» By: Conrad Hoe

Did you know that it costs about 5 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to sell to an existing one? Why then is customer service generally so bad?

I’m constantly interacting with organisations as a customer, either shopping or in my business life where I’m left thinking “if only they’d done….”, or “why didn’t they tell me...” In other words my experience as a customer is not as I would like and I’m left dissatisfied.

That organisation now has an unhappy customer, who possibly hasn’t complained (so they may not even know that I’m dissatisfied) but I’ll probably share that bad experience with others and may not shop there again. A costly mistake!

On the other hand, however if I experience outstanding service, (because it’s unusual) I’ll be delighted. I’ll tell everyone I meet, I’ll certainly shop there again, I’ll make recommendations and if asked I’ll even give referrals.

Let’s look at these two scenarios

In the first, the organisation has delivered bad service and as a result has lost a client and possible numerous new customers.

In the second, the service was outstanding; they have retained a client, possibly gained more customers and have a reference if needed. And the service cost the organisation no more.

So here’s 3 ideas to help you deliver better service

1) Make sure that you communicate with you clients, tell them what your doing, why your doing it and when you’ve done it.

2) If you commit to do something, make sure you do it.

3) Go the extra mile – under commit and over deliver.

More ideas next time.

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