Why Does Customer Service Matter to Your Business?

It’s not hard to find information about how to make your customer service great. However, you may be wondering why it even matters. Does customer service really matter that much to the success of your business?

Figuring out the answer to this question will help to provide the necessary motivation for great customer service in the future. Just knowing good customer service helps make you more sales may not be a good enough answer. Here’s a look at why customer service matters so much to your business.

Customer Feedback Drives Business

Three decades ago this would have been a completely different conversation. However, with the internet and the many review sites of today, customer feedback drives more business than just about anything else. Not only do reviews help give other customers a look at what your company really provides, but they also help you shape your company for the customers.

You can look through the reviews and see what others are saying about your company. Some of the things you may need to be improved might be found in reviews, even those from satisfied customers. Customer feedback also helps you understand what it takes to retain your current customers.

Bad Customer Service Goes Viral Fast

The saying used to be, “if you treat a customer well, you’re lucky if they tell one person, but treat them bad and they are likely to tell ten people.” Today, this saying is on steroids if you treat a customer poorly.

A great example of this is the bad customer service Comcast has become famous for over the years. While these experiences often happen over the phone, some customers have gone as far as to take a video of actual calls with Comcast customer service employees and share them online.

These types of videos and stories go viral on social media very quickly. If you want your company to gain plenty of bad publicity, provide poor customer service and watch Twitter and Facebook explode with comments bashing what you do and how you operate.

Separates You from the Competition

There are several ways customer service gives you a leg up on the competition. If you’re in the hosting industry, it’s imperative to use customer service to your advantage. This is the case for many other industries, as well.

Often, small businesses cannot compete when it comes to price. They have to go the extra mile to make sure customers feel comfortable paying a little extra and customer service is a huge part of that.

While larger companies use bots for their online chat, you can provide real people. When your larger competitors make customers go through a ton of options when they call before getting a live person, you can provide a live person immediately. Your competition may state they take 24 to 48 hours to answer emails, but you can have this done within just a couple of hours, if not faster.

If possible, outsource your customer service and support to professionals. This will give you the leg up on the competition you need. Professional customer service companies know how to make sure your customers feel special and are take care of to the best of their abilities.

The bottom line, customer service can make or break your business. Nobody wants to pay extra to be treated as bad as or worse than a big corporation might. However, many consumers will pay a little extra to support a small business if they know they will gain personal service they cannot find from the large corporations anymore.