Customer Support is Crucial for Business

There is a lot at stake when it comes to the quality of customer service businesses provide. Customer service or support is the experience before, during and after a purchase and it may just be the most crucial aspect of your business today. Yet we never really put much thought into it–most of us, anyway. While it can take more time and may cost more money but good customer support can mean future business with the existing customer and even a way to get new customers.

Imagine yourself as a customer. Would you go back to a company that treated you badly or, at the very least, didn’t care for your experience as a buyer? Research suggests that customers are more likely to be attracted to business that have customer support as one of their top priorities.

Below are five reasons why good customer support is crucial for your business.

1. Your customer will be loyal to your business.
If you put thought into your customers’ experience and show that you care, chances are your customers are going to pick you over the gazillion other options out there. When you make customers happy, they’ll remember you and will want to come back to you even if that means a longer drive to your store or a higher cost they pay for your products or services. In today’s day and age, customer service has become a major differentiating factor among businesses. To get the most of your satisfied customer, start recording their satisfaction levels through surveys and questionnaires. You can then measure these numbers against such factors as customer churn and referral rates. Once you tangible results, you’ll never hesitate to invest more in the customer experience.

2. You will get free publicity.
Once you’ve won over the heart of a customer, rest assured they will let their family and friends know about their experience which will naturally generate new business for you. This is essentially free of cost if you consider the fact that you not only have a loyal customer but also someone who is marketing your business organically through word of mouth. Today, social media allows customers to let the world know what their experience was like with your business. Every once in a while, we hear a horror story of a business getting extremely bad rap for the bad experience they provided to a customer. Since social media has global reach, people’s circle of influence have widened dramatically. A bad customer service experience in Asia can affect how your North American customers view you. Therefore, it’s important that your business has standard customer service policies that are applied everywhere, no matter the region.

3. It will decrease the number of customer complaints.
There are organizations (such as the Better Business Bureau) set in place to track business standards. This means that the more customer complaints you get, the worse off you are. If things get out of control, you may even lose your business license. This is another reason why it makes financial sense to invest in customer service. Think about two companies that have lost their customer base due to a bad customer experience. Perhaps more than two come to mind.

Once the customer posts about their negative experience on the internet, the story spreads like wildfire. Next thing you know, your business is on the news and there may be no way to undo the damage. Big brands like Apple know this and that’s why they take so much time and care in providing their clients with world-class customer experience.