Bruce Townsend

If the old adage is true that in business the customer is King, then the Queen must be customer service. But Alan Sugar says in his autobiography, ‘it’s what you do in practice that gains you business credibility, not hype or empty promises’. Anyone can plaster their website with bold statements like ‘our customer service is second to none’. But what happens in reality? Here are some ideas and examples to help you provide genuinely excellent service to your customers.

Listen to your customers

Listening to customers has always been important, but in today’s interactive world it is more important than ever. It has never been easier for customers to publicise their views about your service. Twitter is often the first place that complaints appear, but there are more forums and social media than you can shake a stick at. To maintain a good reputation you need to follow what customers are saying about you, and act accordingly.

To help monitor customer perceptions systematically, consider implementing an independent customer feedback system such as Feefo. Automatically soliciting feedback from every customer can help you intercept criticisms before they become public. And publishing feedback on your site can increase confidence and improve sales, as well as creating a self-imposed discipline of dealing quickly and fairly with complaints. According to Bill Cawley, founder of Feefo, when companies implement such a system, customer service ‘improves because it has to’.

Turn it around

Treat every problem as an opportunity to shine – whether it’s a failed delivery, a faulty product or even just a difficult customer. Never push the responsibility onto a supplier – it’s your customer that has the problem, so take responsibility to resolve it for them.

Take criticism seriously and address each customer’s complaint. By following an issue through until the customer is satisfied, you can turn a complaint into a compliment, and an enemy into an advocate. Shoppers are reassured by seeing that complaints are handled fairly and well.

When a customer is just being unreasonable, consider whether you could modify your terms and conditions or your customer communications, to avoid similar criticisms in future. Manage customers’ expectations and indicate clearly what they can and cannot expect from you.

Connect with your customers

One negative aspect of buying and selling online is the impersonality. It’s hard to appraise the people you are dealing with, or to build up a rapport.

An example of humanising online sales is from the bakers, Bothams of Whitby (www.botham.co.uk). Here every parcel includes an individually printed gift tag and all orders are acknowledged including a personalised message for repeat customers.

There are other ways to compensate: Mick and Jan Brady started Denbigh Army Surplus (www.denbigharmysurplus.co.uk) nearly 25 years ago, selling off market stalls in North Wales – very much a face-to-face sale. Today they sell mostly online, but they use social media to maintain direct contact with customers. This also enables them to announce new stock the moment it becomes available.

Not all your customers will be on Facebook or Twitter, but most will respond to email. Or if the opportunity arises, why not phone them up and open a conversation? Ask their opinion about your products and services. You will either be pleasantly surprised, or you will discover at least one more way to improve your business and put more pressure on your competitors.

Be consistent

Customers have many channels to communicate with a retailer nowadays, but however they do it, you need to ensure that you are giving a consistent service across the whole company. That means both pre- and post-sales, and whether the customer enquiries, orders, returns goods, asks for support, or complains via the web, telephone, mail or face-to-face. That’s a lot of processes to integrate and manage.

Looking after customers keeps them coming back, and ensures they speak well of your business. This is only a glimpse at ways to excel at customer service; the key thing is to think how you like to be treated and what makes you feel like a VIP when you shop. So over to you.

About the author

Bruce Townsend is the SEO specialist at Actinic's, and lifted the company's web site into the top 3 in Google for 80% of the most popular relevant phrases - the only commercial site to achieve such rankings in the area of ecommerce. He wrote and co-presented Actinic's 'Search Engines and Online Marketing' course, which was attended by over 200 delegates. He also writes regularly on marketing and SEO issues for the small business press.

About the company

Actinic helps small retailers trade via multiple channels (internet, mail-order, telephone-order (MOTO) and in-store) with its ecommerce and electronic point of sale (EPOS) systems. Actinic products combine ease of use, flexibility and affordability with all the features needed to build and manage successful online and offline businesses.

www.actinic.co.uk