Tip # 11 - Always acknowledge tweets, emails, comments. It’s not good PR or customer service to ignore anyone.
Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won’t be profitable for long.
Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy – happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers.
If you’re a good salesperson, you can sell anything to anyone once. But it will be your approach to customer service that determines whether or not you’ll ever be able to sell that person anything else. The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers – a relationship that that individual customer feels that he would like to pursue.
Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception. Think before you give any promise – because nothing annoys customers more than a broken one.
Listen to your customers. Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem.
Deal with complaints. Give the complaint your attention. You may be able to please this one person this one time – and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service.
Be helpful – even if there’s no immediate profit in it. Because there will be some day. And, people will spread the story.
Be authentic. Authenticity is catnip. There’s a lot of value in being authentic and your real self if you want to engage with serious and like-minded individuals.
Acknowledge Emails. Just because someone doesn’t ask for a response doesn’t mean you ignore them. Always acknowledge emails from those you know in a timely manner.
The irony of good customer service, social media and email etiquette is that over time it will bring in more new customers than advertising, promotions and price slashing ever did.
For 549 more tips, go to HLMediaPartners.com and download our Big Book of Tips Free. While you’re there, you can also register for our weekly Free Wednesday Webinar.
