Customer service is a tricky thing. It always has been. However, the advent of the internet, advances in mobile technology and the ability for consumers to find products and services from way outside their local area has meant that excellent customer service can no longer be seen as a value add. Instead, it has to be one of the basics of your business.
What that means for business is that nowadays it’s not enough to compete on price or quality alone, you have to compete on price, quality and service. Sure, you can go for the budget end of the market and have the lowest prices, acceptable quality and minimal customer service. There’s really nothing wrong with that.
A problem occurs however, when you attract customers looking for premium quality or service, whether it’s through badly targeted or misleading advertising or just through random enquiries. With social media being such a great way to share their pain your disappointed customers can do a lot of damage.
So what’s the solution?
It’s as easy as making sure you pre-qualify your clients. Some of the ways to pre-qualify clients include:
- Have marketing and social media accounts that clearly display your philosophy.
- Make sure that everything you do is done with your ideal client in mind.
- Come right out and detail your ideal client on your website, on your marketing and on your social media accounts.
- When you write or design anything, design it to communicate to your ideal client
- Be sure to “feature” things that might upset your non-ideal client. i.e. “Because we’re online only, we have none of the overheads associated with having a shopfront or multiple phone lines”.
- If necessary, have a screening process set to ensure you’re only working with your ideal client
- Don’t be afraid to say to a client “I don’t think we’re a good fit”
So my clients are all my “ideal client” – Now what?
Well duh! Now you make sure you impress the heck out of them. After all this time, you know what your ideal client wants, your job now is to give them that!
If your ideal client wants superfast turnaround and is prepared to pay a premium – then make sure that your turnaround is superfast in all areas of the business. You need to be responding quickly to enquiries and invoicing quickly once the product or service has been provided, not just providing the quick turnaround on your products and services.
If your ideal client is someone who wants to take things slowly, but needs a lot of handholding. Hold their hands throughout the process, touch base often just to check in, and keep in touch regularly after the transaction is completed.
So I’m sure you get the idea and I don’t need to keep going through the ways you should be helping your clients. The most important thing is, if you’ve successfully targeted your ideal client, it should be easy to delight them with your service. And as long as you keep that up, you’ll have delighted customers who are delightful to work with.
If you’d like some more ideas, check out my previous Customer Service posts
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