Five Customer Service Tips for Startups
February 28, 2009 by Stephen Kersey
Filed under Business
Customer service in any line of business is always extremely important. For a startup business, the quality of customer service oftentimes can mean the difference between success and failure. After interviewing many successful startup business owners, here are the top five customer service tips that were discussed the most:
5. Avoid form letters. It’s tempting to try to answer all the questions from customers by using form letters and canned responses. However, customers can see right through such tactics and it comes across as unprofessional.
4. Use phones. It is tempting, especially for internet startup businesses, to try to handle everything via email. But to gain customer confidence, having a contact phone number is still very important.
Customer Service - Image: Flickr
3. Be fair. Don’t always make decisions based on your the bottom line. Being fair with your customers can help the reputation of your business and eventually bring in more money down the line.
2. The customer is always right. The old saying is true, especially when a business is a startup. Listen to the questions, concerns and complaints of your customers. At the end of the day, it’s what they think that matters the most.
1. Be timely. This customer service tip simply cannot be understated. If a customer wants service, it should happen in a timely fashion. Waiting multiple days for an email response or phone calls going completely unreturned are red flag that can doom a startup.
