “I can’t. Our company policy is…”
Q. What advice would you give to a company that’s trying to win back a customer who’s had a negative experience with your company?
A. Sometimes you are going to lose customers and you have to learn from this mistake. Apologize. Tell them you want their business. That goes a long way with them. Go out of your way for them. Discount a delivery. Tell them, “We’ll ship it you for free.”
Q. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most important, how would you rate customer service and its relation to a brand?
A. Customer service is a 10. Think about McDonald’s. That is a multibillion dollar company. Almost your entire experience comes down to your interaction with their employees. You can have the best product in the world, you can have the most advanced delivery systems and efficiencies, but if your employees can’t handle your customers, you are doomed to fail from the start.
Q. What other advice would you give to a small business?
A. Take advantage of the technological advances that have made it possible to affordably compete with the big guys. For instance, an automated customer support system used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and then you had to hire employees to manage it. The Internet has become a great equalizer for small businesses. Now you can interact with your customers in real-time very affordably. You just couldn’t reach a customer in China before, but now with the Internet your shop is worldwide. Even the people across town can now find you. However, don’t become so enamored with technology that you use it for everything, but if you use it correctly, like with an automated customer support application, it’s an incredible tool for a small business.
About HostedSupport.com:
HostedSupport.com is a leading provider of affordable customer support automation for the growing business. Its easy-to-use system helps eliminate many of the pains small businesses face, yet is robust and scalable to expand as a company’s needs increase. They can be found at www.HostedSupport.com.
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