How to Improve Customer Service in Your Small Business

If you run a small business, you undoubtedly wear a lot of hats, if not all of them. You must contend with marketing, operations, payroll, accounting, and purchasing, to name just a few. However, one component of any business that should never be overlooked is customer service. You might have the greatest idea or product in the world, but if you can?t keep people coming back for more, your business will not reach its full potential.

Here are several key ways to keep customers happy:

1. Keep a Well-Trained Staff

You?ve likely developed some sort of orientation for new employees to familiarize them with products and protocol. But have you ever held training sessions related solely to improving customer service? While it may seem obvious to you that the customer always comes first, it might not be as clear as you think, especially with younger workers.

2. Maintain Personal Involvement

Rather than being just the boss who only steps in when there?s a problem, let your employees see you in action. Roll up your sleeves once in a while and actually work the sales floor. Listen in on your staff?s interactions with your customers to see if they are up to par. Show how you remember the names of regular visitors, addressing them while they wait and escorting them to the products they?re seeking You won?t know what your staff is doing unless you?re in the trenches with them.

3. Be Attentive to Customers

Some people who frequent your business are bound to have questions, and may need varying degrees of pampering. Others know exactly what they want and just aim to get in and out as quickly as possible. Your staff needs to understand the distinction. You do not want to brush off a customer too soon, nor do you want to talk too much to a customer who is in a rush. The best retail workers develop a sense regarding a customer?s needs. Encourage your employees to be especially attentive.

4. Keep Managers Active

If your store is large enough that you have mid-level managers, you need make sure that the level of customer service they provide is even higher than that of your staff. For example, if a problem arises, customers often ask to see a manager ? and this manager should always be able to rectify a tough situation. The worst thing you can do to unsatisfied customers is make them feel unheard. The presence of a charismatic leader should be a calming influence to the staff, and should show visitors that yours is a well-staffed, smoothly running operation.

5. Solicit Customer Feedback

People like to vent if they?re unhappy; conversely, they enjoy giving praise if they?re pleased. If you want to know how you?re doing, ask. Consider implementing a customer survey program, either in the store or emailed to addresses you collect on-site. Make it fun for customers, and perhaps raffle off a cool product or a coupon to increase responses. Track the results, and share them with your staff to implement positive change.

Final Thoughts

Providing great customer service is an art, and it is one you should never think you have down pat. It?s a fluid entity, and it changes with the needs and expectations of customers change. If you and your employees are innovative in looking for new ways to improve your relationship with your visitors, your business will surely enjoy the fruits of success.

What other ways can you suggest to improve customer service?

{Featured image via Cool Dog Duke}

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Source: http://createhype.com/how-to-improve-customer-service-in-your-small-business/

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