How Important is Customer Service?

Everyone knows that dissatisfied customers make a big deal and tell more people than happy customers and with the widespread use of social media the world can know, instantly, when one person is unhappy.

But how important is customer service for the small business, the solo practice and the online business? The answer is that great customer service is more important than ever.

Consider how you evaluate services and products in your own life. Do you enjoy shopping at stores that offer no support or with rude and dismissive sales people? Have you ever thought “oh yay, I get to call Comcast today?” Is it a joy to stand in a queue that barely moves as you stare at the box you’re buying thinking “is it even worth it?”

We have all had less than wonderful experiences out in public and for the online business there’s an even smaller threshold for patience when it comes to walking out. Because you don’t even have guilt about putting an item back on the shelf, simply click that x and go on to a new window, search for another website with the same widget. Most abandoned online carts are due to technology bugs, like a coupon code that doesn’t enter correctly or the quantity or price is incorrect.

Without support to ensure the client is getting what they ordered, questions about the order are quickly and thoroughly answered and throughout it all, the interaction is pleasant then it’s really easy to click away.

You may think that customer service can slack a little in a solo entrepreneur practice – after all you’re the only one doing all this work. However, recognize that there’s an inherent risk for a buyer working with a solo business, if anything happens to the owner then they’re stuck. So on top of taking the gamble that you can complete the work requested, the client is also wondering if you’re going to be too busy to help them out.

If you’re slacking on customer service when it comes to creating a bid, answering questions, or even just setting up a call with a lead then it communicates that you’re already too busy or disorganized to manage your business and signals to the potential client that their project would make those problems even worse.

A small business often has the same challenge, while the owner may now have a team, without clear direction on who is responsible for support, it’s easy for requests or emails to slip through the cracks. Have you had to apologize because “John thought Amanda was handling that but Amanda had stopped sending those invoices out when Suzanne started….”

Systems are very much like a relay team where you need to specify when, where and how the baton is passed from one team member to another. Understanding who is responsible is both comforting to you as the owner and to the customer who always knows who to talk to about billing, scheduling, worksheets and so on.

Customer service is so much more than avoiding bad press (which can sink a struggling small biz!). It’s about making it easy for your clients to get answers to their questions, work with your company and feel like they’re well taken care of throughout. It’s one of those things, like toilet paper, that you may take for granted until you notice its absence.