Welcome to another chapter of our series on Great business management tools for SMEs, where we provide you with a practical tool kit of useful information to help your small-to-medium enterprise grow and prosper, particularly in the early years. In this article, we talk about a vital business tool – excellent customer service and building great customer relationships.
It is said that 90% of new business referrals, especially for those who provide a service, are created through word-of-mouth. Obtaining these referrals requires building a good reputation and forming long-term relationships with clients, and this is achieved, in essence, by cultivating and adhering to the following…
Service Excellence
The old saying ‘the customer is always right,’ may not be true but it is a good ethos to adopt with your team just to drive home the importance of consistent and genuine service excellence. It is important to go the extra mile and ensure every customer is always happy and this is attained through…
Getting the brief right
At the outset make sure you fully understand and provide what the customer wants. There is no quicker way to alienate a customer than to not provide exactly what they asked for!
Add value
Having ascertained what the customer wants, ensure that it is provided in full, but always with a little something extra. Provide something that tops your opposition, like for example value-added services.
Constant communication
This is absolutely key. Whatever happens in the chain of events from order to delivery always ensure that the customer is kept in the loop. Also, never ignore complaints and handle these with the same diplomacy that you do with every other aspect of your customer communications.
CRM programmes and expertise
It is vitally important to keep track of your customer base and handle all communications regularly and effectively. There are very good Customer Relations Management programs and experts who provide this service. Particularly when you grow it is a good idea to look into this or hire someone to handle it.
A great customer service track record
We may have just touched the tip of the iceberg here as this is a big subject, but the objective at the end of the day is to have a great customer service track record. People talk, and as we said 90% of business for most businesses emanates from word-of-mouth referrals but these are always generated by happy customers who know they can trust you to deliver!
Finrock Capital can very proudly say that we have an excellent Customer service and relations track record which is reflected in the long-term relationships we have built and the excellent testimonials that we regularly receive.
We believe this is because we not only assist businesses with the vital issue of maintaining a good cash flow through utilising invoice factoring but we provide great value-added services too, all part and parcel of our service offering. These include things like a full credit assessment and management service; sending out statements; chasing up, obtaining confirmation of and allocating payments to the relevant invoices etc.
Talk to us today and let our excellent customer focussed team assist with your financial needs – and start working on your Customer Service and Relations right away. Also, watch this space for more Great business management tools for SMEs!
