Customer service is a cornerstone for all successful businesses, but it is especially critical for small companies where every individual customer matters. Despite this fact, many small businesses fall into common traps that damage their reputation and, ultimately, their bottom lines. Let’s talk about these mistakes and consider actionable advice to address them.
Offering an Inconsistent Customer Experience
One of the most damaging, if underestimated, issues that a small business can face is providing an inconsistent customer experience. Your customers expect a certain level of service, and whenever they encounter variability—especially large swings in variability—it will inevitably lead to frustration and engender a lack of trust. For example, a coffee shop might employ a large number of employees, where some excel at providing friendly and efficient service, while others fall short by offering slower service and less engaging interactions. You don’t want a situation where customers become especially loyal to only certain employees, eschewing your business when the wrong employees are working. If your good employees move on, you might lose those customers altogether. Moreover, customer favoritism can lead to jealously between your staff members, an unhealthy situation to be sure.
While personalities will vary, you must train your employees to exude the same enthusiasm and efficiency across the board. Aim for all of your employees to be great.
Poor Communication
Effective communication is always important, regardless of the situation. Poor communication can take many forms, including examples like unclear signage, unresponsive staff, or poorly explained products and services. These situations can easily give rise to significant customer dissatisfaction. Let’s imagine a boutique clothing store where the return policy isn’t clearly communicated, resulting in confusion and even anger at the checkout counter. Small businesses can ill-afford to leave their customers feeling taken advantage of, costing them future sales and bad word-of-mouth.
The key here is proactivity. Don’t subscribe to a policy of assuming that what the customer doesn’t know won’t hurt them. Be up front and open with your products and services, even if that means underscoring potential drawbacks. An informed customer will be happier in the long run.
Ignoring Feedback
Customer and employee feedback should be an invaluable resource to improving your business, but many headstrong leaders make the mistake of believing their own vision is the only right one. Indeed, when those leaders ignore or mishandle feedback, they’re setting themselves up for lost customers and a revolving door of employees. For example, image a restaurant where complaints about long wait times are being consistently overlooked by management. Maybe it’s not just the customers saying something—maybe it’s the service staff as well, implying there’s a breakdown in kitchen efficiency. Ignoring this situation will lead to repeated negative reviews, frustrated employees, and an inevitable decline in patronage. The longer problems are ignored, the more intractable they become.
You must actively listen to and act upon the feedback you receive to demonstrate a commitment to improving the customer and employee experiences, thereby helping to retain your loyal customer base and your best employees.
Undertraining Staff
Speaking of employees, undertrained staff will significantly impact the quality and efficiency of the products and services your business provides. Employees who lack product knowledge, basic problem-solving skills, or who exhibit poor professional behavior will derail the customer experience and make for a bad company culture. Let’s picture a small electronics store where staff members are unable to answer basic questions about the products they sell, creating customer frustration and a ton of inaccurate product recommendations. This situation will lead to lost sales and angry product returns.
Investing in a comprehensive training program is essential to ensure your people are well-equipped to meet customer needs, provide excellent service, and avoid the headache of misinformation. The cost of this training is well worth the expense in the long run!
Neglecting First Impressions
Finally, let’s not forget that a first impression is paramount to setting the tone for your customer experience. A poor initial interaction can deter customers from even making a purchase from you, or make it more likely they don’t return for repeat business. An unwelcoming environment, long wait times, unfriendly staff, etc. can really sink your business’s rapport with its customers. Consider a beauty salon with an oft-unattended reception area, leaving customers waiting without a greeting or indication as to the wait time. Some customers might just leave, while others might think twice about returning.
All points of contact for the customer should be frictionless and friendly, but that initial point is essential for getting started on the right foot. Think about the first impressions your business gives your customers, and whether you yourself would be happy as a client.
Mystery Shopping to the Rescue
These pitfalls are all concerning and easy to fall into, but the good news is that mystery shopping is a powerful tool that can help your business uncover and address these common service mistakes head-on. The first rule of getting out of a hole is to stop digging. Instead, solicit external, objective feedback, with which you’ll be able to improve your company’s consistency, communication, feedback management, staff training, and first impressions. When you regularly make use of mystery shopping insights, you will enhance your customer service and build lasting customer loyalty upon the foundation of continuous improvement.
Continuous improvement is how you stay competitive in your crowded market. Ready to make these goals into a reality? Reach out to us at The Brandt Group today and let’s build a loyal customer base that’ll power your growth for years to come.
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