Notes

2.5 Ways to Improve SMALL COMPANY Customer Service
Great customer service is one of of the pillars that supports a successful small business. Offering great service to your clients, prospects and vendors can help establish your reputation, build trust, create brand equity and fuel growth. What are the customer "pain points" when it comes to service? How can your enterprise become better at delivering an excellent service experience?

"Pain Points"

Global customer satisfaction research completed by Accenture found that the next service issues were probably the most frustrating for consumers:

Needing to repeat information to multiple customer support representatives
The shortcoming of agents to solve problems immediately due to insufficient information or authority
Being left on hold for long periods of time
Slow service - the amount of time it requires to react to inquiries
1.0 Phone Management
In my opinion, answering the phone (instead of using an auto-attendant) is a wonderful starting point with regards to providing better customer service. In How To Use Android Phone On Pc , having a live voice at another end of the line can become become a major point of differentiation and a big competitive advantage for the small business.

2.0 Empowerment

Another great way to boost your customer service would be to empower your staff by:

Providing your employees with just as much information about your organization as possible
Training your team to be able to handle a multitude of inquiries
Entrusting staff with decision making powers that enable the solution of problems "at that moment"
This formula was utilized by Southwest to become service leader in the airline industry. An excerpt from "Nuts - Southwest Airlines' Crazy recipe for Business and Personal Success" by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg illustrates the point:

"Usage of critical information grants customer-contact people the data and understanding they need to take ownership and responsibility for doing the proper thing. For instance, a Southwest customer service agent who understands how the company makes its money, where profits come from and what they mean to the company, is in an improved position to serve a person who is making a special request. Customers who cope with Southwest employees rarely obtain the runaround. Instead they are likely to deal with someone who is up to date, makes sound decisions and contains a flexible, creative problem solving approach. their understanding of the company gives the folks of Southwest Airlines the confidence and power to truly make a difference in the lives of these customers."

2.5 Technology

Why the 0.5 you might ask? Well, technology is really a double edged sword - it could hurt your small business' customer service efforts just as much as it can help. The Accenture research report had this to state about the effects of technology on the provision of customer service:

"For the most part, individuals are unimpressed with the role technology plays operating. Actually, 51 percent of respondents worldwide usually do not believe that increased use of technology operating has improved the amount of customer service. Consequently, it isn't surprising to find so few consumers report being satisfied with technology-centric service channels such as automated telephone and online chat."

Be sure to take a balanced approach in terms of using technology to provide customer service and have yourself the question: Is this technology going to help solve a customer service pain point?

Among my favourite uses of technology addresses the slow service issue. Customers or prospects searching for service/information by way of a website will get pretty frustrated by the amount of time it takes to get a response. Solution: map your site service touch point i.e. "[email protected]", "[email protected]", etc to the specific email addresses of your service team and have those email accounts associated with BlackBerrys. This will provide you with the ability to take part in a conversation with a person instantly and address a major service pain point.

For a good example of technology that might create a pain point instead of alleviating one, have a look at a recently available post by David Meerman Scott - he offers a good personal service story of how technology can skip the mark.

Mark Smiciklas is a Vancouver Marketing Consultant. His firm, Intersection Consulting, helps small to mid-sized businesses address challenges in the regions of marketing, management and business development.

To find out more about Intersection Consulting, please visit http://www.intersectionconsulting.com

For more thoughts and ideas on marketing and management for small business please visit the Intersection Blog at http://www.intersectionconsulting.com/blog
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