Six DO’s and DON’T’s of Customer Service

In a world where there are multiple businesses offering similar goods and services to like client groups, the act of customer service has become increasingly important for businesses to remain viable.

Customer service is defined as the service that customers receive from a business before, during and after a purchase.  If these three processes are properly handled; that business should inevitably see an increase in both repeat and referral business.

Repeat and referral business are both important to growing a business in an economy in which consumers are increasingly exerting their power.

Image courtesy of Pinterest

The following are some DOs and DON’Ts as it relates to customer service:

DO

-       Deliver what you promise – The quickest way to lose a customer is to not deliver what you have promised; and if for some reason you are unable to deliver, be honest!

-       Respect your customers – Customers feel good when they are treated well.  The way you conduct your business will elicit a positive or negative response.  Be polite!

-       Ask yourself “how would I feel if I were the customer”? – Think about how your customers will feel before you decide to make sudden or drastic changes to your business.  Frustration or a feeling of neglect will drive your customers in the direction of your competitors.  Remember, you are competing for a limited piece of the pie.

DON’T

-       Think of the customer as a just a transaction – While businesses are in business to make money, your primary goal should be to satisfy the customer.  A satisfied customer will yield profits for years to come.

-       Be afraid of feedback – Good or bad feedback can inform the decisions you make for the business.  Sometimes though customers can get a bit testy and blow the lid off what could be a simple fix; remain calm and find solutions to fix the problems as soon as possible.  Importantly, communicate with the customer every step of the way.

-       Excuse poor service; EVER! – It is never a customer’s fault that the business is overrun with excessive numbers of customers, orders or service inquiries at any given point in time… if it means employing temporary support or working beyond official closing hours to serve your customers, do it!  Nothing is more annoying than a customer who is forced to wait excessively long periods for a simple service.

Five Steps to crafting a social media policy for your startup

Image borrowed

So you’re using social media as part of your startup marketing strategy to help build awareness for your new business but you don’t have an official policy in place.  Hopefully, you are no longer asking yourself ‘why the need for the policy’ as that would have been fully ventilated in my previous blog titled ‘What Social Media Policy!’ - https://sanciacampbell.blogspot.com/2017/02/what-social-media-policy.html

While you may be a one-man operation, you may just have someone managing your business’s social media and so your policy becomes even more important. The following are five simple steps that you can take to craft your social media policy:

1.       Have goals and objectives – Whether it is to increase brand awareness, grow your social following or increase engagement with online customers, there must be established goals and objectives for having a social media marketing campaign.  Otherwise, you will just be on social media for being sake.

2.       Have a content plan – It is critical to know exactly what you are going to post and when.  A detailed content plan does not allow for ‘winging it’.  As a business owner, you should have already found out that planning ahead is critical to achieving business goals, so it is with social media marketing.  Having a plan helps your business to define its messages and target the right audiences.

3.       Remain consistent over all platforms – It is best to synchronize your social media platforms so that posting on one, automatically publishes on all – not only does it save time but it helps your business to remain consistent over all platforms in terms of messaging. 

4.       Incorporate employees – You may have none or just one right now, but the hope is that your startup now will be an established business very soon.  It is therefore important to incorporate any employees that you have as they may very well be the one managing your social media platform.  It is important to ensure that they are aware of your business’s confidentially policy both on and offline. 

5.       Know the social media landscape – Believe it or not, not every social media space is for your business.  Do an assessment of each platform and based on their attributes and capabilities as well as the type of audiences that frequently use each platform, make a selection.

Of course, these steps are not exhaustive, the bigger your business grows, the more in-depth your social media policy should become so constant revision and input from your growing team is necessary.