We know we don’t need to restate the importance of customer service within your business. Given the option of a friendly barista who serves your coffee with a smile and one who slams down your coffee and moves on without a word, we know who everyone will go back to. In fact a recent Vodaphone study suggest that 76 per cent of people would tell others about a bad customer service experience.

It’s not new to hear that bad news travels fast. Which is very damaging if you are a small to medium-sized companies as their customer support is not always large enough to swallow the damage to their reputation. A survey by Ovum in 2009 found that poor customer service can cost companies £15.3bn per year in just the UK alone.

So can SMEs improve customer relations by simply focusing on a swift, friendly delivery of their products and services?

It is no longer a case of ‘Service with a smile’ and this is creating opportunities for forward thinking firms. The invention of the Internet and the rise of social media, means businesses can interact with their customers before the point of sale making the relationship far more flexible then ever before. With your customers only a click away, it’s time for a new approach. Focus now need to be on your customers overall experience with your company and this is where the SME trailblazers are learning to turn challenges into opportunities.

One element of this is the responsiveness, for example social media sites, allow customer relation teams to quickly and cheaply deal with enquires raised online. This also allows companies to view issues that may never have come through the traditional customer service channels. A prime example of this is that most modern day tech savvy companies will monitor the Internet looking for any mention of their company. From this, their teams will quickly identify and resolve all issues and enquiries that were not directed to the company. But not only this, its very easy to keep track of customer issues on Twitter and Facebook which you can be alerted to and get involved in the conversation, help a customer by explaining how to tackle a particular issue non related to your company. This is a great way of building up relationships with complete strangers way before trying to turn them into customers.

Therefore, growing companies are now using data to ardently seek out customers who may have similar problems to those previously raised. This means they are staying ahead of the game and sorting out issues before they occur. They are placing the consumer’s feedback at the heart of the production and services in order to build a brand relationship with potential customers.

Essentially this will involve some organisational changes within some SMEs. So it’s rather worry that 41 per cent of people believe most businesses are not able to hold conversations using Facebook, 44 per cent feel the same about Twitter. With customers now wanting to access firms quickly at all hours of the day by any means possible, businesses will need to allocate teams to manage different areas of the customer experience.

The head of insights at the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Tom Brown, believes it is important not to adopt the storeroom approach. He is quoting as saying “Compartmentalising these responsibilities can also lead to a loss of customer focus across the rest of the business. It can become all too easy for employees and managers to assume it’s no longer their problem.” About 48 per cent of customers want their issues resolved by the first person they speak to. But with different responsibilities spread across social medias, complaint lines and other roles, this can be inhibited. Brown strongly recommends that businesses need to “break down the walls” between these different departments in order to avoid this from happening. This will then help maintain focus on the customer experience.

In Today’s world, it is very easy to put all your emphasis on the digital side of your customers’ experience. But Vodafone’s study found nearly half of people still prefer telephone interaction with companies, while nearly a quarter of young people prefer using social media. Therefore SMEs should make sure they include the customer service basics as part of the overall customer experience whilst also modernising their customer service channels through easy to implement software such as live chat.

If this has been useful, take a look at our blog, ‘3 Excellent Examples of Employee Empowerment’ for more ideas on how to ensure customer service is everyones priority.

Dean Williams

Dean Williams is a design and marketing blogger working for Print-Print Limited, promoting business and building brands through quality print marketing. If you’re interested in small business promotion then please get in touch hello@print-print.co.uk