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Accepting Payment Online - 7 Steps to Improve your Customer's Buying Experience
Copyright 2005 John Tedeschi
Of course, the number one way you can improve your client's
online purchasing experience is to accept credit cards on your
site, because most of your clients will prefer to use their
debit or credit card, rather...
Communication: Management's Responsibility
I've just watched, again, an episode in the Back to the Floor television series, which aired on the BBC (United Kingdom) and PBS (United States). Once more, communication turned out to be a key issue, as it often does in business stories. If...
Converting More Free Downloads to Paid Customers
Do you give web site visitors the opportunity to download a free trial of your product or service with the intention that they will come back and purchase? How are you following up with these visitors? Asking them to fill out a form and...
Customer Service and The Human Experience
Historically, customer service was delivered over the phone or in person. Customers didn’t have many choices, and switching to competitors was cumbersome. Today, these methods are but two of the many possible touch points of entry for any given...
Customer Service - why some people just shouldn't own shops
I had a call last week from a friend of mine who is an advertising agent and copywriter. He gave me a referral to the owner of a franchised coffee shop who had called him seeking help with advertising and marketing. My friend said that he thought...
How to Win the Hearts of your Customers and Friends
Those of us doing business over the internet have to become especially adept at our listening and speaking skills since we don't have the luxury of talking with our customers face to face. It's especially important to give those on the phone extra...
Minding Your Own Business
Think you have gone as far as you can in your present job? Instead of looking around for a similar position in another company, you may want to strike out on your own as a consultant. With a greater acceptance of telecommuting and companies...
Turn Your Visitors into Customers
By
In order to make a success of your website or online
business, it is obvious that you will need customers.
Although everyone who visits your page will not become
a customer, they must have some interest in your
product or service that...
Web Conferencing: A Boon to Businesss
It is Sunday evening and you are preparing again to go on a business trip. Monday morning the alarm goes off at 4:00 am, you drag your body and your briefcase to your car, drive to the airport, wait in a long line, get on a plane, get off a...
What is Great Customer Service?
In almost all cases customers come to your business because they have a problem and believe that you may have the solution. Whether you do, or whether you can build enough trust with the customer to let them solve their problem is up to you.
In...
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Satisfying your Customers is as Simple as this...
Customer service is everywhere. It seems everyone we deal with now is a 'customer service representative'. Remember when they were bank tellers, flight attendants or just the person behind the enquiries desk? So why is the experience of fantastic, 'blow-your-mind' service still so rare?
My family recently had one of those rare experiences in a small family restaurant. The food was good value, but that's not what made it memorable. What really made this meal was the combination of decent food with a bright, clean environment, friendly, attentive, knowledgable staff and timely service.
Our feeling of being well looked after - of receiving fantastic service - was not delivered by one 'knock-out blow'. Rather it resulted from the coming together of a whole range of small things, each delivered really well.
And that is secret ingredient in fantastic customer service: GETTING THE DELIVERY RIGHT.
No matter how good the food on the plate, if it had taken an hour to get to us we would not have enjoyed it. And our feeling about this restaurant would have been tarnished.
All too often businesses forget this. Larger organisations in particular seem to think customer service is about having a customer charter. Or running a public relations campaign. Or telling us that "your call is important to us". Or giving their staff the title of 'customer service assistant'.
The reality is that, as consumers, we don't care what the title is of the person we are dealing with. We only want them to be
courteous, to give us their full attention and to know what they are talking about (as they did at our restaurant). And we want the product or service we are buying delivered with minimum fuss.
The same applies to every business - including yours. It doesn't matter how good your products or services are. If you can't consistently deliver them in an efficient manner and with minimum hassle for the customer, your customers will eventually drift off and try someone else.
On the other hand, you will stand out from the crowd if you focus effort on getting the delivery right.
What does this mean? It means focusing on the detail of how you and your staff interact with customers. It means creating systems so that orders never, ever get lost or misplaced. It means having sufficient control so that when you make a promise to a customer, you can deliver on that promise.
And it means having the systems in place so that all these things happen consistently.
Having a great product is one thing, but if you want to really impress your customers: get the delivery right.
***For more ideas on this topic, see http://www.businesssimplification.com.au/ideas.htm
© David Brewster, October 2002
http://www.BusinessSimplification.com.au;
mailto:feedback@businesssimplification.com.au
About the Author
David Brewster runs Business Simplification and works with the
owners and managers of small businesses who know they want to
improve but simply can't find the time to do so.
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