Customer service

Customer service is super important and should not be underestimated. The community your business builds will be reliant on the quality of your customer service and the conversations you engage with on all levels. Receiving feedback from your customers and improving your business thus are key elements of growth and effective product development. If you know what they think of your services, you can react accordingly. If you don’t, the business will most likely stagnate, because you will be second-guessing what your market wants.

Social media has made the business of communicating with your market and audiences super easy. This is a double-edged sword of course, as some conversations or pieces of feedback are inevitably negative. However, managed well, you can turn negativity into positivity. Regardless of this, how your business reacts and communicates must be consistent, level-headed and provide fast. Offer effective solutions to any problems or ideas a customer may have.

Positive customer service can lead to repeat business, referrals and it will give you a positive feeling about the work you are doing. Win, win.

Here are some rules to follow:

• Keep some perspective. Sometimes, customer feedback can be emotional and based on their experience of paying for something which has not met their expectations of value. The result is anger and frustration. So, your response has to be timely and measured. It is important not to become reactive and emotional in return. This will evolve and become a problem in a public forum.
• Surprise. Every now and again, surprise the community or individuals with responses and even gifts. Breaking normal convention and everyday communications with random acts make for a fresh, exciting perspective of your company. This can only be positive.
• Respect everyone. In some cases, this is very hard but if your consistent approach is based on respect for all, you can forge ahead with a clear conscience and most likely plenty of respect in return. You get what you deserve after all.
• Provide guidance. Understand that your customers may not all be tech-savvy with regards to the e-commerce systems you may have in place. You may have to walk them through sometimes, or in some cases do more than just handholding. If they are struggling to order prints via your website, or uncomfortable to make a payment online, find a workaround.

It is not just your customers who will have feedback on your business and products. There are professionals in this line of work who can provide an unemotional assessment of your customer journey and your approach. It’s not 100% necessary, particularly if you are blessed with a happy community, but very worthwhile. Even if to keep ahead of the game and remain aware of the wider market potential.

The key is to be stress-testing your business. Make sure you are covering all bases and aware of any issues the minute they arise before they grow into bigger problems.

Positive customer service can lead to repeat business, referrals and it will give you a positive feeling about the work you are doing. Win, win.