Starting your own business is definitely a huge decision to make, but finding the right business path is even tougher as you have to prepare yourself in becoming a leader of your own.
In this episode of the Championship Leadership podcast, Mark Lackey, co-founder of Hire Smart Virtual Employees, shares our journey and how we set out on the path of entrepreneurship and found success and have become the industry leader in helping businesses grow.
If you’d like to know more about our proven process in selecting top-notch Virtual Employees for your business, feel free to book an appointment with me today!
What is customer service? The meaning of customer service to an organization can make or break the business. Before we start working on any marketing strategy, we need to be mindful of our service quality and what is the brand image you are trying to build.
Sam Walton, a successful American businessman and entrepreneur, best known for founding Walmart, once said:
“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
We spend a great deal of time and money to gain new customers only to lose them in a second because of bad service. Not only that, unhappy customers can also influence potential customers to not be using your product or service which can double your loss.
By definition, customer service is the ability of a company or organization to provide and deliver high quality assistance to a customer before and after the procurement of a certain product or service. Your ability to provide superb service “before” is just as important as the “after” service. If a customer sees that you are responsive to their inquiries, courteous and knowledgeable, they are more likely to trust you and more likely to be converted to a paying customer. Your after-service care – i.e., responsiveness to their complaints – will determine if they will reuse your product or service and if they will refer other people to use you as well.
In this article, we will outline all critical points of the importance of customer service:
Bad Customer Service is Expensive:
*78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction because of poor service experience.
*It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience
*It is 6 to 7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer that it is to keep a current one.
*source: Helpscout: 75 customer service facts, quotes and statistics.
Statistics have proven that it is very costly for a company to lose a customer due to bad service. Given this fact, it is best to invest in improving the customer service level of our business rather than waste twice the same amount because of an unhappy customer.
Customer Service Enables You To Build Trust:
Let’s look at what statistics has to say:
*3 in 5 Americans (59%) would try a new brand or company for a better service experience.
*70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated.
*source: Helpscout: 75 customer service facts, quotes and statistics.
A customer is more likely to buy from a business if they know that the business will always be there, courteous and quick to respond, if any issues will arise. It is a competitive market out there. If you cannot provide what is expected and beyond, there are a lot of competitors who will be happy to service your customer for you.
Repeat Customers Are The Best Customers To Sell To:
*5-20% is the probability of selling to a new prospect.
*60-70% is the probability of selling to an existing customer.
*source: Helpscout: 75 customer service facts, quotes and statistics.
Existing customers are the best customers to market to. Why? Because you know they are already interested on your product/service, they have showed trust and they have the buying capacity. Although it is good to acquire new customers every now and then, it is still best to build the relationship with an existing customer who you already know.
We at HireSmart Virtual Employees know that a customer service oriented staff can really make a difference to the growth of your business. As such, we only hire those with a good customer service background and train them to be the best at what they do. Book an appointment with us and see the difference for yourself.
It’s quite unfortunate to see how great-performing employees can potentially decrease their level of work rate and overall productivity overtime which impacts the entire operation. Some of these repercussions are commonly drawn from various reasons that might affect the employees’ performance relating to personal issues, resulting to lack of motivation, or environmental influences which can be observed through their behavior, attendance, and accomplishments.
Should you require to take further actions to prevent this from happening, here are some quick tips that can help you deliver a fair notice to your employee.
Initial Guidance
In most cases, counseling is the first recommended action to be considered when reaching to their attention. By knowing your employee’s insights and responses from your observation, it provides moderate understanding about performance or any issues that are not always immediately obvious to the supervisor. Whether he or she is covering up any personal or work-related challenges, counseling often resolves common minor difficulties of an employee.
Verbal Warning
Should there be any reoccurrence of the same issue affecting their performance in general given that you have provided mutual advice to resolve the issue, verbally reprimanding the employee for poor performance and efficiency is mandatory. Tell the employee that you will document the next steps in the progressive discipline process when both of you have agreed of his or her inability to improve despite repeated advice or warnings.
Disciplinary Action
Provide disciplinary actions by arranging a formal written warning signed by you and the employee in an effort to improve his or her performance. Continue progressive discipline as long as you believe the employee is accomplishing equal efforts to bring his performance on track. If it turns out negatively, provide suspension in an escalating number of days by starting with one day off, escalate to three up until five. Advise your employee that during this process, termination can result at any point after several suspensions.
Both startups and large businesses should know the essence of these discipline examples. It helps both your employees, the work environment, and most especially your business to keep in good shape and motivated.
Here at HireSmart Virtual Employees, our hiring process when selecting a virtual employee have created a huge advancement towards our clients’ business goals specifically in their productions and overall operations without breaking the bank. Should you want to learn more about our service, feel free to book an appointment with me today so I can help you strategize your VE needs.