The way you approach customer service can make or break your business. In these modern times, news spreads like wildfire. Bad news often travels at the speed of light while good news follows at the speed of sound. What does this mean? People much rather tell their friends about bad experiences than good ones.

Why should you care about customer service?

While your customers will hate you for bad customer service, your competitors will love you. Why? Because when you don’t serve your customers well, you give your competitors the opportunity to do only slightly better than you to impress the customers. Without customers, you won’t have a business or a job, so taking care of them really matters.

Customer service vs marketing

With social media comes even greater responsibility. Marketing becomes much easier, but it’s also much easier to obtain a bad reputation. If you don’t manage your online reputation, someone else will. And every person that owns a smartphone or computer becomes a marketer for your business. It is extremely easy to share content with all of your followers on social media, and if they love you enough, they will re-share your content, instantly increasing your reach. Make sure that they have good content to share, not bad news.

Treating clients like they matter

Whenever you speak to a client or a customer, you should treat them like they are the most important part of your business. Because they are. It might feel outdated to say that the customer is always right, but you will definitely get much further with a client if you treat them like they matter. They are paying you to deliver on your promises, which is the least you can do. If you don’t treat them well, they will go somewhere else.

But whAt if a client is abusing you?

It does happen that certain clients are extra demanding and extra rude. It is always your choice if you want to do business with them, but keep your side clean. Never return their rudeness. And if they are very resource-intensive, be sure to charge them appropriately.