Customer Service – How important is it for your business?

Good Customer Service – Do you offer it as standard?

If you dont give your customers an amazing service, experience or journey and treat them with respect it will have a damaging impact on your brand.

So, in our opinion delivering exceptional customer service is an ideal way for a small business to differentiate your brand from the big guys and competitors and become one of your unique selling points.

Bad news travels fast, which is why Social Media can be both good and bad for your brand. Have you had a bad review ? and if so how did you deal with it ?

Examples of Good Customer Service

At Millfield Media,  our unique selling point is that we add a personal touch or go above and beyond what is expected, our reputation will go before us.

Exceeding Customer Expectations... is what we like to do. This can be as simple as telling them what day and time their delivery will be.

That way our customers become our brand advocates and without asking they will recommend us to friends, family and colleagues because they were delighted with the service … a big tick in our box.

According to the Institute of Customer Service “A tangible product is only one aspect of the supplier/customer relationship.

The other aspect is service; indeed, in many businesses, there is no physical product. The only relationship is service”

In today’s competitive business environment, the quality of customer service is paramount.

By monitoring the quality of our service we have learned a lot from our customer interactions, which has made us rethink our service and processes.

For us our service quality together with managing our customers expectations will always be a priority.

Yes it is challenging but as a brand who want to create and maintain a good reputation it is an essential part of marketing particularly if you are a local business or supplier, and in competition with the big guys.

We’ve all been there, customer expectations are pretty high these days and there are plenty of competitors to entice them away.

We all say we provide an excellent customer service, but what if you just didn’t on this one occasion for whatever reason ?

Lets face it things do go wrong. As a small business it is now a necessity to encourage customers to leave a review to manage our reputation effectively.

Although it is quick and easy to do not all customers take up the chalice. I must say that I always give feedback or reviews where ever possible.

Are you scared to ask your customers in case you are faced with a negative or nasty review?

Well if they do, thats all fine because it is how you respond to their bad review that could just make all the difference.

The first step is dealing with the customer complaint or low review quickly, if it is on social media for all to see. What is really bothering them, and what were their initial expectations ?

  • low quality service
  • bad user experience
  • low quality product, or not as expected
  • Delivery problems

At Millfield Media  our aim is to regain our customers trust and understand their frustrations in the first place.

A good customer experience is crucial to the success of any business.

When it isn’t delivered, it’s then becomes a problem. However, you can easily turn that negative into positive.

Bad customer service is the first step in turning a negative into a positive 

Customers may be unhappy with the product or the service they have got, but they will leave being satisfied  with the customer service experience and the solution you have provided.

I always thank our customer for their feedback, then validate their experience putting myself in their shoes. Remaining calm throughout, understanding what their frustrations are.

If they’ve experienced a low quality product / service, we would show an understanding of the issue.

Asking  what the customer was expecting is the first port of call

Then explain how im going to ensure it wont happen again. If their complaint is more general I would get as much detail as possible then take the discussion offline and ring to speak to them.

Sometimes it is just a lack of understanding or information. Usually for us it is the delivery or production time has been interpreted wrongly.

We try to supply the correct and appropriate information at the time of ordering.

So what went wrong ? Our customer didn’t get the product delivered on the day she needed it for an exhibition.

Our 3/4 day turnaround didn´t happen because of two bank holidays. We learned from this and adjusted the timescale accordingly.

In all cases, I try to defend my brand publicly and let them know how we plan to resolve the issue.We want to regain their trust and let them know that we value them.

Always apologise and offer them a goodwill gesture ! This could be their money back, a future discount or freebies.

Above all  learn from it and try to ensure it dosent happen again😉

Customer reviews which ones are best for your business ?

The many options available for reviews are growing and it would be unreasonable to ask them to leave a review on all of them.

So, which one is optimum for your business and easiest for your customers ? 

Google My Business allows reviews, comments, and pictures. As a small Business this is an amazing FREE tool,

Why ? because it is Google of course, it can give you a boost in a search for people who are searching in your area for a specific business.

Do you opt for your own website perhaps, and use Trust Pilot ?

Do you use a social site like Twitter which is so fast paced it would be difficult to find (unless you had a review hashtag, perhaps), but the tweets can still be found in search results.

Facebook is now moving up the ranks as the first place potential customers visit although they have retired the star rating system. Now, when your customers want to write a review, they can choose to recommend or not recommend your Page.

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