Small Business Talk
The Podcast to Grow your Business Faster
Customer Service Can Make Your Break Your Business with Suzanne Cross
Customer service can make or break your business. Good customer service, really good customer service can set your business apart from your competition. Today on the Small Business Talk Podcast, we are talking to customer service expert, Suzanne Cross. Suzanne has been a business woman for many years and has multiple businesses across different industries. The thing that ties Suzanne’s businesses altogether is excellent customer service.
Show Notes
Background
Suzanne and her husband started in small business about 19 years ago, when they bought a really run-down general store, liquor, Australia Posts, groceries store. You name it, they sold it. That was the beginning of Suzanne’s business journey – owning a store, a premise. They owned the store for almost 3 years and then took some time off. A year later with a 4 month old baby they bought a news agency business here in Bunbury, Western Australia. Today she also has a couple of holiday houses that they rent out to holiday makers, down south, Abbey Beach near Busselton and Send Out Cards.
Customer Service, How to Make Your Customer Feel Important?
- Finding A Solution for Your Customer
- Stay Top of Mind for your customers
- Use Snail Mail It Has Become Powerful Again
Finding A Solution for Your Customer
Customer service is about the big picture. Customer service is really about that being able to find a solution to your customers problems. If you extend your service to your customers, they will remember you and if you can offer multiple complimentary services as well then you will be able added extra value to their experience.
“Customer service, for me, is really about finding a solution for your customer”.
Stay Top of Mind for Your Customers
Keep your customers sticky, keep them coming back. Remember your customers in the hard times, appreciating them when business is a little bit quite such as the in the middle of winter when people like to stay in door; that’s where you can connect with your customers through your database. Staying top of mind and making your customers feel appreciated all year round can add value to them. By adding potential customers to your database this will allow you to keep in contact with them, adding an extra touch point will keep you top of mind and then when they need a service that you offer, they are more likely to remember your business.
Use Snail Mail It Has Become Powerful Again
Making sure that your customers feel appreciated by sending real card through the mail. Whether you are helping them celebrate a birthday, an amazing story or even something sorrowful, your customer will know you care.
“I just send them a card, just to make them feel good. Let them know that I did appreciate their story, or something happened, or a customer's spouses pass away, things like that. And people do appreciate it.”
This doesn’t have to be as hard as it seems, it can be automated with services like Send Out Cards.
In our mailboxes we generally only get bills, direct mail catalogues, or that sort of thing really trying to sell us. Having something that is completely different can be refreshing and will make such a difference to people in our busy world.
“It’s about finding ways to appreciate your customers and look at customer services as being a solution.”
Listen to Small Business Talk Podcast to hear Suzanne Cross’s full insights on how customer service can make or break your business. Enjoy.
