Customer Service...it's Not For Sissies.

Four Benefits to Skyrocket Profits

Four Benefits to Skyrocket Profits

I am sure you are thinking, OK, give it to me straight. What is the value for my business? The tools we are going to discuss will indeed result in these customer benefits below:

a.Trust (the root of all other benefits)

b.Loyalty

c.Word-of -Mouth

d.Strengthened Perception of Your Brand (which is you too!)

Lets look into these with a fine-tooth comb shall we? After all, the benefits are your favorite part. Am I right or am I right? Yes, I am right.

TRUST ME!!!

a. The Root of Your Success

Trust (the root of all other benefits)is firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing.

Who do people, trust?

*Changingminds.org says we trust in frequent contacts, common goals and from single sources. When I say single sources, I mean one place to get information you may need; universities, consultants and professional organizations.

People are sometimes forced to trust you, with their own life in some cases. Why not take the opportunity to EARN it?

What builds trust in a customer? Price? Not so much. Price can be a factor in a customers purchasing process; however, the value of gaining someones trust can far outweigh the price.

Trust is what you as a business NEED to gain in order to receive the remaining benefits of giving quality customer service. You may have implanted the idea of trust in your marketing campaign to pull the customer in: commercials in various media channels, money-back guarantees, customer testimonials, noting business longevity, etc.

Those drivers have them in the door, and now it is YOU that will secure that trust! Trusting someone or something is an emotional experience. Do you trust the person who forgot to add oil in your car while changing it? Probably not. Do you trust the dentist when he/she says they graduated from Dr. Sugars School of Fixin a Grill? May want a second opinion.

You trust the ones with a quality presentation, good character and proof of successful results! YOU are part of that presentation Mr./Mrs. Business person! YOU lay the foundation that can determine if someone is to buy from you. If you do a good job, you can bring forth loyalty.

b. Allegiance to Your Brand

Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person or cause.

*Did you know that it can cost five to eight times more to get a new customer than to gain loyalty and repurchase through loyal customers?

*Did you also know that a very satisfied customer is nearly six times more likely to be loyal and to repurchase and/or recommend your product than is a customer who is just satisfied?

Loyalty to be a bride of a product/service. No, I dont mean you actually marry it. Well, in a sense you do! Do you cheat on your favorite TV show or shampoo? I think not! And if a more beautiful, bouncier shampoo comes along you may change loyalty as your needs change, but almost (if not all consumers) dedicate themselves to certain products because they trust that it works for exactly what they need it for.

Let me tell you a quick story.

Now that I am older, I cant eat the packets of sugar I used to as a child. Ohhhh, I didnt do that! Well, I did when my mom wasnt looking.

That brings me to toothpaste; a low-involvement purchase, right? Right. How many of you still buy the toothpaste your parents bought? Its ok to raise your hand. No one is looking. Ok, now put your hand down.

Why would you still be buying that brand without considering the sea of options for keeping your mouth so fresh and so clean-clean?

My guess would be because you trusted your parents in making that decision for you so long ago, that it is a no-brainer now. I mean, you still have all of your teeth I am sure, so it must be working! For those of you with partials or dentures, we didnt notice. Be sure to give me the name of your dentist after this is over. I am impressed.

Or, you may have made your own discovery when you flew from your parents nest and stuck with it!

My most favorite thing I did when I moved out was go grocery shopping. No kidding. Not so much anymore, but it was a cool thing to do back then! I felt so independent. I wasnt buying the steak and potatoes that I was accustomed to. But, I bought plenty of steak-flavored packets of Ramen noodles! HahahaI am laughing because its true. You all know what I am talkin about. Good ole Ramen.

And this was a discovery process for me. I wanted to find out what was best for me, on my own! If I am buying Ramen, you can be assured I am looking for the Ramen of toothpaste as well. So, I bought product A to try out. Its toothpaste. It couldnt do more harm than good, could it? Well maybe.

I remember this as if it was yesterday. It felt like I was brushing with concrete bits in my mouth! And the foaming action couldnt mean it was doing something that spectacular for my teeth. I looked like a rabid dog. The taste? Oh, the taste was much like that of minty cough drops with a hint of soy. Not as pleasurable as I had hoped.

This shows that my price-sensitive purchase didnt build my trust and definitely not my loyalty. I would rather spend the money on the toothpaste that my mouth craves and eat more Ramen to supplement my budget. Now, after much consideration, I have become a loyal Rembrandt family member because of the oh-so-clean feeling it leaves me 23 times a day. But, that is just me.

Now I am speaking about loyalty of a product in the story above. What if you have multiple products/services in your business? Its your business that IS the product as well as the products/services themselves. Repeat customers are where you want your business to be.

c. Advertising through Conversation

Word-of-mouth the tell-all-and-be-all of free advertisingand oh what an impact it has!

This, above anything, should be motivation enough to want to give quality customer service. The benefit can increase customer opportunity by five more people! Thats right.

*Kevin Cacioppo, from the Quality Digest article previously noted, also tells us thisa customer that has a pleasurable experience when purchasing a product/service is likely to tell five of their friends about it.

Now here is the kicker. If you flop, they are likely to tell 4 more people on top of that! Nine people will eventually know about the bad experience! Oh dear

*The White House of Consumer Affairs also came up with some very concerning statistics. They generated a report called the TARP (Technical Assistance Research Programs) study that suggests:

96% of dissatisfied customers do not complain directly. (Will not complain to you!)

90% will not return. (Loyalty? None here!)

One unhappy customer will tell nine others. (Kevin from Quality Digest agrees on this)

13% will tell at least 20 other people (oh mynot good)

Say you have 100 people visit your business in a day and even all 100 purchased your product/service. Great, you made money. Good for you! Say that morning you were feeling pretty good about life, and you sent sixty of those customers on their way with a purpose and a smile after your interaction. You did it. You did yourself (and ME) proud by following the standard rules of giving quality customer service! Cumulatively, they are going to tell 300 more people about it. Yes!!! Woo hoo!

Now, lets say you went to lunch and things didnt really go your way. You went to a joint close by and whoayou received poor customer service from the wait staff. How dare they!!! They put mustard when you asked for mayo; they gave you curly fries instead of straight. Your salad was limp and the dressing may have been outdated by a month or two. Your diet coke was flat and your straw wasnt big enough for your super-gulp sized glassAND, AND, AND the wait staff didnt give a flip about it! It ruined your day so much that you stormed out of there and called Joe-Bob to tell him about it. And, you did this while driving...

You should know, by the way, that driving in an angry state can alter your perception of safe driving significantly. I learned that in my defensive driving class, thank you very much.

With all intensity are you explaining this horrific dining experience to your friend and in amidst of your angerBAM!!! You rear-end someone in front of you. See? Your anger (and being on the phone while driving, no less) clouded your judgment of the two-second rule for safe driving. Now you have an upset stomach from a bad meal and an accident on the brain. You come back into work and your customers have YOU to deal with. Oh joy! You know the 30 minute rule about not swimming after you eat? Insert rule here

No serving others within 30 minutes of anger.

However, you dont in this case, for the sake of the point I am so awesomely making. We said you sold to 100 customers today and sixty of them are happy campers, correct? That leaves forty that you unhappily deal with after lunch. And for some reason, unbeknownst to you, they buy from you anyway. Perhaps their need for your product/service was urgent and their expectations for a quality customer service experience were outweighed by it. Lucky you. But, oh the quality customer service was not quality at all. Those people are going to do exactly what you would and statistically tell nine more people, each! That makes 360 people! That is sixty more people than your happy customers spoke to and there were twenty more customers in your quality customer service scenario! Disaster my friend, disaster

Word-of-mouth is a benefit to you from providing quality customer service mind you, but the lack of doing so should be enough of a reason to keep reading more of this e-book!

d. Branding On the Rise

Strengthened perception of your brandwhat is brand perception anyway? It is the perception of your product and your company; what equates to your total brand to the consumer. Sounds simple and self explanatory, right?

In todays changing economy, it is becoming more and more difficult to stand out from your competitor. There can be hundreds, if not thousands, of businesses creating a very similar product/service you have. Although there may be significant differences in style or functionality that you see, your customer may not see it as clearly. Instead of having price wars to win every battle, why not set yourself apart with stellar customer service? It is your opportunity to be part of your brand! It is your time to shine. You can not only discuss your product/service features, but you can also insert the seed for complete customer satisfaction. Get ooohs and ahhhs about you as well as your product/service.

When you are a customer, and you go purchase a product/service, what are you going in there to buy? Say you needed to buy a garden hose. Do you go into Home Depot for the hose? No!!!!! Well, yes. But, you are really going to buy the solution that will help you fill up the kiddie pool for some Sunday Family Fun!

And your customers are buying solutions as well. They are buying the hole rather than the drill. They are buying the destination rather than the airplane ride. And you can strengthen your brand, above your competitors, by helping them with those solutions.

* Information gathered from changeminds.org website: http://changeminds.org/explanations/trust/where_we_trust.htm

*Statistics gathered from quality digest website: http://www.qualitydigest.com/sept00/html/satisfaction.html

*Statistics gathered from Google answers website: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=527120

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by: Melissa Curry

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