The Top 5 Customer Service Blunders That Will Kill Your Business

Everybody knows that if you don't provide quality customer service, you will soon not have any customers at all.  Too often though, business owners and managers don't consider much beyond a pleasant greeting and smiling face when they think of customer service.

And oh...it is much more than that. Much more.

Read below for the top five blunders to avoid at all costs.

1. Forgetting that the customer signs your paycheck

When the phone rings at your desk, are you annoyed? Do you feel interrupted? Even worse, do you let it show in your voice?

The truth of the matter is, that phone ringing is keeping you in business whether you like it or not. Too often companies, especially successful ones, develop an attitude that everything would be perfect if it wasn’t for the constant interruptions by customers. They may not say that out loud, but they certainly portray it in their voices and actions.

Here are some other symptoms that a company has forgotten who signs their paycheck:

• Engaging in personal conversations with coworkers in front of customers
• Not returning customer phone calls or emails in a timely manner
• Engaging in “customer bashing” sessions with your staff. Even if customers are not in earshot, it gives the impression to your staff that insulting customers is ok
• Talking to a customer, either in person or on the phone, while eating (btw, put the food down, not the phone), typing or doing anything else but listening

To avoid falling into this trap, every day remind yourself that the main purpose of your company is to serve customers. Take pride in a happy customer. If that doesn’t work, remind yourself that your competition is lined up waiting to take your customers. Don’t make it so easy for them.

2. Focusing on blame when things go wrong

When something goes awry with a customer account, service or recently purchased product, is your gut reaction to first prove that it wasn’t your fault? Heads up – even if it wasn’t your fault, it really was. So stop looking to lay blame. Apologize and then fix the problem already!

Study after study has shown that customers actually have more loyalty to companies that make mistakes and then fix them (or over-fix them) than they do to companies that never make mistakes. The reason why is that all people have a bit of doubt when it comes to how a company will react when things go wrong; we tend to expect the worst.

By apologizing and fixing the problem, you’ve just shown the customer that there is no reason to doubt you anymore and a deeper level of trust is created between you and that customer.

Now isn’t that a lot better than getting to say “not my fault”?

3. Not rewarding referrals

What is an average client worth annually to your business? $500? $1000? More? When a current client refers a new client to you, it is just like having a money tree that grows bills in whatever denomination you answered in the previous question.

Not rewarding customers who refer you business is like chopping down the money tree. Got that?

I know, I know,….what is an appropriate referral reward?

There is an unwritten rule in customer referral rewards and here it is for the first time in writing: the referral gift needs to be either 1) a handwritten personalized thank you note (snail mail preferred over email) or 2) a gift that is in line with the value of the new client to you. Anything less is kind of an insult.

The odd thing is that people are not offended when there is no gift at all…..just when the gift seems cheap compared to the value of the referral. So if a new client to you is worth $5000, send a well thought out hand-written thank you note or a reward/gift of at least $50 in value.

Send a bottle of hand sanitizer or a refrigerator magnet and you will never get a referral from that customer again. (can you hear the axe chopping down that money tree?)

Also, if you receive referrals from other companies, you need to not only thank them, but return the favor and send some customers their way.

4. Not protecting client confidentiality

When you are presenting a proposal to a prospective client, if you use examples of how you served other similar customers, it is actually a positive experience for the potential customer because they are reassured that you can also service their needs.

But if you mention anything about that current customer that can identify them, you have lost that prospect for good. More critical to your business though is that you have done a grave disservice to your current customer by airing their laundry (dirty or clean) out in public.

Never, and I mean NEVER discuss your current clients with anyone outside of your company, and even then, only with those with “need to know” status. It is rude and unprofessional, and if you say too much, especially negative or derogatory, you could end up in court.

5. Failing to thank customers for choosing you

Today more than ever, customers are more and more selective about whom they give their money to. Heads up – they don’t have to give it to you. Too often companies spend an enormous amount of time and energy on acquiring new customers but then spend little, if any time, trying to keep them.

If you are not making any of the mistakes described in items 1-4, then congratulate yourself for providing good customer service and on being professional. But you are not finished yet.

Periodically, let your customers know that you appreciate them and their business. It can be a note, a personal visit or even an email. Or how about hosting an annual customer appreciation cookout or party? Even the customers that cannot attend will appreciate the gesture and feel even more confident that choosing you for their business was the correct decision.

Have a customer service story to share? Please do so!