Being in business a while has taught me a lot about customer service, and just how important a role it serves in business.
Customer service is important to any business, whether it be the cleaning business or any other entity.
At the end of the day, a businesses ultimate goal must be about satisfying the needs of its customers. Anything short of that undermines the whole concept of running your own business.
What’s the point in going through all the trouble of getting a customer, if you are only going to alienate him or her down the road. That not only doesn’t make any sense, it’s a poor business strategy.
Happy customers go out of their way to shout to anyone who will listen that they found a great company to do business with. This good karma spreads person to person in a never ending chain.
Wouldn’t it make sense if the same thing happened when a company provided poor customer service? I’m here to say it does, and it happens all the time.
This torrent of bad publicity covers a company in mud so to speak. The sad fact is once this happens, it’s very difficult to reverse. Generally it’s just plain impossible.
This means that any company with a poor customer service record must work twice as hard as they otherwise would need to. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like working twice as hard.
I would rather get it right the first time, and spend the time I would have spent correcting my mistakes on myself. For instance I like the beach, so I go there often. But if I had to work twice as hard, I would have no time for that pleasure.
Customer service in the cleaning business is not really all that hard to deliver, so there is no excuse for not delivering first class service all of the time. It starts with responding promptly to all inquiries from clients, both current and potential ones.
This one act alone can make you more money than you can imagine. It’s just amazing how people don’t bother to call people back. If you think about it, it’s just crazy. These callers want to GIVE YOU MONEY.
For some perspective, this problem runs across all industries. For instance, at this very moment I’m waiting on a return call from a real estate agent. I called this agent four days ago about a property I need to list for sale.
This sale would put THOUSANDS in his pocket upon completion. I guess he thinks he is the only game in town, but that’s not true. Agents are a dime a dozen, and he is about to lose out on all that business. All he needed to do was return my call. What a shame.
Another example I can mention is a software company that I purchased from online. This company sells a great product, but is never around when a problem arises. They don’t answer their phones, and they don’t respond to repeated requests via email.
Needless to say I will be terminating my relationship with them sooner rather than later. What do each of the people behind these examples stand to lose?
- Good karma. Great customer service results in others speaking highly of you.
- Money. All the sales that gets created when others toot your horn for you.
- Even more money. After all, if you are not creating sales from referrals, you need to spend money on advertising of some kind. Get your checkbook ready!
- Your free time. Remember…the more others work to get YOU business, the LESS you need to work.
- A fun business. When nobody likes your company, you are going to get stuck dealing with customers that are the “bottom of the barrel” so to speak. This will make your old job so appealing you will quit the business to return to it.
Like I said earlier, customer service is important to your success. So do what you can to get it right from day one and reap the rewards that come with it.
If you liked this post, you can subscribe to our RSS feed and get loads more by clicking here.
If you need detailed instructions on how to start your own cleaning business, then check out my value packed course by clicking here.