Customer confidence is important to every entrepreneur’s success; perhaps none
more so than a service business. In this business, the customer rules and his or her
satisfaction with service will determine whether you receive repeat business and a
referral or complaints and unfavorable word-of-mouth.
In today’s busy work world, consumers have to fit visits to any service business
into a schedule already crammed full of appointments. Look at the operational structure of
your business. Do you offer extended hours to accommodate the work schedules of your
customers? Consider how long your customers have to wait for service. How long does the
average customers have to wait before receiving assistance? Here are three tenets to live
by as the owner of a service business: offer quality work at reasonable prices; make
customers feel comfortable and be honest.
Provide Quality Work At A Reasonable Price
Quality is your foundation. As a service company provide a quality service. This is
your foundation. Without this base, nothing else is going to make your shop successful at
attracting and keeping customers. The typical customer doesn’t know that much about
the technical side of your business. The customer will judge you on the results. Regarding
price, many service businesses are competing in markets with numerous other vendors who
offer similar services. Evaluate the market’s price range. Don’t under or over
charge for your services. Keep your prices along the average. Price competition can be
fierce. You need to get clients in the door to provide that quality service that keeps
them coming back. Often price and word-of-mouth determine which service shop the customer
will choose.
Make Customers Feel Comfortable
Be helpful and pleasant. Train your employees to be patient with consumer questions
that to your trained technical staff seem simple. A comfort level and trust is built upon
the foundation of the relationship your customers develop with front line service
personnel. Be sure there are systems in place to manage the production side of the
business. You want your front line service employees to have time to dedicate to the
customers not production. The bottom line for the customer is the service provided and
customer service factors heavily into the equation. Do you have a policy on how to address
service errors? Do you know how to handle a disgruntled customer or a customer pushing for
special discounts? Your employees need to know how you want them to handle such
situations. And, you as the owner need to establish parameters for dealing with the small
percentage of customers who are difficult to serve.
Be Honest
In all business dealings, honesty is the best policy. No one likes to hear that a
service problem has not been solved or that the resolution will take longer than expected.
If there will be a service delay for any reason tell customers right away. This is a
frequent complaint in a service setting "no one told me the job would not be
done." Be proactive, while the customer wants work completed quickly, he or she will
be more willing to accept a delay when told before returning to the service shop, only to
find that the work is not yet completed. You must continually gain consumers’ trust.
Provide the consumer with all details for the service and offer a detailed bill to show
specific charges.
If you would like to discuss customer service policies, employee training or processes
for delivering quality service, call the SCORE Association (Service Corps of Retired
Executives). More than 12,000 volunteer, business counselors donated their time to provide
free and confidential business assistance to entrepreneurs. SCORE is a nonprofit
organization, which has served more than 3.5 million small business people throughout the
nation. For a referral to the SCORE chapter nearest you, call 1 (800) 634-0245.
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