It may not be Los Angeles, but at Bare Bones Marketing we like to be involved with the local community, and we love getting the chance to celebrate it. That’s why we are proud to announce that we will be sponsoring the “Customer Service Award” at the Middlewich Oscars.
The Middlewich Oscars, which will take place on the 22nd March 2014, will be celebrating everything that the local area has to offer. Categories include Small Business of the Year and Young Person of the Year, celebrating all people from across the community.
Sponsoring the “Customer Service Award” got us thinking about customer service in small businesses. What does your business do to provide great customer service? Maybe it is just knowing all your customers on a first name basis, or maybe you go that extra mile to provide truly amazing customer service?
Either way, how you treat your customers affects every aspect of your business, as let’s face it without customers, you don’t have a business! So here are our 5 top tips to keeping your customers coming back time after time.
1. Tell them and they will come!
You offer the best service for miles and yet no-one knows about it. Make sure your customers are informed of everything you have to offer, if you think a service would suit them or a different product would be better, tell them! If you’re making life easier or better for them, chances are they will for you too! Customers may not always tell you what they want, they may just go elsewhere so always ask “Is there anything else I can do for you?”.
2. Word of mouth is the strongest advertising
85% of people read online reviews of a local business before using their services or buying their products. 79% also trust these reviews just as much as a personal recommendation. These numbers are too big to ignore! So, if a customer has a really good experience of your offerings they will probably tell people, whether it’s in conversation or in a tweet (we are in 2014 after all!) Either way people will hear about it. If you know someone has had a great experience of your business, be cheeky, ask them to rate you online or provide you with a testimonial or ask for a recommendation on LinkedIn. If you have really made them happy they will be more than pleased to help you out!
3. Give them a person
This mainly applies to businesses with more than one employee, but passing a customer round to different employees can be frustrating. Giving them that one person who they can contact for anything allows for a relationship to be built. Therefore enabling customers to associate human interaction with your business and adding that little personal touch.
4. Don’t try too hard
With the rise of technology, there are so many ways you can contact your customers but customers have also never been as savvy as they are today, so they can see through any false ploy to engage them. So, don’t over do it, contact them regularly and keep them up to date but not to extremes – and make sure what you tell them is relevant. Personalisation makes them feel more valued and understood.
5. Surprise them
Everyone likes surprises (the nice kind of course) so do something that will make your customers smile. If you’ve launched a new product, you could give your most loyal customers a free trial or sample. This way they feel valued and get to try something new, while you have managed to put a smile on their face and might even get some more sales too!
You may already provide great customer service but why not take on our 5 top tips and see how many great comments you get! If you would like any marketing support to help provide your customers with great customer service, get in touch with the Bare Bones Marketing Team!
And don’t forget, we are sponsoring the Middlewich Oscars and if you would like to book tickets you can click here and hopefully we will see you on the night!