Starting my own small business hasn’t been easy. There’s so many hurdles to jump over. From being found and noticed online, to making and increasing sales, to competing with the huge brands already out there.
Regardless of how successful my business is, there’s one thing I’ve tried to do well from the start and that’s excellent customer service.
Whether you’re complaining or complimenting I always try to reply quickly, respond professionally whilst ensuring I’m coming across in a friendly manner.
And that’s with 2 kids in tow! There’s no excuse for bad customer service.
There’s nothing worse than being spoken to like an idiot.
I was recently introduced to CCSN, a website that allows you to find the phone numbers for UK businesses. Now, in my opinion this is such a useful website to be aware of!
It can be so stressful when you need to speak to a company and not be able to find their phone number online. Of course there are other ways of contacting a business, like online chat (which I use a lot and really rate) or email, but sometimes this isn’t suitable and direct call is more efficient.
As I’m still such a small business I don’t offer a phone number as a means of contacting me. But any time I’ve been contacted via social media or email, I ensure I reply the same day. It’s just super important to me that my customers feel ‘looked after’.
This infographic from CCSN is really useful for me to understand what customers want and expect with customer service. According to their survey 78% of people involved agreed that larger companies demonstrate better customer service.
This is exactly why I make sure my customer service is the best it can be. I am competing with huge companies who have dedicated customer service teams and social media support. For Lamb & Bear it’s just little old me!
If I want my business to grow I had to graft and put in the hours I can now.
And it seems to be paying off. After 2 years of running my little biz, I have yet to receive a bad complaint and return. Any issues customers have had I’ve resolved successfully consequently leaving the customer feeling positive about my service.
That’s something I’m pretty proud of.
~A~
* Collaborative post
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