When young businesses start out with a modest number of customers, the quality of customer service tends to be more personalized and intimate. Maintaining consistency, however, can be challenging as the number of customers grows.
Seven entrepreneurs from FounderSociety (FS) have experienced this with their own companies, and they share their best solutions to keeping up with the high influx.
Q. What is one thing I can do to continue delivering great customer service, even as our total number of customers grows 2 or 3x over?
1. Scale Your Team
As you grow, make sure someone on your team is emailing, calling, or contacting clients on a regular basis. Keep ahead of any issues before they arise. If there is an issue, get back to the client within 12 to 24 hours. As you bring on more clients, scale your support as well. – Marty McDonald, Bad Rhino Inc.
2. Don’t Neglect Support Response Time
While most businesses don’t put an actual ROI or financial return on their support team, it’s extremely important to have this in place. Customers want their support emails, questions, and tickets answered as soon as possible. Anything longer than 12 to 24 hours is now unacceptable. No matter how much growth your company is seeing, make sure to always expand your support team along with it. – Zac Johnson, Blogging.org
3. Get a Few Interns
When you’re cash-strapped but need bandwidth for customer service, get a few interns to help ensure that you respond to customers quickly and efficiently. – Lisa Curtis, Kuli Kuli
4. Be Humble
Remaining humble during growing pains will allow your mind to stay focused. Thomas Merton famously said, “Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.” – Nick Francis, The Franchise Group
5. Always Address Each Customer Service Situation
Never ignore customers (even “problem” ones). If you can’t resolve an issue immediately, respond and let the customer know what steps you are taking to reach a resolution. Although you will never make every single customer happy, giving an explanation in a friendly and timely manner is great customer service. Most customers will appreciate it regardless of the outcome. – Michael Rheaume, SnapKnot Inc.
The post 7 Ways to Ensure Great Customer Service for Rapidly Growing Companies appeared first on AllBusiness.com
The post 7 Ways to Ensure Great Customer Service for Rapidly Growing Companies appeared first on AllBusiness.com.