The services your company offers to its customers can make the difference between business success and failure. Theoretically, as a small business owner you should have an easier job keeping your customers happy, because of the potential relationship you can develop with them. Because of the relatively small market you operate on, fixing issues should also be easier than for a large business, making identifying problems and implementing solutions more time efficient.
Still, there is always more you can do in terms of customer service, and unfortunately not many small business owners invest sufficient resources in order to truly excel in this area. This is why we thought of giving you a few tips which should help you innovate the services you are currently providing your customers:
1. Text messages
Text messages are an inexpensive way of getting in touch with you customers. It reaches them wherever they are, whenever you need them to hear from you, and you can use them to let them know about your business’ promotional sales and discounts, or you can use them to send promotional codes, thus creating a sort of exclusive group and encouraging loyalty towards your business.
2. Social Media
Social media is one of the greatest free marketing tools you can use. It allows you to easily keep in touch with your customers, and get their opinions and suggestions, or provide details about promotions they can take advantage of. Additionally, you can create surveys and polls and ask your customers a few minutes of their time to answer, or you can use your social media page to solve customer complaints.
3. Free of charge services
If there’s one thing customers love, it’s to see the company they are doing business with going the extra mile to make them happy. Consider adding small, free of charge services, such as gift wrapping, free shipping, a very simple return policy, and you’ll see that your customers will appreciate your efforts of giving them more value for their dollar.