Marketing Starts with Great Customer Service

It doesn’t matter how great of an Internet Marketer you are. Without customer care, you
have a business that will not survive. I don’t care what your product or service is, your main business function is service excellence — period! It's a strategy that all successful business owners understand and pay careful attention to.
A great company, one that customers always talk about, is characterized by superior customer service. Many businesses offer excellent products and services, but the company that is willing to provide above average client care will be miles ahead of its
competition.
Customer Service has to be the backbone of your marketing plan. Why? It’s a basic
business truth — No Customers, No Business. No Business, No Money!
Customer service is your least expensive, yet most effective piece of the puzzle in your
marketing mix. Customers want to be treated as people. If you truly understand this, then you are halfway to truly understanding the heart of online customer care.
A recent study commissioned by the White House Office of Consumer Affairs shows that 96% of dissatisfied customers do not complain and 90% will never come back. Another scary statistic of that report says that an unhappy customer tells at least nine to ten others. If you tick someone off in the online world, you not only have to worry about them telling a few friends, you now have to worry about them blogging about it or posting comments on other people’s blogs. This can be devastating to your
online business. Here’s the thing, being better than your competition in the customer service arena isn’t that hard. Unfortunately, service excellence seems to be perceived as an afterthought to sales and profit.
We have all been victims of customer service being pushed aside for a higher profit margin. When was the last time you were able to get a real person on the phone to discuss a bill without getting a headache?
I just experienced this with the phone company. Actually, I was trying to enlist more
of their services — I was trying to give them more business. It took me 10 minutes to get to a real person, and it felt like a whole lot longer. Once I got someone, I questioned why it was so hard and was told they had had cutbacks and were short staffed so everyone was getting stuck in voicemail jail. I actually felt sorry for the reps. You could tell they were dealing with many irate customers who were feeling the same way I was. I felt like a number to this company. They were very indifferent to me, and certainly had no respect for my time. It is sad to say, but today this is not the exception, but the rule with many companies.

We are in an unpredictable economy. Many businesses are experiencing declining
budgets, and with those smaller budgets, come less staff and diminished services. So what do many companies do — they cut out customer service.
To me, it just doesn’t make sense. Think about this — most interactions with displeased
customers are not the result of a poor product, but instead, a bad customer service experience. During these downtimes, hanging on to our loyal clients must be a priority, so customer support must be at the forefront of our budgets.
Providing excellent customer service for an online business means that you have to
embrace the traditional principles of great customer service while adopting new practices to fit the online world.
Next month… Bring on the Gripes!