Customer Care | Business Guide

It?s all too easy when you?re struggling with the finances, the production, the employees to regard customers as ?just another problem?, ?a nuisance? or ?getting in the way?. But small business insurance clients need to drag themselves back to reality. Without customers, you have no business, no matter how slick your financial control, nor how good your man-management.

Put yourself in your customers shoes. What would you expect if you were buying this product? How would you want to be treated over the phone if you are phoning with a query? You wont be able to satisfy all customers, but you should struggle to satisfy all reasonable customers, because you want them to carry on buying from you.

When a new customer signs an order, this is not the end of the selling story. Small business insurance clients should aim to build up a long-term relationship, because, in most businesses, you will be hoping for repeat orders or for additions to the original order. These will not come to fruition if you do not follow up orders, see they are delivered on time, or, if they are going to be late, warn your customer in advance. You need to give prompt attention to any problems or criticisms.

If your business depends on a few sizeable customers, it will be important for you to establish a network of contacts in the customers business, not just the buyer.

Response times

As a starting point, set up response times for the care of your customers. How quickly is the phone picked up? Within one ring? Two? Four? Or longer? A phone line dedicated to customers which avoids the switchboard or general business line would provide a better service. It would mean that customers get directly through to the correct person to deal with queries or complaints. You could even look at providing an 0800 number for customers. As well as phones, small business insurance custon=mers should set up required response times for replying to letters, e-mails or faxes.

Complaints handling

In some industries, money back guarantees are common place ? and in any case if you sell your products by credit card, you will find that if a consumer complains to the credit card company, the money will almost always be refunded to the customer to your cost. Distance selling means that a customer is legally entitled to a 7-day cooling off period in which payment has to be refunded.

Perhaps you could adopt a money back guarantee or some sort of guarantee of customer satisfaction. Business insurance policyholders are happy to offer these guarantees because the number of complaints or people who ask for refunds is usually tiny, but it encourages more people to buy from them in the first place.

If your sort of business cannot offer these sort of customer guarantees, you will need a clear policy and procedure on complaints and how they will be handled. Depending on the number of customers, there are also software programs developed specifically to deal with customer complaints.

As a basic premise you should follow the policy that a customer who has complained but has been dealt with satisfactorily can turn into one of your most loyal and supportive customers. The ability to solve problems well can be impressive.

A survey in 2001 found that 90 per cent of customers would do business again with a firm that had successfully resolved a complaint and 97 per cent of these would tell others about their positive experience.

Developing the concept of a club

If the small business insurance client can convince customers that their input and opinion matter, they will feel as if they belong to a select group or a club. This feeling of belonging can help to increase the responsiveness from your customers to anything else they might be offered by you. So work on ideas which can reassure them of their value to you ? special letters, special offers, inducements offered only to them as one of your valued customers.

Customer referrals

Another important reason for building up a good working relationship with your present customers is that they can often be the source of your new business, too. They maybe able to suggest others in the same line of business who may be considering buying a similar product or service to yours. They may even be willing for you to use their name as an introduction. If the customer is very satisfied with your service or product, they may be willing to act as a reference for you, although obviously you must ask first. A reference means that you can give their name to potential customers and they will be prepared to discuss your business with them.

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Related posts:

1. Building customer relationships
2. New products, new offers and repeat purchases
3. Face to Face Selling
4. Assessing sale potentials of a business
5. Direct Response Advertising

Source: http://blog.bsure.uk.com/customer-care/

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