When you’re still a young startup, it’s not always that easy to find the kind of funding you wish you had. There is so much to spend it on in terms of making sure that your business has everything it needs and is prepared for the future – but, until your business has grown, it will all have to wait.
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There are a few aspects of your business you simply can’t afford to wait with, though, and making sure that you provide excellent customer service is one of them. It’s one of the ways you will be able to build your brand and ensure that your first customers remember who you are – and without it, you won’t be able to grow as fast as you’d like.
Luckily, there are a few ways around the money-issues when you want to invest in your startup’s customer service. Here is a handful of the best ways to make your business stand out among your competitors by levelling up those people skills and giving your customers something to smile about.
First: Use your website properly
Sure, you may not be able to hire an entire professional customer service team, but you will still be able to ensure that your customers are able to get help when they need it. In fact, you don’t need to have people there to answer your phone 24/7 – at least not to begin with.
Just have a look at your website and think about all the ways you can use it to help your customers out; a live chat, for example, is an excellent way to make sure that they can get ahold of someone within your company and get an answer to their questions.
You should consider whether or not your website is user-friendly as well, by the way, and have a look at how easy it is to navigate around it. When people visit your website, it’s often in order to find a solution to their problem; if the website is messy and difficult to use, they’re not going to hang around for too long.
They may even become a bit frustrated with your business and swear never to spend their money on you again, so make sure that your website is up-to-date and ready to help those clients out.
Think about social media
Another point to this is that you can easily use social media as a way of providing excellent customer service. You should, in fact, use social media for this even if you already have a large team of skilled customer service professionals; through social media, you will be able to provide a cost-effective and casual way of helping your customers out.
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That’s just one of the great things about the Internet. People aren’t that willing to pick up the phone and make that call, in any way, and if they can have a quick chat with you via Facebook, they are much more likely to get in touch immediately.
There’s no waiting in line either and you don’t have to hire anyone to hang around the phone all day.
You could use social media for more than just providing a point of communication, though, as many use their businesses’ profiles to make videos as well. You could create a video to show your customers how one of your products are used, for example, how to fix it in case something should go wrong, and a host of other videos just to help them out, in general.
That way, your network will be able to interact with your business in an entirely different way as they now have a face to connect with it. Make sure that you give this responsibility to someone who knows how to make videos well and who works well in front of the camera, though – since they are going to represent your company and all.
Use a telephone answering service
Another great thing about technology is that startups and even virtual offices have so many more options in terms of appearing credible and professional. There is an ocean of options out there for you if you’re not able to afford hiring a whole customer service team right now – and you can choose between using a virtual HQ or just outsourcing the task.
A virtual headquarter will help you out a lot when you receive a few phone calls in addition to all the support you provide online. You can let them answer all of the phone calls for you or just a few of them – it’s up to you, and it doesn’t cost nearly as much as training and hiring an entire team.
Now you’re able to be there for your customers both in-person, online, and via the phone. There is really nothing more they could possibly ask for.
When you have a team: Provide training
Sooner or later, you might find that the time for actually hiring an in-house customer service team is ripe. When this happens, it’s important that your team knows exactly how to provide the excellent service you’ve become so known for among your loyal customers, though, and you don’t want them to give a poor impression of your business.
Empathy, patience, and friendliness are, of course, the keywords to a successful customer service team – but you can have a look at this article for some more tips so that your crew is fully prepared.
Working in customer service is quite tough, and it takes a special kind of patience and tough skin in order to survive in the field. Treat your team right and give them praise for all their hard work, and they’ll be sure to make your business outstanding.