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No 49                                                                               February 2005

Customer Service = Loyalty = Sales = income

Think about your reaction when you receive poor service! How often have you told someone about a bad service experience? Often, I bet. Customers have long memories for a bad experience and considering the importance of "word of mouth" marketing it is important to ensure your business is providing the BEST customer service possible. Your job as a business owner is to provide consistent and outstanding customer service! Every satisfied customer will become a walking advertisement for your business. The key to customer service is to make it easy to deal with your company. Make EVERYthing easy:

• Make it easy to find you
• Make it easy to contact you
• Make it easy to determine what you do or sell
• Make it easy to select your product
• Make it easy to pay
• Make it easy to return product, if necessary
• Make it easy to get answers

Put yourself in place of the customer when assessing your performance. Little things make a difference. The following are a few elements of "customer satisfaction" - you'll surely find more that are specific to your own business.

1. Make sure that ALL who act on your behalf understand that the customers are #1.
2. Never, never argue with a customer. Even if the customer is wrong, try to turn the situation positive. There is the adage "The customer is always right"
3. Don't use a telephone answering machine or a voice mail system unless absolutely necessary. Don't use one of those systems where the customer is told "Dial 1 for… Dial 2 for… Dial 3 for …. Dial 0 for Operator" Customers like to talk to real people, not machines. Think how irritating it is for you to wade through the typical voice-mail "menu." If you must use a machine, choose one over an answering service. With a machine you know what will be said to the caller.
4. Answer the telephone by the second ring. Here's a neat trick: Before answering, take a deep breath and smile! It's amazing how this can change how you sound at the other end of the phone line!
5. Say "Thank you" frequently ... be courteous.
6. Provide something free (coffee, bagels, pens).
7. ALWAYS return telephone calls and email promptly.
8. Answer your own telephone.
9. Deal with complaints expeditiously.
10. Make your product/service easy to purchase - be clear with your client about billing arrangements.
11. Provide free samples - if appropriate.
12. Always go the "extra mile" for your customers.
13. Don't ever blame anything on a "computer problem." The customer doesn't care.
14. If you deal in an expensive product or service with few customers, follow up each sale with a telephone call or written communication.
15. Use customer satisfaction surveys. As portfolio workers, this will replace the performance review that all employees receive. You will always learn something that is surprising.
16. Provide a money-back guarantee if possible. (It is amazing how few people actually return products).
17. Periodically remember your preferred customers. Send them all pens or coffee cups but not during the holiday season - you don't want to compete with other gifts and mailings!

These are just a few ideas.

Think about what annoys you with other organisations and businesses and don't incorporate them into your procedures.

Think about what pleases you with other organisations and businesses then incorporate them into your procedures and practices.

Providing exceptional customer service is one major way a small and home based business can compete with larger businesses. Don't forget this and you'll win and keep customers. Remember it is less expensive to retain an existing customer than find a new one!

In Business, Image Isn't Everything; It's The Only Thing!

We have all heard this lament, but how much do we practice it. With all the relaxed rules today, do we really present ourselves in the best light. It seems all the articles I see today are about how old fashioned today's workers find their supervisors or bosses to be in the way they dress, the policies they implement and the old fashioned ways in which they conduct their business (that Generation ?? stuff).

I am of the belief, and will continue to believe, that the first impression I make is the lasting one. Whether it is by phone, web site or in person, I want to present myself in the best possible light. But then again, I am from the old school, the one today's workers are complaining about. I am not saying that we have to join the black suit brigade. It's much more who we talk to, what we say and how we say it. That first and initial contact that may lead to sealing a deal is likely to be a verbal exchange rather than in writing.

I am not advocating living in the dark ages. I believe for a business to survive it has to move with the times, but the basic structure and foundation on which we have built our business - image, courtesy, ethics, the customer being right, are the cornerstones to running a successful business, whether it is home-based or not.

Too many home-based businesses have taken the pyjama mentality into all of their business practices. I have called on businesses that have cute messages on their machines, music that is obnoxious, children answering the telephone, screaming televisions, radios in the background. This does not inspire confidence in me to do business with them. A portfolio or any small business that operates from anywhere can and must be professional and present itself accordingly.

That is not to say I have not had reservations about companies that have offices outside the home. In fact, it was a call placed to one that inspired this article. When I called and spoke to the owner of this business in town, the owner had no idea on how a particular process that she was offering worked or what it's cost would be. Wow, it's her business and she doesn't know how it works or what it costs. Guess who I didn't do business with. I am not saying you have to be an expert, but at least know the basics and tell me you have an expert in your network that will be better able to help me, don't hum and ha and tell me you don't have a clue. This does not give me a good impression of you or your business.

There are businesses in corporate offices that are more fun houses than companies...and they don't inspire any confidence in me either, so I am not picking on small business or the single operator.

The purpose of this article is to remind all of us portfolio workers, home-based and non-home-based, (myself included ) that how we present ourselves is of paramount importance.

When you answer your telephone, answer it in a professional manner. When you go to an outside meeting, if you are home- based, dress for the meeting, not for home. If you have clients come to your home, be sure it is presentable, and that you are too. Just because you work out of your home, does not mean, shorts and a T-shirt are necessarily appropriate for meeting a client. Have your identity package (business cards, letterhead, brochure), proofread and spell check any correspondence that leaves your office.

Your first impression, whether in person, by phone, or correspondence is a lasting one. Make it a good one and you'll have clients for life if you treat them right - the old fashioned way.

The only place I've ever found I was wrong is with restaurants. Some of those little holes in the wall have turned out to have the best service and the best food, so I guess when it comes to businesses, you can't judge all books by their covers, just most of them.

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