Customer service for a small business: Boost your customer loyalty
How to deliver exceptional customer service for a small business
The difference between success and failure often comes down to customer service. No field-service company or small business can thrive without an effective and intentional approach to customer service because today’s customers demand it.
Attention spans are short, and customers want immediate answers and assistance. If a business doesn’t meet that expectation, customers simply move on to another business. According to HubSpot, 93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies that offer excellent customer service (2023).
The most important aspect of customer service
The most important aspect of customer service is having a system in place to meet—and exceed—customer expectations. Today’s customer expects an immediate, rapid response. They may reach out via text, live chat, email, phone, or social media.
Someone needs to be dedicated to responding, no matter where or when a customer reaches out, every time.
Often, business owners have too many demands on their time to provide prompt responses. So, how do you create an exceptional customer service experience?
The winning formula to provide excellent customer service
Here’s the winning formula to deliver exceptional customer service:
Assign an employee or a team to attend to all customer inquiries.
Provide customers with multiple ways to connect to your business.
Ensure you give live responses that are meaningful—not canned or bot-generated.
Follow up on all inquiries and tickets to ensure that customers are truly satisfied.
Dedicate financial and operational resources to customer service.
Tips for effective customer service
Assign employees customer-service responsibilities
An effective customer-service plan requires assigning someone to manage customer interactions. That person (or team) will have access to business-operation systems so they know what work is being done and when.
They should be able to answer anything a customer may want to know at any stage of the sales cycle. This person can be on staff or contracted.
Most importantly, this employee’s main job responsibility needs to be fast and empathetic responses. Here’s one example of how an immediate response makes a difference:
Chances are, when someone searches for a home- or field-service professional, they are in a bind or a moment of need. In this instance, a potential customer calls due to an emergency with a tree on her property. The customer-service assistant answers the call right away, gets the details, and understands the customer’s needs.
The customer-service assistant determines that the business owner is nearby on a job and arranges for the owner to visit the caller’s location. This happened during one phone call that was answered right away.
From the owner’s perspective, business was won, and a customer was gained. This is business that would have been lost had the call gone to voicemail instead. From the customer’s perspective, her call for help was answered in a moment of need.
Create multiple ways for customers to contact you
Customer satisfaction is also impacted by a customer’s ability to contact a business when and how they want, at their convenience. Some people don’t like to make phone calls. Others don’t like email.
The successful business offers multiple ways to connect and provides equally great service on all channels. According to Salesforce, 70% of customers say connected processes, such as seamless handoffs or contextualized engagement based on earlier interactions, are very important to winning their business (2022).
Provide live, meaningful responses
People need to be greeted by someone who can actually help them. Often, automated responses won’t cut it for small businesses. A good customer-service assistant needs to provide the following specific information:
What services you offer
When you can provide an estimate and/or do the job
The status of the job
The best service is provided by people who can answer all the questions even before people ask. Your employees need to fully understand your business and know common customer concerns to ensure complete customer satisfaction.
They absolutely must take the appropriate time to make sure that the business provides a quality level of service.
Collect feedback to make sure customer service is working
Having an intentional approach to customer service is essential. Taking time to check in with customers so that exceptional customer service is being met is equally important.
Every business should have a plan to ask for customer feedback, either in an informal manner or via formal rating or review. Businesses can seek feedback at any point in the customer-relationship cycle and should monitor feedback and respond as needed.
Acknowledge what went well, clarify any errors, and be authentic in wanting to make every customer experience great. There’s something to learn any time a customer takes time to report on their experience.
According to Zendesk, companies that request feedback after each interaction see a 10% increase in customer satisfaction scores (2023).
Commit resources for customer service
It’s important to set up a system for customer service using the right tools to improve both effectiveness and efficiency. Here are some recommended tools you can implement in your customer-service stack to help build exceptional customer service:
Pink Callers: Pink Callers connects business owners with customer-service solutions to help answer calls, schedule work, and overview accounts receivable.
Jobber: Jobber helps business owners with scheduling, quoting, and invoicing.
Freshdesk: Freshdesk provides multi-channel support and automation to streamline customer service tasks.
Common mistakes to avoid
Ignoring customer feedback: Ignoring customer feedback is a significant error. It leads to missed opportunities for improvement.
Using automated responses excessively: Using automated responses excessively can frustrate customers. They often seek personal and immediate assistance.
Failing to train employees properly: Failing to train employees properly reduces service quality. Well-trained staff are crucial for effective customer interactions.
Not providing multiple contact options: Not providing multiple contact options limits accessibility. Different customers prefer different methods of communication.
Underestimating the importance of follow-ups: Underestimating the importance of follow-ups can lose customer trust. Consistent follow-ups ensure issues are resolved and customers are satisfied.
Why is good customer service important
Remember, delivering exceptional customer service is more than just resolving complaints. Here are some reasons why customer service is important for growing your business:
Increasing retention and upsell revenue
Creating an amazing experience with excellent customer service increases your retention and upsell revenue metrics. Customer service generates future business.
According to a study by Bain & Company, a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 25-95% increase in profits (2023).
Generating referral revenue
When you provide great customer service, customers will tell their friends and family about your business when they need a recommendation. Hello, referral revenue!
Nielsen reports that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over any other type of advertising (2023).
Improving social proof and website rankings
Delivering 11-star service instead of 5-star service gets you customer reviews. These reviews provide social proof and improve website rankings for future sales enablement.
According to Moz, online reviews account for 15% of how Google ranks a local business (2022).
Expert opinions on customer service for a small business
John Mitchell, Small Business Advisor: “Effective customer service is the backbone of any successful small business. It’s crucial to train employees to handle customer inquiries and complaints professionally and empathetically. An empathetic response can turn a dissatisfied customer into a loyal advocate for your business.”
Lisa Carter, Retail Management Expert: “Consistency is key in customer service. Small businesses should ensure that their service is reliable across all touchpoints, whether it’s in-store, online, or over the phone. Consistency builds trust and assures customers that they can expect the same high level of service every time they interact with your business.”
David Scott, Business Development Specialist: “Leveraging technology, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems, can greatly improve customer service for small businesses. These tools help track customer interactions and preferences, enabling businesses to offer more personalized and efficient service.”
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