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Understanding why customer service is important is vital for all small business owners. The importance of customer service acts as the building block for growth and success, taking a priority place for any business. So, why is customer feedback important? It helps your company maintain good relationships with customers, and acts as the catalyst for repeat business. This article will help you understand why customer service is important, how to make sure you have good customer service, and what you can do if you’re not happy with your company’s level of customer service.

How Important Is Customer Service For A Business?

Customer service is one of the most important aspects of any business. It can be the difference between success and failure, but it’s also a two-way street. Understanding this will help you create a positive customer experience.

Good communication is key to customer service. What many people think of when they think about customer service is answering phones and helping customers with sales. But that’s not all there is to it! Customer service involves so much more than just picking up a phone or sending an email response; it involves understanding what your customers want, how they want to do business with you, and how best to serve them by providing quality products or services in addition to good communication skills and follow-up efforts on your end as well as theirs. 

It is crucial to tailor your product or service to your customers’ individual needs, not only to make customer satisfaction scores rise but to fuel revenues and profits. Understanding how to make your customers feel special depends on your business and customer rapport. Tangible gifts such as freebies, discounts, or special offers are great ways to thank repeat customers. However, simply responding to inquiries quickly, providing genuine help, and following up with disputes are reliable ways to impress your customers and strengthen your livelihood. 

If you want to maximise the potential of customer service to grow your company and increase profitability, here are three tips:

  • Know what customers expect from their experience with your company or product by conducting surveys or interviews with them.
  • Be proactive about asking questions—and listening—because this will allow you to build rapport while also helping identify any issues they might have before they escalate into larger problems down the road (such as cancelled orders).
  • Make sure that all employees understand how important good communication skills are when dealing with customers; if there’s ever any confusion about something technical or procedural then make sure someone else takes over so that things don’t get lost in translation.

What Are The Benefits Of Good Customer Service?

Customer service is an essential part of any business. It can be difficult to manage, but it’s a vital component for building your brand, retaining customers, and attracting new ones. In fact, customer service has such a huge impact on your bottom line that it could help you grow your business exponentially.

The benefits of good customer service: 

  • Customer loyalty 
  • Increased profits 
  • Customer recommendations
  • Increased conversion rates 
  • Helps to build a strong public image 

By providing great customer service, you increase the likelihood of repeat business and referrals. In fact, over 80% of customers are willing to give their business to a company again if they had a previous positive experience with the company.

Positive reviews also play an important role in building trust between your brand and its customers. A recent study by BrightLocal found that 92% of consumers read online reviews before making their purchase decision, while 55% said they would be more likely to buy from a local business with good reviews on Google Maps or Yelp!

How Can Your Business Provide Good Customer Service?

Unsure what the best ways to provide an excellent level of customer service are? Consider these points: 

  • Be polite and respectful. Your customers will appreciate it if you show them that you’re a person, too—and not some faceless robot who only cares about their money.
  • Be patient and listen to the customer. Don’t assume that they’re wrong just because they don’t know every little detail about your product or service.
  • Offer solutions rather than excuses or reasons why something can’t be done. For example: “I’m sorry that happened.” vs “That’s not covered by our warranty.”
  • Respond to queries promptly.
  • Provide a high level of product knowledge.
  • Regularly thank customers to create a sense of community.
  • Make extra efforts to get to know your customers.
  • Regularly ask for feedback from customers.

How To Deal With A Difficult Customer

Not every interaction with a customer is positive. You might have to deal with a difficult customer. Here’s how:

  • Understand what the problem is and be patient. Don’t jump to conclusions, because it’s easy to assume too quickly that you’ve got a difficult person on your hands.
  • Be polite, empathetic, and respectful of the customer’s concerns to build a positive rapport. Even if they’re not being reasonable or nice themselves.
  • Be professional in your demeanour and tone of voice—no matter how disruptive customers may become. Nobody will respect you less for being polite than they will for losing your cool under pressure.
  • Practise active and reflective listening. 
  • Be assertive but not aggressive, remember not to take the issue personally. 

Why Is Getting Feedback On Your Business So Important?

Getting customer feedback is crucial for your business, and without asking, customers may not give feedback. It allows you to understand what your customers want, need, and think about your products or services. Not only does it help guide where you should focus in terms of marketing and advertising efforts but ultimately improves the quality of your product or service. Collecting feedback from loyal customers shows you value your customers’ thoughts and opinions by taking their constructive criticism onboard. 

Customer feedback also gives you an insight into how satisfied or dissatisfied your customers are with the way you conduct business with them. This information can help shape future strategies regarding how to improve customer relations and make the experience more memorable for those who choose to use your services in the future; solidifying an effective way to measure customer satisfaction and monitor how best to outperform your competitors. 

James Miller, My New Venture mentor

How Can You Get Feedback On Your Business?

Asking for feedback is an effective method to gather information about how well your business is doing and what people think of your customer service. You can ask customers to give their honest opinion by using these forms of communication: 

  • Feedback forms
  • Email
  • Posting on social media
  • 1:1 conversation
  • Focus groups
  • Sending them surveys

A customer service app or software allows you to collect feedback from your customers in real-time through automated surveys and live chat sessions. This means that they can provide immediate responses in the case of your absence and make things more manageable. 

Our top customer service software tools: 

What To Do Once You’ve Obtained Customer Feedback?

Once you’ve obtained customer feedback, it is important to use this information to improve your business. Small businesses that do not act on feedback are likely to fall behind and suffer losses. Showing customers you value their opinion through implementing customer feedback can help you improve your customer service, products, and services.

Unsure what the best practices to effectively implement customer feedback are? First, start by creating a customer feedback program to help you identify and implement feedback. Linking customer loyalty to your business outcomes by finding a loyalty indicator is a great way to identify what exactly fuels customer loyalty to your business. Once you have discovered this, you can then implement your customer program into the daily operations and services of your business. Always remember that customer feedback can change regularly which means it’s key to re-survey and consistently receive customer feedback to secure the growth and success of your venture. 

Customer service is one thing that many companies struggle with, but it doesn’t have to be this way. When used correctly, customer service can be your greatest asset. Learn everything you need to go from strength to strength on My New Venture.

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