To be successful in today’s competitive marketplace, businesses have to juggle a number of responsibilities on a daily basis. When these responsibilities overwhelm us, it is easy to lose sight of the basics that made your brand valued by its customers in the first place. One of these basics, and perhaps the most important, is customer service. Here’s why rock-solid customer service is the cornerstone of any successful business.
Positive word-of-mouth promotion is the most powerful marketing tool for a business. What customers say to others can make or break a business. And enthusiastic buzz costs no more than simply doing your job to provide a memorable experience for a customer that makes him or her feel compelled to share it with others, resulting in new business leads.
Likewise, if your customers have a negative experience with whatever product or service you provide, this could result in the loss of not just that one customer, but any other customer who learns of that negative experience. And knowing that it costs about five times more to win new customers than it does to retain existing ones means that losing a customer to a negative customer service experience is not worth it. We put too much time and effort into attracting new customers to let a carelessly handled customer experience be the thing that sets a business back.
And finally, strong employee retention is an important added bonus with good customer service. When people work for an employer that prioritizes customer service, they are more engaged in their work and they too become an advocate for the business. Employees pay careful attention to how a company treats its customers and are more likely to stick around when those customers are treated like gold.
Quality customer service is not a finite thing. It is a necessity for all businesses to provide 24/7, 365 days of the year, in ways that the customers never even expected. It just might be the thing that sends your business skyrocketing to the top instead of plummeting in sales.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mike Bidwell is President and CEO of Neighborly. He led Neighborly and its concepts at every level. He was a successful and visionary franchisee and served as president for three Neighborly subsidiary franchise companies. In 2000, Neighborly named him chief operating officer (COO) and in 2007, Bidwell was also named president. In January of 2014, he was named president and CEO of Neighborly.
