A good referral system will bring you more customers, but good customer service is the fuel that makes the system run. No matter how tight your system is, without this crucial element, you won’t get referrals and you won’t keep customers.
When you think about how to offer good customer service, things can get complex. For example, there’s a whole routine for dealing with customer complaints. Companies have entire manuals devoted to this part of their business. It’s that important.
But there’s a simple way to offer good customer service without all the complexity. Just put yourself in your customers’ shoes. If you can empathize with your customers and put yourself in their place, you can figure out how to deal with customer service issues in the best way possible.
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Everybody is a customer.
Try to think about times when you felt a company offered good service. Why was this? How did they meet your needs? How did they exceed your expectations? What made you want to go there again?
Here’s an even easier exercise: think of a time when you received lousy customer service. Why was it bad? What would you do differently?
Take this brainstorm and apply it to your business. Imagine that you’re a customer and lead yourself through your sales process. How does it make you feel and what could you improve about it?
You should also get feedback from your customers whenever possible. This is objective data that will help you improve your service.
Customer service truly is number one, especially online where we can’t see who we’re dealing with. Make sure that your referral marketing system is accompanied by stellar customer service and you’ll get more customer referrals than you imagined possible.
Get More Referrals for Your Business
Your customers shouldn’t be your only source for getting new customers. Other businesses need new customers as much as you do. Get to know local businesses in your area that are not in direct competition with you. When a window cleaner is trusted by their clients, they often get asked for referrals on good house cleaners. You could be that house cleaning business when you have a business referral plan in place.
What’s your best source of referrals for your business? Leave a comment and share!
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