Information about Business Service

Tim Knox If you're a regular reader of this column you know that my number one pet peeve is bad customer service. Nothing chaps my backside more than paying hard-earned money for a product or service only to have the provider of said product or service become apathetic, obnoxious or just downright rude after the transactional smoke has cleared. The bottomline, my entrepreneurial friend, is this: it doesn't matter if your product is fast food, slow food, retail goods, computers, lawn mowers, books, real estate or automobiles, if a customer is willing to pay you good money in exchange for your product or service that customers deserves to be treated with gratitude and respect, before and after the sale. Period. I'm constantly amazed at how many business owners and the frontline employees who represent them seem to forget this simple fact. It's like the old saying about getting a little respect in the morning. If you court me before the sale, you damn well better respect me afterward. Just because you have my money in your pocket and I have your product in my hand, that does not mean that my needs have been fully satisfied or that my expectations have ceased to exist. To the contrary, our relationship is just getting started. It's up to you how well we will get along and how long our relationship will last. Here's the point: customer service should not stop after the sale. In fact, customer support AFTER the sale can have greater impact on the success of your business than customer support before the sale. Nothing generates negative buzz about a business like bad customer service, and nothing will drive nails in a business' coffin faster. News of bad customer service travels like lightning and spreads like wildfire. Think back to the last time you were on the receiving end of bad customer service. I'd be willing to bet that you immediately went out into the world and told everyone you met about the experience. You probably also warned them to "never do business with those &^%$ or you'll get treated the same!" As a business person, it should be your mission to make every customer a repeat customer, and one of the best ways to do that is by delivering superior customer service every time that customer comes through your door. Superior customer service leads to increased customer satisfaction, which leads to repeat business, which leads to customer loyalty. It is also much cheaper to keep a customer than to obtain a new one. The fast food industry is especially prone to customer service problems. This is due in large part to the fact that every transaction is a face-to-face sale and the average fast food worker is a disgruntled teenager who would rather be lying on a bed of nails than standing behind a fast food counter schlepping fries. However, that doesn't always have to be the case. This is not meant as an ad for Chic Filet or as a slam at Taco Bell, but the difference in customer service between these two fast food titans is astounding. I used to frequent both establishments (fast food is my crack), so this is the voice of experience speaking. Behind the counter at the local Chic Filet are young people who seem genuinely happy to be of service. They are clean cut and polite. They don't wear their baseball caps sideways or have anything visibly pierced. They look me in the eye, they smile like there is no place on earth they would rather be, and they ask for my order in clear, concise English. They thank me profusely and invite me to come again. Excellent customer service after the sale. Inversely, a recent trip to a local Taco Bell almost ended on an episode of Cops because the young lady behind the counter grew angry when I politely pointed out that my nachos were stale and asked for a fresh bag (pet peeve #132: stale nachos). Miss Mary Sunshine snatched the offending nachos from my hand and slam dunked them in a trash can, then tossed a replacement bag (which were also stale) on the counter in front of me. She then gave me a look that clearly said that if I had any further complaints she'd be happy to escort me outside to discuss them in detail. I like nachos, but not so much that I would risk getting my behind kicked by a disgruntled teenage girl wearing a sideways Taco Bell cap. Not-so-excellent customer service after the sale. Now, which restaurant do you think I will go to the next time I feel the need to feed my fast food monkey? And which restaurant do you think I enthusiastically recommend to my friends? The one that understands the importance of good customer service before and after the sale, of course. The worst customer service experience I've ever had involved the purchase of a vehicle at a local used car lot. I purchased the used Ford Expedition on a Friday evening and when problems arose with the vehicle over the weekend, I went back to the dealership on Monday morning to speak with the sales manager. To say the least, the sales manager (who acted like my best friend on Friday) was not thrilled to see me on Monday. To make a very long story short, when I pointed out that he wasn't being very helpful after the sale he came around the desk yelling at the top of his lungs and waving his hands in my face. By the time the receptionist managed to calm him down, the sales manager had gone so far as to call me "a retarded idiot" (which may be considered redundant) and had instructed me to do something with the vehicle that I believe is anatomically impossible. It was an Expedition, I'm a little guy. Use your imagination. Though the dealership owner later apologized and offered to take care of any problem I had, the damage to his business had already been done. The bad buzz machine started the second I left his lot. Do you think I told everyone I met about my experience with that dealership? You bet your stale nachos I did. Do you think I will ever buy another car from that dealership? Not on your life. Do you think anyone I've told about the experience will buy a car from that dealership? Probably not. Do you think the owner and sales manager learned anything from the experience? We can only hope. In the end, what is the value of great customer service before and after the sale? Priceless, my friend. Simply priceless. Now, can somebody please get me some fresh nachos… Do you have a customer service horror story? I'd love to hear it. Email me at the address below. Here's to your success. By: → Tim Knox

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Answering Service, What Every Small Business Needs! S

An answering service is what every small business needs. Anyone who has ever worked for a small business, or has owned a small business knows that the answering service is a true God send. Every time you are not able to answer the phone, you take the risk of losing business. With an answering service, you don’t worry about missing important calls. Whether its an emergency or just an important client that needs a fire put out, answering services can meet your need. Think about a day with and without an answering service. You are taking a much needed day off and your secretary calls in sick. Your staff is out in the field doing whatever it is they do and your phone is MIA. Your biggest client needs a fire put out and needs it taken care of immediately. If you didn’t have an answering service what would be your options. Cancel your much needed day off and answering the phone yourself. Or, let your answering service handle all the calls and only notify you in an emergency or if a big client calls. Now you can enjoy your day off with the piece of mind knowing that if anything comes up, you’ll be the first to be notified by your very own answering service. If you don’t currently have an answering service in your bag of tricks, maybe its time to investigate what an answering service can do for you. Believe it or not, answering services are relatively inexpensive. Considering how much money they can either make you by routing important calls to you from prospective new clients or save you by letting you know your number one client needs something done ASAP. Get an answering service today and grow your business with the piece of mind knowing that your answering service will keep you adequately informed of any important incoming calls. By: → James Calvin

Monday, November 5, 2012

Is Bad Customer Service Killing Your Business? Submitted By: → Tim Knox | Word Count: 850 | Views: 857

It's time to beat the old bad customer service drum again. I know, I'm sick of beating the drum, too, but as long as bad customer service runs rampant through so many businesses I feel it is my entrepreneurial duty to bring it to your attention. So grab a pew and prepare to listen to the sermon I've preached before: bad customer service is the bane of business. If the Almighty smote down every business that dispenses bad customer service, the world would be a much friendlier, albeit much sparser place. Consider a world without malls and fast food joints… would it really be so bad? What puzzles me most is if bad customer service is such a death knell for business, why do so many businesses allow it to go on? Don't they read my column, for Pete's sake? I think the problem is that most bad customer service is doled out (or at least condoned) by business owners and managers who have ceased caring what their customers think. When you stop caring what your customers think it's time to close the doors. Go find a day job. You'll make someone a wonderfully disgruntled employee. My latest parable of lousy customer service was actually experienced by my better half while attempting to buy my daughter a pair of basketball shoes. I won't mention the name of the sporting goods chain store in which the bad customer service took place, but I will tell you that its name is similar to the sound a frog with hiccups might make. As my wife waited for someone to assit, the four or five teenagers who had been charged with manning the store stood in a clump at the cash register giggling and flirting with one another as if they were at the prom instead of at work. When my wife pointed out this fact, one of the employees, a cheeky lass of 16 or so, put her hands on her hips and said, "How rude!" The males in the group didn't react at all. They were too busy arguing over who could take a break so they could chase other cheeky lasses about the mall. Needless to say my lovely bride, who has the ability to instill fear into the hearts of even the most worthless employees, left the gaggle of giggling teen idiots standing with their mouths open in disbelief. How dare a customer tell them to do that with a pair of basketball shoes? As much as I bemoan bad customer service I celebrate good customer service. It should be applauded and the purveyor of said good customer service should be rewarded for actually delivering satisfaction to the customer, above and beyond the call of duty. So let me tell you the story of my new hero, Ken. I won't tell you the name of the store in which Ken works, but let's just say they started out selling radios in a shack somewhere long, long ago. I first met Ken when I went into the store to buy a mixing board for my business that records audio products for the Web. In a nutshell, you plug microphones into the mixing board then connect it to the computer and you can record audio directly to digital format. Totally beside the point of this article, but I didn't want you thinking that I was purchasing non-manly cooking utensils. When I got the mixer installed it didn't work. So I boxed it up and headed back to the store to return it. When I told Ken my problem he didn't just grunt and give me my money back as so many bad customer service reps would do. Instead he asked, "Do you mind if I try it?" "Knock yourself out," was my reply, confident that if I couldn't get it to work, neither could Ken. Ken took the mixer out of the box and went about hooking it up to one of the computers on display. He started pulling power cords and cables off the display racks and ripping them open and plugging them in. He tore open a new microphone and an adapter and kept going until he had the mixer hooked up and working. Yes, I said working. It turns out the mixer was fine. I just had the wrong power adapter. Ken could have just given me my money back and been done with me. Instead he spent 15 minutes and opened a number of other packages that I was under no obligation to buy just to help me get the thing working. I was so impressed that I not only kept the mixing board, I also bought another $50 worth of products. And the next time I need anything electronic guess where I will buy it? Even if it costs twice as much, I'll buy it from Ken. Now here's the moral of the story: if you are a business owner who has a gaggle of teenagers in charge of customer service at your store you would be better off replacing them with wild monkeys. At least monkeys can be trained. By: → Tim Knox

Friday, November 2, 2012

Answering Service - A Must Have For Your Online Business

Every day you miss calls from customers who need your products or services. But now you can get rid of all these problems, your call will be answered by a live answering service with your company name. Representatives at answering services will provide you services like answering phone service, answering message service or even enter data into your web form. But finding an answering service company is not easy, after all you are going to trust one of your assets i.e. your customer or prospects or clients or patient – to a third party about whom you know a very little. Hence, it is very important to choose a perfect answering service suitable for your business. We recommend you to take a glance of this article before taking a decision regarding answering services. If you are serious about growing your business and providing superior customer service, you need a solution that provides 24/7 answering services with live operators that handle every call correctly and professionally. Some big companies are available for you to assist you in the regard. These service providers not only serve you with answering phone services, they also assist you with other services like answering message service, pager, voice mail, PDA, live operator and even via web portal to fit your schedules and needs. People at answering services are consultant. They recommend right products and services to help you accomplish your goals. These answering services are working from the 1980’s and developing cost effective, customized answering services to meet your specific objectives. There services include: •In-depth, 24/7/365 customer service support •Dispatch of service, emergency, or technical support personnel •After hours, weekend, holiday, overflow coverage. •Dedicated receptionist during normal business hours. •Live operator answering service. •Medical service bureau. •Message delivery service. •Toll-free telephone answering service. Whether you are a corporation, an independent professional, in the medical field or related to any other profession that demands round-the-clock answering service and telephone support, companies can deliver the coverage you need and the professional care of your clients, patients and customers. Leading answering service firms are continually search for pioneering technologies and services to help you better serve and improve your business. While dealing with leading answering service companies you will be sure about: •Answering services appoint courteous, professional and knowledgeable agents for your service. •Dialer systems used at answering services are of good quality so that you can hear crystal clear voice quality. •Customized answering service with your personalized greeting. •Round the clock nationwide answering telephone service will give new horizons to your business. •Multilingual answering message service is also available at answering services 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. If you are a physician or businessman related with medical field, Medical Answering Services are for you, which is a full-service professional answering service. Medical answering services are medical call center that provides answering phone service, e-mail and fax messaging and other telecommunications services to doctors and other healthcare providers. Medical answering services also help in reminding your appointment, insurance verifications, data management, event registration and custom scripting. By: → Tyson J Stevenson |

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Home Business And Customer Service: Is It Necessary?

Having a home business does not mean that customer service is not important. Quite the opposite is true, because your home business does not have a huge customer base, so it is important to keep your customers satisfied so they tell their friends and become repeat customers. Just because you never see your customers face to face does not make them any less important to the success of your home business. Good customer service in a home business makes sure that customer concerns and complaints are handled professionally and appropriately. The motto that the customer is always right is just as true in a home business as it is anywhere else. Customers are what makes your home business a success, and it is important that your customer are satisfied, and that there is an available way to resolve problems and make the customer happy. Having a customer service program in place will ensure that customers have a good experience when dealing with your home business. Satisfied customers give a business the best advertising there is, word of mouth. This type of advertising can not be bought, it can only be given by satisfied customers. If you do not have good customer service in your home business, the success of the home business is doubtful. Happy customers form the basis for repeat customers, and these customers are happy to tell everyone they know about your home business. Neglecting customer service because you think it unnecessary for a home business is a big mistake that can cost your home business success in the end. Customer service is a necessary part of running a successful home business, and if you do not put a customer service program in place then it could cost your home business potential customers, profits, and success. Even though you never see your customers face to face, they form a very important base for your home business, and it is important that your home business assures customers of their importance to your organization. By assuring quality customer service and giving customers the resources necessary to solve any problems or complaints, your home business will be more successful and profitable. Treat customers like the valuable resource that they are, because without satisfied customers there is no reason for your home business to stay open. Customers are the reason that your home business makes a profit, and a good customer service program for your home business will reflect this philosophy. Copyright © 2007 Joel Teo. All rights reserved. By: → Joel Teo