Small and medium businesses have now understood the importance of customer service. They know that rendering good customer service will bring in c ustomer retention and loyalty, which will eventually result in greater profitability.

However, good customer service is not always perfect and correct. According to a section of experts, while the SMBs are fast running to catch up with their MNC counterparts in customer service, they are still making glitches here and there. While the factors behind these mistakes can be varied such as inertia, customary activities or bad choice the mistakes can be fixed up with focused effort.

1. Backdated systems for Todays Customers

A 2014 survey has stated that 66 percent of small businesses use backdated technology for customer relationship management. Most likely they are tracking customer service issues using excel or perhaps manually in notebooks and loose pieces of paper.

Understand that there is no point devoting endless hours to customer service if you do not have the tools to execute customer service actions effectively.

Remedy:

Implement a CRM. At present, a host of affordable, effective cloud CRM software systems are available in the market. They will help revolutionize your Flinstones-esque processes along the lines of the 21st century. Result you will be able to deliver customer experience one step ahead of your competition.

Note: Before you select an online CRM system, make sure it is up to the current challenges of your business.

2. Ignorance of Customers Feelings

In the opinion of the experts, customer service comes down to just one thing: how did the customer feel while dealing with the company? As a customer expert puts it Most often customers judge their experiences with an organization based on the feelings they take away.

For example, when a customer visits a restaurant, he/she is not just impressed by the quality and presentation of meal served. Flooring, ambience, quickness of the service and the mannerism of the waiter/person at the counter combined together, shapes up the total experience of the customer.

Remedy

Educate your employees that satisfying a customers needs through the product/service is only the beginning. They also need to concentrate on the other little things that make up a customers experience.

3. Difficult customer process

According to a research conducted by the Corporate Executive Board, customers who put strained effort in interacting with a company are likely to be disloyal in the future. In other words, the more the effort the customer has to put while interacting with a company, the lesser are the chances that he/she will stick to that brand afterwards.

Explaining this further, here is what a customer has stated in his review about a mobile accessory shop my wife recently bought a highly expensive waterproof and damage proof case for her smart phone. Unfortunately, the process to register for the warranty turned out to be one full of hassles. With the warranty registration process being so complex and long, it actually acted as a deterrent to continue with it further. Although the quality and feature of the product was awesome, the hassle of the registration process made the experience with the company a negative one.

Remedy

Examine the whole customer service process of your company. Understand the level of effort a customer has to put to interact with you. Remember it is important that you focus not upon one aspect but on the totality of customers experience with your organization.

Note: If you cannot simplify the process much, try and look for ways to communicate with customers better and fulfill their expectations early.

4. Rigid organizational process

You do not need any further theory/survey to understand that solving a customer issue on the spot is infinitely the key to customer loyalty. However, in spite of this realization, not many small companies are able to solve customer issues in real time.

A leading customer experience strategist explains it Small and medium organizations establish controls to alleviate problems such as risk and loss. However, these controls get stacked up with repetitive addition over a period. Consequently, the organizational process becomes rigid, making it inflexible and unresponsive to customer issues.

Remedy

Draw a list of common organizational issues. Determine if these can be solved by your employees. Remember, every organization can deal with this problem provided they look hard enough, to find places where they can loosen up the reins.

5. No follow up after solving customer issues

Most often we get relaxed after resolving a customer issue. Hardly do we ever demonstrate our proactive service initiatives by following up with the customer again.

Why is it necessary to follow up with such customers?

First, it gives you a confirmation whether the past issue has been resolved completely or has it resurfaced again?

Second, you get an idea of any other potential issues.

Experts believe that customers perception of a company get influenced by their last experience with it. By following up with customers who has had issues previously, you make them forget the past experience (which might be negative, considering that they faced a service problem).

Remedy

Decide what service issues needs to be followed. Once you have zeroed in on the service issues, extract the list of customers who complained about these. Make sure you have systems in place to follow up on these problems.