Several years ago I decided to relocate within Houston, Texas. Since I was moving into a newly built home, I chose to utilize professional movers (I didn’t want to scratch those new walls!). One thing that thoroughly impressed me about the moving company I hired was their frequent reminders and updates. For example, “Mr. Allen we’re calling to confirm your move for next Tuesday” or “Mr. Allen we’re calling to remind you of your scheduled move for tomorrow. The crew will arrive between 8:00 and 8:30 am.”
It was during this experience that I realized one sure-fire way to impress your customers — provide timely updates that include confirmations and progress reports. Let’s take a look at three reasons why it’s important for small businesses to do this:
-
Customers love it!
Customers really appreciate companies that provide timely updates and progress reports. Doing so means customers spend less time calling or emailing for information. This simple task creates goodwill for your company and can lead to customer referrals. While it may appear time-consuming to keep customers informed, believe me, it’s time well spent. If a customer has to call you for an update or progress report, you’ve just lost crucial customer experience points.
-
It says you are ‘on top of your game’!
When a company makes it a point to provide confirmations, updates and progress reports, customers feel that you’re on top of your game! It shows that you spend time tracking progress and status of situations which impact your customer’s experience. Maintaining situational awareness is a critical exercise as it allows you to proactively identify issues which may negatively impact the customer. Generally, this equips you to quickly resolve issues to prevent delays. So, be proactive to stay on top of your customer experience game.
-
It sets the stage for repeat business.
Because you take steps to keep your customers informed, it’s likely they will choose to utilize your services again when the need arises. Customers are more likely to continue to do business with proactive companies. The less work the customer has to do, the higher the probability that you’ve just created a repeat customer. As your repeat business grows, look for new business to grow as well. Satisfied customers will share their experience with others in need of your services. Make it a point to keep this in mind when deciding whether or not your company will proactively provide service updates.
With the competitive climate in the service industry, it’s critical to do something that sets your company apart. Choose to keep your customer informed because customers love it, it means you’re on top of your game and repeat business is sure to follow.
Speaker, author and consultant Errol Allen is the founder and CEO of Errol Allen Consulting, a Houston, Texas based company that provides customer service training, customer service strategy development, operations analysis/improvement and supervisor/management training. He utilizes his 25 years of hands-on experience in assisting his clients in creating customer focused organizations. Join Errol on his Blog Talk Radio show “Now That’s Customer Service!” for practical tips and information.
© YFS Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Copying prohibited. All material is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this material is prohibited. Sharing of this material under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International terms, listed here, is permitted.
