I recently came across a press release that said what I have been saying for years—the only way small businesses are able to compete against the big guys is by their emphasis on customer service.
And that expert takes this to the extreme. It is not just enough to keep your customers close, you have to "hug" them.
“Today’s small business owners need to understand that cutting costs will not save their business,” said Ed Hess, author of the new book "Growing an Entrepreneurial Business: Concepts & Cases."
“Remember, customers are concerned about their own financial security. When they walk into a business, they need to feel cherished and special. They need to be ‘hugged’ by great customer service. Customers don’t expect to get bottom-of-the-barrel prices everywhere they go, but they do expect to be treated with respect," he said.
Great customer service starts with employees who have been trained in the science of service.
Hess gave an example where he came across bad service, his local coffee shop to buy his wife a latte.
They had run out of skim milk, and a result, the cup was only 2/3rds full. Hess said the clerk could have given him a refund or a coupon for a free cup. Instead, the clerk just went on her merry way.
Unhappy customers don't come back and they are likely to tell others about their bad experience. Said Hess, “The ripple effect of just one bad customer service experience can be very damaging. Be sure your employees are providing consistently great customer service.”
To remedy bad service, Hess suggested:
• Businesses provide special training for frontline employees.
• Workers must make sure a customer is happy before moving on to the next customer.
• They must compensate for mistakes and never, ever shortchange their customers.
• And finally, they need to provide solutions and never make a business’s problem or an employee’s problem the customer’s problem.
“Today’s small business owners must understand that their business is not about ‘me’; it’s about ‘them’: your employees and customers,” explained Hess. “Making cuts to employee perks or customer service perks is not a long-term plan for survival. It might buy you the opportunity to stay in the game a little bit longer, but it won’t make you a winner.
"In today’s economy, you have to do everything you can to hang on to your customers and to encourage them to keep coming back to your business. There’s no better way to do that than through consistently great customer service."
