Worst Customer Service Mistakes & What They Cost Your Business.

We as customers are being treated to poor customer service experiences with the likes of airlines, communications companies and indifferent staff at restaurants far too often. Yet what actually makes these experiences bad? Is it the difficulty in reaching an agent, the limited support options, waiting too long for an answer or getting the dreaded "not my department/job" runaround? More likely it is not having your problem solved at all, which could be a result of being over promised something or finding out what the real fine print is after the fact.

It's regrettably true that companies with bad service continue to survive. However, bad service ends up eroding trust and hitting the bottom line, something a small or medium business can ill afford. Some of the direct consequences for your business include:

• Harder to attract new customers
• Since new customers cost more to acquire than existing ones, you'll be spending more than you need to.
• Reduces loyalty among existing customers & increases price sensitivity which impacts profits
• Creates negative word-of-mouth issues that you have to manage, unhappy customers are more likely to share their bad experience with others than satisfied ones.

Here are a few of the top issues and misconceptions from the customers perspective that can wreak havoc on your business success

1. Other things are more important than customer service
2. A bad customer experience stops with that customer
3. It doesn't matter what some of these customers think about you
4. I'm waiting for the customer to give more details
5. The "customer is always right" doesn't apply in this case
6. It costs too much to give in to these problem customers
7. We don't have time to follow up on every complaint
8. You're mistaking customer silence for satisfaction
9. Customer is not really sure what they want
10. Frustrated customers will come back later

Want to know what customers want? Find out what's important to them. Don't leave customers to their own devices. Customer service is a primary source of differentiation and today's ultimate competitive battleground.

In the next issue we'll dive deeper into how to avoid this ticking time bomb of poor service by better understanding how investing in great service for your customers will pay dividends in the form of increased sales, positive feedback, happier customers and profits in the long run. Our team would be happy to discuss how to incorporate a CRM strategy into your business so that you can reap the benefits and rewards too. For results you can count on, contact us at 1 844 577 7654 or at solutions@bizmetrics.ca