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Small Business Information - Bad Customer Service Damaging Your Business?
As a business owner, you know that bad
customer service is a sure fire way to lose
customers and sales. Yet despite this
obvious fact, a large number of businesses
still provide inadequate service and support
to their customers.
 A
report from the National Consumer Council (NCC)
has shown that poor customer service and
hard-sell sales pitches are damaging
customer relations, and more significantly;
business profits.
In the hunt for quick profits, businesses
are failing to get important customer
service areas right. Top consumer hates
include ‘robotic’ call centres, absurdly
complex systems, hard-sell marketing, missed
appointments, and poor after-sales service.
Every year over 800,000 people make
complaints to Trading Standards about
businesses, while over 75% of consumers
experience problems with products that they
buy; and consumers are fighting back by
simply not buying from businesses that let
them down.
One consumer in the report spoke about
companies: “Offering you the world when
you’re a potential customer and then
treating you like crap when you’re an
existing customer.” This is a perfect
example of how not to treat your customers
if you want them to ever buy from you again!
The good news for SME’s is that larger
businesses appear to be the worst offenders
in the report; but the lessons are just as
important for businesses of all sizes.
Garages are listed as the worst offenders of
SME size, while the other main offenders are
large telecoms, finance and retail
businesses.
When your business grows, make sure you look
after customer service. The personal service
and care that small businesses can provide
are one of the biggest advantages you have
over large firms; it would be wasteful to
let that advantage slide when your business
expands.
Treat your customers well and you can form
profitable long term customer relationships,
and avoid the lost profits and business
damage that unhappy customers will cause.
Find out more about keeping
customers loyal and dealing with
business complaints here.
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