It’s maybe the last thing you think about when you’re starting a business, but as a newbie, it’s good customer service that will give you an edge over the already-established competition.

Customer service is so important to every business, in fact, that we’ve added a new module to our Small Business Management course covering customer service.

In an age of global corporations and big businesses squeezing out small businesses, delivering exceptional customer service has never been more important.

5 Ways of Giving the Very Best in Customer Service

We’ve put together five ways you can deliver excellent customer service to your customers.

1. Value Your Customers: Those start-ups that understand very early on that their customers are their most valuable assets are the most successful. Being professional, easy to deal with and helpful is what drives customer satisfaction — and, truly, that’s what keeps customers coming back.
2. Timeliness: Responding to your customers as quickly as possible is essential for any new business. Most customer experiences are judged not on the final outcome, but rather on timeliness. Customers don’t care how swamped you are — if you can’t return a phone call or email, they’ll go to someone who can. That doesn’t mean you should over promise and under deliver, however. If you actually are swamped, communicate that and give them a realistic timeframe; you’d be surprised how many customers are willing to wait for you if you just communicate with them.
3. Keep Customer Records: You know how annoying it is when you ring Telstra and have to run through your list of complaints each time you call or they decide to transfer you through to someone else? Surely they keep all of this stuff in their system, you say to yourself, somewhat exasperated. We’ve got four words for you: practice what you preach.
4. Embrace Social Media: Like it or not, social media wasn’t just a passing fad. Embrace it and use social media as another point of contact with your customers. Whether it’s Twitter or Facebook or Pinterest, choose a platform that suits your business and your customers and embrace it. But be aware that social media isn’t the marketers paradise it was once dubbed. It’s pretty easy to do your reputation in if you don’t deal with a customer’s complaint satisfactorily, particularly when disgruntled customers can amass quite a following online.
5. Cloud Software: If you’re still using a version of MYOB from the 90s and issuing paper bills, stop it now. Cloud accounting software like MYOB Account Right Live is a must-have for every small business. So is cloud storage software like Dropbox and cloud-based customer relationship software that can funnel every customer request through to one place, whether it originated on Twitter, Facebook, phone or anywhere else.

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Remember, our Small Business Management course now includes a module dedicated to customer service and how to make yours’ the very best it can be. But when you think about it, there is something good about bad customer service — that is, it’s so commonplace nowadays that if you’re really passionate about delivering excellent customer service, you stand a fantastic chance of elevating your business above all the others.

Become a Virtual Assistant providing Customer Service

UPDATE: With everyone now working from home using cloud service for customer service it’s now possible to offer customer service and selling services as a Virtual Assistant!

You’ll learn how to monitor the website chat service for a business as well as understand how a sales pipeline works to help your clients bring in more income. Plus you can now do this part-time, from home.