While it certainly isn’t easy to run a business of any size, it could be argued that small businesses have it tougher. They have limited resources, members of staff often have to juggle a few roles, and they have to find the time to prospect for new customers, manage their current clients, and provide support for their past customers.
It’s often this last step that is overlooked or badly managed, but in reality, customer service skills are vital for the success of any small business. Why? Read on to learn 5 reasons customer support skills or services are crucial to your small business.
- It’s easier to retain customers than to capture new ones
How much does it cost for you to attain a new customer? And how much does it cost you to retain one? It is far easier, and cheaper, to keep a customer than it is gain new ones. Customer support is vital for businesses that want an abundance of return customers and great reviews. A customer will go to a competitor if they have a bad experience with your business when they reach out for support.
- It’s key to great reviews
Today, a disgruntled customer has endless options for where they can share their negative experience with a business. Not only can they tell their friends, family, and colleagues, but they can also review your service and leave their thoughts as a Google review, on social media, in a video or blog post, and many other review sites.
Just one bad experience can cause a customer to never return to you, or even leave a negative review. Many people are only spurred to leave reviews (negative or positive) after interacting with your customer service team, whether that team is just you or a whole department.
- Customer service encompasses and represents your brand
Other than your branding efforts and content marketing, your customer support services are the most direct way your customers will interact with your brand. Your customer support team, regardless of size, are responsible for encompassing what your brand stands for and accurately representing it to your customers. Their customer support skills directly represent your brand.
- A great customer service experience spurs referrals
No one feels better about recommending a business, product, or service to a friend or stranger than after a great customer service experience. They are sure that not only will that person love the product or service, but should they have any queries or problems that the company will do what they can to resolve the issue quickly. In other words, that company can be trusted.
- Great customer service support services equal brand loyalty
In the last point, we mentioned the word “trust”. There is nothing more important in business than trust, and if you give your customers a reason to trust you and great customer support experiences, you’ll create brand loyalty.
How to Offer Great Customer Support in a Small Business
Growing small businesses are often strapped for time, so how can you ensure great customer service? If you can, have one person or more on your team whose only job is to manage customer support – they take calls, manage messenger apps, and reply to emails. Train those people as best you can, and make sure they know your branding inside-out.
