Especially if you’re a small business and have just about a handful of clients. Heck, I don’t care if you have a thousand clients! They all expect an outstanding service and you better deliver it to them. Your client’s really don’t care about the fact that you’re understaffed or you’re not well or if things didn’t work out. Nope. All they want is to get things done and move on with their flipping life! Can you help them with that?
If yes, great! You’re just the service they’re going to refer to their friends and family. If not, well, suck it up and accept the fact that there are serious loopholes in your system. The most important of all is communication. If you’ve assigned a point of contact or an account manager, you better make sure they’re reachable by the clients and are top of their responses to the questions thrown at them. I know it’s hectic. But servicing customers has never been easy. Ever.
And I don’t understand why every expert out there is hung up on client retention metrics when the whole damn process to deliver service excellence is broken. Your clients don’t have the time to explore other alternatives or perhaps haven’t been pushed to the verge of being pissed off, yet.
Now, I’m not generalizing. I know there are several businesses that go the extra mile or fight tooth and nail to ensure that their clients really feel ‘taken care of.’ I’m not talking about them but the ones with whom thousands of customers feel trapped. Why? Because they’re approaching a deadline and it’s way too late for them to explore options.
Is there a way out? Yes. I believe there’s a grave need for stringent processes and norms that business owners need to ensure are being followed through by their employees. It’s their reputation on the line, after all. Most importantly, it’s about time that we start using the tools and technology we have access to this day and age. But as they say, with more power comes more responsibility.
Your biggest responsibility is to communicate and come through on your promises (service level agreements) to your clients.