Hey tribe!
Today I want to talk about customer service because it’s so important to be on top of it 24/7. It’s just not enough to have an amazing product/service. You’ve also got to be around in case that “amazing product/service” isn’t so amazing. If a customer is unhappy or tries to ask a question and gets crickets in return….You are going to have a 1-star review and a pretty strongly worded email on your hands (and the ramifications aren’t pretty). Unhappy customers who have not been responded to are very quick to take to public forums like social media and you better believe they WILL tag you too!
If you don’t want to develop the wrong reputation, you better keep reading for my 3 tips to have AMAZING customer service as a solopreneur.
1. Be Responsive
The best way to anger a customer is to leave them on read! Anger sets in quickly when a customer is waiting for a response, so try not to lengthen this wait time. Have a process in place for answering emails, phone calls, DMs and any other communication channel. You’ll also want to make any business hours and your response time KNOWN by adding them to email signatures, away-messages on social media and your voicemail too! This sets up an expectation for your customer who knows you’re going to get back to them by a particular time. Now all you have to do is stick to your word!
2. Be Friendly
Do you remember when our moms would say to “kill ‘em with kindness”? Well, the same applies for customer service. You’ll always want to remain calm, empathetic and friendly even if a customer is being none of the above. In many cases, once a customer realizes that they aren’t going to get a rise out of you, they calm down. In order to aid in this, it’s helpful to have templates to respond to emails, phone calls, and any other communications. Simply copy, paste and personalize to the recipient. This helps to mitigate responding in a rude tone.
3. Listen (and Read) Carefully
Templates are great when it comes to giving everyone the same level of respect, detailed responses and kindness…but you don’t want to forget to LISTEN! Customers contact you because they want to speak to a human being and be heard. This means actually listening to the problem, what they’ve already tried, and gone from there. I cannot tell you how angry I get when I call customer service and tell them I’ve tried ______ already and their first suggestion is to do the same thing I already tried!!
Be the Ultimate in Customer Service: Hire a Qualified Team
Solopreneurs, like yourself, know their business inside and out. But, when it comes to other tasks, like customer service these can be very time-consuming and emotionally draining. Think about handing a very rude customer right before going live…Can you imagine how bad of a mood you’d be in? Hiring even one more person to simply take the customer service part of the company off your shoulders can do wonders.
If hiring really scares you, be sure to join me in my upcoming webinar, on February 24th at 8PM EST where we’ll discuss 5 simplest-ever strategies you can take to lighten your load right now and I’ll give you tips to stop thinking like a solopreneur and start thinking like a CEO. Click here to register for this FREE training!