Please consult a physician before attempting the 3 step exercise below..
1. Take your blood pressure
2. Contact your Bank, Internet provider, or mobile phone provider customer service with an issue that has been bothering you
3. Retake your blood pressure right when you hang up.
How many years of your life did that cost?
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Too many companies nowadays treat customer service as an expense, not the investment it is. They’ll roll out the red carpet for you when they’re trying to sell you something, but once you’re a customer, they couldn’t care less about you.
They outsource you to cut costs to people working at near-slave wages who do not speak your language nor understand your culture or mentality.
And are in no position to care about solving your issues.
You’re given scraps from the table, and often you have to beg or bark and find the solutions to the problems that come from their product or service.
That’s not the way to do business! If you want your company to grow, you need to stop slapping your customers with cheap but poor service, and treat your customers like kings and queens—the whole time.
Let’s look at two main reasons why:
The Cost of Losing a Customer
It costs six to seven times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. So, if you’re not treating your customers right, you’re essentially throwing money down the drain. Not only that, but unhappy customers tell an average of nine to 15 people about their bad experiences.
Instead of an army of satisfied customers promoting you to their friends and colleagues, you get an angry mob wanting to figuratively guillotine you for making their lives miserable and wasting their time.
The Lifetime Value of a Customer
Acquiring new customers is important, but retaining existing ones is even more so. In fact, increasing customer retention rates can increase profits substantially. What’s more, loyal customers are worth up to 7-10 times as much as their first purchase. So if you treated them well from the start and continue to do so, they’ll keep coming back—and spending more and more money with your company the longer they are engaged. Not to mention referring you to others.
So don’t be an A-s When it Comes to Investing in your Customer Experience.
Treating customer service as an expense is a surefire way to sabotage your business and stunt its growth. If you want your company to thrive, you need to make sure your customers are happy—and that starts with giving them VIP treatment from day one. By focusing on quality customer service, you’ll reap the rewards in both the short- and long-term. So don’t wait—start giving your customers the royal treatment today!