As a small business owner we want to help our customers personally, to meet with them face to face or talk to them on the phone so that we build a connection and a relationship. Unfortunately, sometimes our customers want to help themselves. When you allow customers to help themselves, where it makes sense, you empower them to get what they need when they need it. In the long run they are more likely to come back to you for additional products and services.   It doesn’t have to be an either/or scenario – why not allow them to choose between self-service or in-person service?

So what do I mean by self-service? It can mean different things to different companies:

• As I mentioned in an earlier post, services firms can allow their customers to set appointments online.  You can tell from this post I am a big fan of being able to set appointments online at my own convenience.  It may not always make sense but is something to consider.
• Companies that have a product can include product manuals and warranties online.  This one has become near and dear to my heart lately; I have a 10-year-old son and I probably don’t have to tell you that instructions and new toys/games/whatevers they belong to are soon parted.  Just last night I had to go online to find the instruction manual for the rock-tumbler he got for his birthday.  What a relief!
• Firms that share a lot of documents with their customers can set up portals to allow them access and share documents.  Tools vary in their sophistication and include (but are certainly not limited to) Dropbox, Box.net, Google Docs, Basecamp, et al.
• If you regularly do business with a customer why not present the invoices online?  Any then maybe even PAY online?  Cool, huh?  There are a lot of options for this and it is a topic worthy of its own post so we’ll leave it at that for now.
• Online ordering or online quote capabilities have been around a long time but it is surprising how many companies still don’t use them.  I think the mindset is that they want the prospect to all or come in so they can sell them in person.  Certainly some products and services are too complicated to handle online but, honestly, most aren’t.  I for one will likely look for another service provider if I can’t get at least a semblance of a quote online before I pick up the phone.

As you can see, there are a lot of ways for you to provide service to your customers online.  The additional benefit is that not only will you make your customer’s happy, you’ll reduce the customer service load on your employees, perhaps even freeing them up for other revenue generating task.  Sounds like a good deal all around to me!

Have you considered adding customer self-service to your small business technology plan?

I started to write this post about some other more specific examples of how small businesses can use  technology to improve customer service but some of them were related to a company’s website – and since a lot of companies STILL have awful websites and a few don’t have a website at all, I thought it made more sense to start there.  With the training wheels on.  Next week we can take them off.

A good, relevant website is essential to providing good customer service.  How?  Any time you can provide answers to  your customer’s questions at their convenience you are providing good customer service.  Your website can be accessed from virtually anywhere at anytime, giving your customers (and prospective customers) instant access to the information they need.  Descriptions of services and products, fees and costs, contact information, hours of operation and maps or driving directions are a great start.  If you get a lot of the same questions over and over you can include FAQs.  Testimonials or references from other customers provide prospects with references that they can contact.  If you have service manuals, installation guide, instructions or other documentation, you can allow them to be downloaded from the website.  You can provide video clips or blog articles with educational content.  The possibilities are boundless.

Your website can be a storefront and a vehicle for your marketing and branding but it can also be the hub of your customer service platform.  Once you have the basics covered you can move on to providing even more service online.  A few weeks ago I wrote about providing customer self-service by allowing them to schedule appointments online.  In my next post I’ll expand on this customer self-service theme.  In the meantime, how do you provide customer service online?

In the last post I wrote about how important it is for small businesses to respond to emails from customers and to use it as a communication channel if that is what the customer prefers.  Face it, some people just feel more comfortable with the feeling of distance you get with email as opposed to phone or face to face conversations.  Personally, I like email because I can send and respond asynchronously, at my convenience.

There is another important aspect of email as it relates to customer service that I want to explore today – outbound email. This is where you send email to a customer that are not directly in response to a query or email from the them.

What kinds of email am I talking about?  Email that provides value or information to a customer that is not salesy or annoying.  Assuming your customer has given you permission to send them emails you can send newsletters with educational content, personalized emails with reminders, emails with coupons or specials.  Here are some examples:

• an accounting firm could send out quarterly newsletters with information about tax changes or tips on how to save money on taxes.  They could send out personal reminders when it was time to file quarterly taxes.
• an auto repair business could send out emails when it is time for an oil change, recalls or other routine maintenance.  In these they could provide coupons or services for those specials.
• a hardware store could send out seasonal newsletters that focus on “going green” or weatherizing homes or gardens for the upcoming season.
• a garden center could send out monthly gardening tips
• a hair salon could use email to send reminders for upcoming appointments

There is a marketing aspect to some of these; as a business owner you are hoping that your customer will be reminded about a service or product they need from you.  But beneath all of these there should be a strong vein of customer service, of providing additional incremental value to your customer.  It costs nothing or almost nothing to use Mail Chimp, Constant Contact or Aweber to send out targetted emails to your customers.

Do you use email to improve your customer service?  If not, is it time to look at your technology plan to add it?

This week I am going to start a multi-part (how many parts?  who knows?  Methinks a good number) of posts about using technology to improve customer service.   When I talk about “improving customer service”  I mean everything from reducing your your costs of customer service to providing better quality customer service over a number of channels.  You can see that this is a broad topic and will take a while to cover!  This week I’ll start you off easy with things we all should know…and yet I can give you many examples where even these simplest of processes aren’t followed.

You have to answer the phone.

It is probably safe me for me to assume that virtually all businesses have a phone.  When possible someone should answer the phone when it rings.  I can understand where some small businesses may have a cell phone as their main business number, say for a solopreneur consultant or the like.  In that case it is ok to let the call go to a professional sounding voicemail during meetings or while driving, etc.  Those voicemails need to be checked regularly and returned promptly.  And promptly means THAT DAY if possible.  I recently called a local dog grooming establishment to make an appointment to get my two labs, Jester and Cimarron, bathed.  I got voicemail or an answering  machine.  The first time I called I just hung up (potential lost customer).  The second time I called I left a message (the dogs were really smelly and it was very cold outside).  My message was returned over 24 hours later, late one evening when I couldn’t take the call.  I had to call a third time to make an appointment.  Turns out when I finally got there that my service was adequate and the cost reasonable but I am not in love with this place.  It seems to me that a service establishment like that thrives by keeping their appointments booked – why do they not have someone dedicated to answering the phone?  Why can they not return calls during business hours?  Or better yet, why don’t they look into allowing clients to book appointments online at their convenience?

You have to have email and check and return it regularly.

It boggles my mind that in 2010 there are still some businesses that don’t have email and or don’t integrate its use regularly into their business processes, yet it is true.  Of course, if you are one of those that doesn’t use email, you probably aren’t reading this article either.  I sure hope you have a friend that prints it out for you and either hands it to you or puts it in an envelope with one of those stampy-things.

I believe that small businesses should embrace email; it is convenient for you and your customer.  It allows your customer to reach you when it suits them, even before or after business hours.  When using email keep the following in mind:

• check it regularly, at least at the beginning and end of each day, more if you can.  Go thru all of it and handle it in some appropriate way. I recently responded to an email I received…later when I saw the sender she claimed not to have seen my response.  When I expressed surprise she admitted that she gets hundreds of emails a day and didn’t always get thru them.  In today’s world not getting thru email (or having someone get thru email) is not an acceptable business practice.  Especially when you send an email and are looking for a response!
• Commit to responding within a certain amount of time.  Consider responding to email with an autoresponder that tells your customer when to expect to hear back from you.  For example, an autoresponder might say “Thank you for your email, it is important to us.  Emails received by close of business will be answered that day, otherwise they will be answered on the next business day.”
• Answer customer questions or concerns politely and completely.  Assume that the sender wants to communicate via email or ask them if you can communicate differently.  Nothing is more annoying than to send someone an email and for them to respond with “call me”.  If you need specific information to interact via email, let the customer know what that is.

I know phone and email are so ubiquitous to barely be considered “technology” but we have to start somewhere.  Next week we’ll take a baby step beyond that.  In the meantime, as always, I’m interested in your opinions on this – how do you use technology to improve customer service?