Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / The Dangers of Poor Customer Service

Transcript

The Dangers of Poor Customer Service · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with the number 1 small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small Biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small bizchett podcast?
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  Well, it's time every Wednesday we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start
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  and grow a successful small business.
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  And just 20 minutes or so a week you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel your
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  business forward.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  Welcome to another edition of the small biz chat podcast.
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  I am excited to be chatting with you all today.
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  You know, I recently had two experiences that were really shocking to me.
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  And I thought that they were worth sharing with all of you and talking about because I just
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  think that as small business owners, we always have to guard the door.
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  We always have to be Excellent because no one owes you their business.
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  No one has to give you a referral or a review.
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  So it's on us to do a great job.
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  Now for years, I've had, you know, various people come and do different things for me in
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  my home, and I recently had company come in and work for me and they, you know, quoted me one
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  price.
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  And then, they got here and did the work and told me that it was gonna be a little bit more.
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  And then later on when they sent me their bill, decided to double the little more that they
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  set.
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  And I was really dismayed by this because they were already charging me.
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  I thought more than they should have.
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  But then to come back and say, oh, it should be more, and this is what it is.
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  And I said, okay.
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  And then they come back when they sent the bill and double what the additional amount they
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  asked for, I thought was a couple of things.
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  I thought it was, in port case.
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  It was unprofessional, and it was incredibly short sighted of them because, obviously, I'm
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  somebody that knows a lot of people.
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  Be too, I'm someone who could give them an amazing online review because they actually do
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  good work, but this instance, you know, they just didn't think it through.
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  They didn't communicate well.
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  They didn't communicate timely.
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  And because of that, they have not only lost me as a customer.
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  They've lost my referral, and now I'm actually incentivized to bad mouth them to other people
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  as opposed to give them lots of referrals.
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  And it can happen in just an instant by or communication not clarifying your terms and
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  rates upfront.
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  And just really, you know, taking advantage of people.
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  I think sometimes when people know who you are, you have a name in the business, you know,
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  people think they can charge you top rates just because of who you are.
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  And that has nothing to do with it.
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  It's it's about, you know, what the going rate is for your service.
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  And that's whether you are pest control people, lawn care people, or cleaning companies.
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  I mean, these are the kind of companies that you know, are very replaceable.
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  And you wanna be very careful.
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  For example, if you are a pest control company and you have someone that you, you know, you
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  get them on a retainer basis and then something happens and they need to call you to come do a
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  service.
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  You don't tell these people that, oh, that'll be additional The whole reason why they signed
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  up for your retainer agreement was so that they wouldn't have to pay any additional if
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  something happened and they needed servicing.
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  Same thing with cleaning companies.
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  It's one thing to charge a cleaning a fork cleaning company to charge a comp a homeowner.
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  An initial cleaning fee, right, that is that is more than their regular cleaning fee.
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  But you can't charge that initial fee ongoing.
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  And then if you do something a little extra charge even more, especially if your rates on
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  your website are something totally different.
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  So I just think people need to be careful about how they communicate and always making sure
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  that a, they provide great value when they do the service, but the follow-up before and after
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  the service is as important as the service delivery itself.
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  And I think some folks are getting away from that, and none of us can afford to lose
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  customers.
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  Poor customer service is so dangerous because the number one thing it could do is lead to a
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  high churn rate, right, reducing your repeat business.
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  That's the number one thing poor customer service does.
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  But the second thing it does, it just it's so easy for somebody to bust you in the face on
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  one of these review sites whether it's Yelp or Google reviews or Facebook reviews, you just do
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  not want to incentivize to satisfy customers to leave negative reviews.
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  And, you know, because that can deter people from doing business with you.
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  And just in general, damage your brand's reputation in the marketplace, It's not worth
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  it.
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  Certainly not for a $50 service call or a $100 upstart upcharge, that is not worth it ever.
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  Then losing referrals is probably one of the worst things that can happen.
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  Like, it's not just about the service.
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  It's about the word-of-mouth referrals.
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  And if you are in a professional service business, like I said, lawn care, cleaning
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  company pest control, That's a great referral business.
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  People tell other people about their great cleaning service or their great lawn care
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  folks.
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  So just think about that.
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  Certainly, you know, acquiring new customers is just so expensive.
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  A new customer only closes 5 to 20 percent of the time.
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  Existing business owners will buy again 60 to 65 percent of the time.
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  So it just makes more sense to keep your customers.
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  Yes?
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  And then, you know, poor customer service really can create a stressful work environment.
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  And, you know, that is no one wants to work in, a low morale place.
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  Right?
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  You know, high staff turnover, you know, all of that affects the quality, and it just affects
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  the the collaboration of the team, and you just don't wanna do that.
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  You know, and your competitors with better service will attract and retain more customers
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  to you.
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  And they'll be able to charge top rates because they do great work, and they communicate well.
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  And it's easy to pay them.
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  They have all the payment terms and things set up.
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  You know, and it the biggest thing that poor customer service can do for you is just cause
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  you to lose a customer outright.
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  It's not even about, you know, that and which is gonna drive you to have to have higher
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  margins on your products and services.
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  So you just don't want to lose a customer and you easily can't.
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  You know, your brand, you you you don't want anybody with a legitimate bad story about you
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  to tarnish your brand.
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  It just makes it so hard to recover, you know, for things you wanna do in the future or
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  services you wanna expand to.
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  Or if you wanna raise your wreath, It's really hard to do that if you got people out here who
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  hate your guts and are willing to tell anybody about it.
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  And, certainly, really poor customer service can lead to disputes, complaints, even legal
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  action against your business.
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  So you just really don't want to have to hire a lawyer because some client is suing you.
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  That that's just not worth it.
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  It's you want to keep your customers happy obviously, you don't want customers to be
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  unreasonable.
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  Right?
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  But if if if it's a $50 or a $100 decision, that'll keep you with a good customer.
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  Do it.
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  It's not worth having that customer the lifetime value of that customer cut off.
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  It's not worth their badmouthing you.
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  Do a great job, right, do a great job, charge a fair price, and you'll always have customers.
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  That is small business ladies word for today.
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  So listen.
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  I hope that you guys are out here doing great work making your customer smile, making your
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  customers go out of their way to give you referrals, that's what you want.
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  If if you do get a negative review Be sure to respond and see if you can turn the the thing
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  around.
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  And don't just respond to your bad reviews.
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  Respond to all of them.
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  That will make you look better.
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  You don't wanna come off defensive.
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  You just wanna figure out how you can make it better for the client.
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  Alright.
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  This is Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady.
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  You're listening to the small biz chat podcast brought to you today by small biz lady academy.
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  Head over to smallbizladyacademy.com and become a member today.
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  Alright, everybody.
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  You never lose in business, either you win or you learn.
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  See you next time.
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  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday for more
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  fantastic information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website succeed as your own boss dot com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.