It goes without saying: your customers are your business. Taking care of them from the moment they walk through your door or call your hotline, right through to the end sale and after-sale care is vital.
However, far too many businesses just don?t get the relation between having a strong business culture with superior goals and how it can drive the organization forward. Those businesses which know how to delight their customers benefit from trust, reliability, loyalty, increased sales and returning customers. Getting a strong business culture in place leads to a much more lucrative business model than having to go out there and get new customers.
With that in mind,?Sunsquare?shares some top tips for how you can embed a strong business culture. Get it right and you?ll see the benefits sooner than you think ? get it wrong and you?ll be snubbed in favor of your competition.
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1: Decide On Your Values
Deciding on what you want to achieve with your business is part of your core values, and is related to the overall culture. Of course, customer service should be top of your priorities ? keeping your customers so happy that they tell all their friends how great you are creates free word of mouth marketing for your business. Start off by asking yourself what it is that you do that makes life easier for everyone? What does your product or service add? Then put it out to your employees and ask what is important to them.
Core values, like ?being humble?, ?be adventurous?, ?be creative?, ?be open-minded? can be based on input from everyone in the company. They define the company?s view of human relationships and will stand you in good stead for the future.
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2: Training Your Employees In Your Culture
There?s no point in establishing a positive business culture if your employees don?t talk the talk and walk the walk! A commitment to superior training of your employees will not only empower them to do the right thing for your customers without needing to be told, it will give them confidence ? in you, in themselves, and this inspires trust and loyalty. If your employees love what they do, they?re more likely to stay ? saving you money in recruitment costs too.
Remember that your induction program is crucial in the ultimate success of your customer service efforts. Make sure that it contains more than just an explanation of your company and a tour of the offices. If you can get them to love your business from the off they?ll be an asset to you for years to come.
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3: Your Culture and Your Website
If your business is online (and who isn?t nowadays?) you need to ensure your business culture is reflected on every single page of your website. In today?s 24/7 world, with more and more people choosing to buy online, you need to be as approachable as possible. Communicating with customers and displaying your phone number clearly ? with opening hours ? shows that you are willing to listen to a customer if there is a problem. A map with clear directions to your office shows where you are, while a dedicated contact form lets people contact you easily.
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4: When They Call?
Your business culture extends to your phone communications too. When they call your customer service line, don?t make them go through a maze of automatic questions to be put through to ?the right department;? this makes them feel less valued. Instead, if your call center staff can take their time with each caller, then waiting times should not be an issue; they know that when they get to speak to an operative they?ll be receiving excellent one-to-one care.
Be sure to ask for public feedback and written communications from your customers about their experiences too. If you can grade your call centre staff and reward the very best, it will encourage other employees to excel too. It doesn?t have to be financial rewards ? extra time off, for instance, or an article in the company newsletter, a trophy or plaque awarded at a special recognition dinner, tickets to special events tied to an employee?s interests, or a simple written note are all ways to reward the kinds of behaviors you want to see more of.
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5: Foster Good Communication
The final step in delivering excellent customer service through your business culture is to create channels of communication both within, and outside the company. Holding annual recognition ceremonies, creating a customer service bulletin board to feature service incidents that were special lets you seize every opportunity to publicize the times when employees do it right.
So there you have it. If you take pride in your business and develop its culture to reflect honesty, teamwork, communication and innovation you will quickly become known for your excellent customer service.
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Liam Tarry is an SEO consultant at Further?specializing in search and social media marketing.
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