It is often said that customer service is the least talked about aspect of any business. Yet it can be one of the most vital to a company's success.
The simple fact is that without good customer service, your customers won't buy anything. And without customers buying, you don't have any business. Therefore it is necessary for any business to focus on the basic customer service basics.
It is best to begin by discussing what the customer service basics are. There are three main aspects of customer service and they are: responsiveness, reliability and quality. All three should be considered to be important to the survival of any business.
Responsiveness is a measure of how well a business responds to its customers. Some common areas of contact that most customers have with businesses include; live phone calls, telephonic or email support, office hours, and various forms of service. A responsive business will ensure that it meets or exceeds the expectations of its customers.
Reliability is also a basic part of customer service and it refers to the fact that a business always responds to its customers. Most customers have experienced a bad experience with a business only to later be disappointed in how long it took them to get a response.
The idea behind responsiveness and reliability is that they form a basis for any business' customer service. Many businesses don't have a solid foundation for their customer service because they never communicate with their customers at all. They rely on cold calls and emails to send out business, but this is simply not enough.
Therefore understanding about customer service is something that every business should learn about. As an example, suppose you were using a company's website to look up a product you were looking for, but a software error occurred. When you emailed them to tell them about the problem, what did they do?
They made the software error go away. This is not good customer service because you did not get a response from them. While sending out a first response can be seen as positive, it should be noted that second and third responses are generally more helpful.
Besides customer service, quality is another aspect of customer service. It means that a business performs as it should when there is an issue with their product or service.
If a business has several products and services, it should offer customer support for each product and service. This means that support should be prompt, reliable and within reason. The client should not be left wondering if they can get their issue resolved or if the issue will be resolved later on.
The fourth major component of customer service is responsiveness and reliability. If you are buying a piece of furniture, you want to be able to sit down and have it delivered to your home. You also want to be able to sit down and have it shipped to you by the company you purchased it from.
In short, customer service is very important. All businesses should understand the basics of customer service and be aware of how it applies to their own businesses.