If you own a small business you how important it is to your profits and more importantly yo your customers to be connected to the 24/7. There is a common misconception that when your business closes it?s doors for the day, the day?s business is over. The truth is that, many times your work has just begun. Think about thirty years ago it was quite normal for a business to be unavailable to customers after business hours. Unfortunately in our constantly connected technological world, unless your business is highly exclusive and prized, it is not going to cut it to have limited or no after hours customer service. Consider how many people find ti frustrating to deal with automated services, now imagine if the only form of contact that you offered after business hours was an answering machine.
The World is Connected Twenty-Four Hours a Day, So Should Your Business
The reality of having only a standard answering machines is that most customers, unless they are truly in die straits, will leave a message, consider how many of those calls result in a hangup rather than a potential sale from actual contact. Luckily with the help of the internet and automated answering services you can insure that your customers know how much you care about, their questions, concerns and, ultimately, their business. Below you will find some tips to propel your business into the 21st century by remaining a point of contact even when your store?s physical location has shut the doors for the day.
Using the Internet to Maintain in Contact With Customers
One of the most effective tools for the small business owner to increase their range with their customer base is to consider having an online and social media presence. The advantages of social media have been used not only by small business owners and tech savvy adults, but also by large corporation. In terms of the currently political upheaval it even played a large part as well. In fact there are several companies that hire social media consults, paying them large sums, to maintain a open line with their client base. The best part of using social media is that to great extent it is a free venue and only takes a marginal amount of effort to maintain. By starting a social media account, not only can you field common questions, but you can also share good experiences, in effect it is a way to get free advertisements.
Investing in Commercial Telephone Systems to Stay Connected
While online and social media present many opportunities for the small business owner. In many way the technology of the phone remains king. When a customer can not find information through online sources the will inevitably need to talk tot a person directly. Once again, this is a problem that answering machines can not take care of. Many businesses are now employing 24/7 commercial telephone systems in order to stay in touch with customer comments, question and concerns. The advantage of commercial telephone systems is that there is always a person on the other end of the line to provide customer support. As opposed to the callback approach customers are generally more liable to view a company that has new phone systems as having better customer service. Of course compared to the relatively low cost of building a social media presence phone system installation cost more, but in the long run hosted phone systems has more advantages, especially if paired with the social media approach.
Whether you decide to use commercial telephone systems or only social media it is important for the sake of your small business to put the customer first. Make sure that your customer base feels like they are getting the best service, even if your business has shut its doors for the evening. Remember that for every satisfied customer you serve they will tell on average one person as opposed to every unsatisfied customer that will tell about two people. Which is harder, to keep a returning customer happy or to win back an unhappy customer?