It’s often said that only about half of all new businesses survive past the first year.
And the longer you extend that time frame, the higher the percentage of businesses that end up failing.
Why?
It’s because most business owners fail to focus on the one thing that can help them succeed in the long-term:
Customer service.
That’s why in today’s article you’ll learn about Entrepreneurial Customer Service – what it is, why it’s important, and how you can use it to create raving fans that will literally send customers and clients to you.
Let’s get started …
Why Customer Service Is Critical To Your Long-Term Success
In the last article in this series, I explained how marketing is essential to attracting new clients and customers.
Marketing to get a customer in the first place is a lot of work and can cost a lot of time and money.
And as it turns out, research shows it costs about 5 TIMES more to get a new customer than it is to get an existing customer to buy from you again.
Crazy, right?
This is why it’s so important to deliver world-class customer service after you’ve spent so much time and money to get him or her in the first place!
And by delivering exceptional service, you end up creating raving fans that will WANT to buy from you again and again … and also tell their friends about you.
What It Takes To Deliver World-Class Customer Service
One of the biggest mistakes I see when it comes to customer service is that entrepreneurs want their company to come across as this massive, faceless company.
But here’s the thing …
Your customers do NOT want that!
They want a human to take care of them. That’s why we all get annoyed by those huge voicemail systems you have to spend like 5 minutes navigating through.
People want to talk to a person, not a computer or machine.
Which means the key to delivering exceptional service is to really focus on the “human” element.
Don’t try to be impersonal and “corporate.”
Instead, make people feel at home – as if you’ve invited them into your house and you’re the host, making sure they have everything they need to feel at ease and comfortable.
In order to make this happen at the highest level …
You’ve Got To Plan Out The
Customer’s Experience … In Advance!
You’ve got to literally map out every single step, every detail.
Because this really matters to your long-term success.
In fact, one of the early definitions of Entrepreneur is “one who manages a theatre production.”
So if it helps, think of it as orchestrating this amazing production – where your customers are the audience and you really want to “wow” him or her.
Because in a lot of ways, Customer Service is about that – managing the production of an experience other people have – in this case, your customer’s experience.
Give them an experience of being taken care of exceptionally well. If you do, they’ll like you, trust you, and will likely buy from you again.
Always Remember Your Customer Is Really A Person
I can’t emphasize the “human” element of customer service enough.
Always relate to your customer as a human being.
When your customers are interacting with your business, whoever they are interacting with IS the business to them.
If a customer interacts with someone in your business who doesn’t treat them well, the customer doesn’t think the employee was bad… they start thinking the entire business is bad.
So make sure customers get treated as people – with respect, empathy, and kindness.
And another thing you’ll want to focus on – since we’re all human – is the EMOTIONS you want your customer service experience to deliver.
For example, my mentor Eben bought his first new car a few years back. It was a Lexus.
When he took it in to get serviced, he noticed they washed his car and even put chocolates on the seat!
Immediately, it made him feel well taken care of and he thought Lexus is a higher level of car company.
So ask yourself …
“What can I do to deliver powerful, positive emotions during my customer service experience?
Give Them A Good Story To Tell
In crafting your customer service experience, it’s important to realize that humans bond with other humans by telling stories.
If you want your customers to tell other people how great of an experience they had with your company, then make sure that in scripting out your customer experience, they HAVE a story to tell.
Here’s another example, my mentor Eben likes to use …
When he worked for a real estate agent training company, they used to tell their students that buying a home is an intense, emotional experience – with emotional windows of opportunity during the process.
If you can make an impression during these windows of opportunity, then they’re going to tell great stories about you.
THIS is how you create raving fans, by the way.
So the students at this training company were taught to visit their clients when they got their offer approved, with gifts, ideally at their office or place of work.
Here’s why:
When the agent would go to the office, everyone who works with their client comes over to look – and everyone in the office would see the real estate agent. People would then ask for the agent’s card, after seeing how well the agent was taking care of their client.
Plus, when people in the office go home that night, they may tell their friend about this cool thing that happened at the office today… and so then the story gets passed around and the agent gets more business.
So just remember, customer service is extremely important to your entrepreneurial long-term success.
Make your customer service a high priority. Script it out. Make it matter and give your customers powerful feelings of being well taken care of. Show them you actually care and treat them with the utmost respect.
Do this, and you’ll build an amazing business that provides for you and your family, now and in the future.
Stay tuned for the last and final article in this series.
I’ll reveal a powerful “mindset” that will ultimately determine whether you win or lose in business. This is one of the things I make sure I do day in and day out – and I’d say it’s responsible for 80% of my success or more.
