It’s important to remember that every interaction with your business plays a part in how your customers think about you. Yes, that does mean that invoicing and customer service go hand in hand. If you’ve got a great invoicing system then your customers won’t even notice it. If your invoicing system isn’t working for you, it will leave customers with a bad taste in their mouth. Then the remembrance will be that their last interaction with your company was bad.
Some of the most important things you can do to give customers a good impression when you’re invoicing include:
Look professional
Find out what you’re required to have on an invoice and make sure it’s all included. If you don’t use an accounting package, then create a document template you can use for invoicing. Don’t be tempted to just knock something up each time you invoice. It doesn’t look professional, it increases the chances you’ll forget to include something and it will take much longer than it would to make up a simple, nice looking template.
Branding
Make sure your invoices are branded to match your business look. Include your logo, colours and font if you have one. At the very least, make sure you always print them on letterhead.
Don’t send Word documents via email
Save the file as a PDF before sending it out. You will appear more professional and it can’t easily be changed, and will look less like a scam email with a malicious attachment.
Get feedback
If you have a feedback form for customers or you’re actively asking for testimonials (and we all should be), then include a link to your feedback form, a request for a testimonial or a link to the social media profiles you’d like the testimonials on.
Say thank you
Don’t forget to thank customers for working with you, using your services or buying your products. If you want them to do something (come back, refer a friend, join your loyalty program) don’t be afraid to ask. Put a note on your invoice, or the accompanying email saying something like: “Thank you for shopping with us, we’d love to see you back again”, or “Thank you for using our services, we would appreciate you referring us to your friends and family”.
Invoice promptly
This is something I find amazing, but there are businesses that don’t invoice immediately after a service is performed. There are several problems with this:
- Firstly, customers budget for the expense at the time and a month or two down the track they may not have the funds available anymore.
- It annoys customers when long after the job is done, they get an invoice for something they’ve often forgotten about.
- If you’re expecting customers to respond to your 7 day terms, invoicing weeks after the fact is likely to cause them to ignore your terms. If it’s not important to you, it’s not important to them
Send a receipt
This is not just a nice touch, it’s an opportunity to create a good memory. Once a payment has been received, send a quick note to acknowledge that you have received it. It not only lets customers know that you’ve received the payment but it gives you another opportunity to thank them for their custom and to increase the good impression your business makes. It’s also a great time to ask for feedback.
So there are 7 ways that invoicing can help improve customer satisfaction and leave them with a good impression. Invoicing and customer service do go hand in hand and the more you carry your customer service standards into every facet of your business, the more your customers will be left with a positive feeling about your business.
