Pastor Welcome Thamsanqa Mlungisi Dlalisa.
In the past few weeks I dealt with leadership as an imperative for entrepreneurial success. Over the coming weeks, we turn our attention to customer service and customer care. This subject is important for any entrepreneur who wants to grow and succeed. You cannot be successful in business without giving due care and focus to the clients that you have. They are not easy to get, and once you have them, you need to give them due care so that they do your marketing (free marketing) or talk positively about your business. That way you can grow and thrive as an entrepreneur.
Let me start off by providing a definition of customer service. Customer service is the act of taking care of the customer’s needs by providing and delivering professional, helpful, high quality service and assistance before, during and after the customer’s requirements are met.
Servicing your clients takes place at three levels, namely before, during and after the meeting of their needs. Most people tend to forget about their clients after acquisition, ignoring the fact that they can still lose them to their competitors.
In this article, I will clarify reasons why customer service is so important for any entrepreneur.
1. Customer retention is far less expensive than customer acquisition.
Research shows that on average it costs approximately five times more to attract a new customer to your business than it costs to retain an existing customer. That logic on its own should highlight the importance of providing excellent customer service. We can almost be sure that most entrepreneurs do get one or two people coming through their doors. This presents us with an opportunity to make an impression, meet the need and thereby retain our client. However, the tendency is that business owners mostly tend to ignore their older clients. This is a mistake you must never make in your business. You need to keep in touch with all your clients and make sure that every encounter is a pleasurable one for all of them.
2. Existing customers are more likely to buy from you than new customers.
Aside from simply trying to retain your existing customers for the sake of it being less expensive to do so, it’s important to note that selling anything to anyone new is also far less likely. For the most part, the probability of selling to a new customer hovers in the range of five to 20 per cent, whereas selling to an existing customer resides in the range of 60 to 70 per cent. Why is this the case? The reason is simple. Most of your clients have built what we call brand loyalty and are more committed to you and your business than new clients.
3. Great customer service results in a reduction of overall problems.
If you want to prevent ‘fire fighting’ in your business or constantly dealing with complaints, you need to embrace customer service. By treating your customers like gold, you are sure to reduce the overall problems associated with your business, sales and the potential for any legal issues that might arise. Treat your customers poorly, and you can almost be certain that you’ll run into problems at one point or another. And those problems can oftentimes lead to the ominous and untimely demise of your business.
4. Excellent customer service reduces your marketing budget
People talk about good and bad organisations based on their experience, and the service received from them. This means that if you treat your clients well, they will talk well about your business and your product. This leads to more and more clients coming to your company. That way your business will grow. However, if you do not treat them well, then they will also complain about you and your products. Word-of-mouth marketing is free and tremendously powerful. No entrepreneur can afford to ignore what their clients are saying about them and their business. In these days of technology, you have things like hellopeter.com, which is a platform where customers talk openly about companies and how they treat their clients. This can lead to the growth of your business, if you just pay attention to customer service.
So customer service is one of those foundations that are critical for running a successful business and achieving sustained business profitability.
In order to help the entrepreneurs of Tembisa to implement what we are learning via these articles, I have set up what I call the JOSEPH ACHIEVERS MENTORING (JAM) programme. It is based on Joseph in the Bible, who rose to prominence despite his background. I am encouraging all Tembisa residents to join. This programme is aimed at supporting all the residents of Tembisa but it targets mainly young entrepreneurs, young professionals, university students and high school learners. It offers a range of support initiatives including career guidance, training and mentoring. Many have enrolled for the programme and receive business management training and mentoring. I challenge you to enroll for JAM in order to propel your life or your business to new heights. To register on JAM, send an email to dlalisa.rhi@gmail.com or call the numbers below.
For more information, contact Pastor WTM Dlalisa on 083 395 1165.
CALL TO ACTION – For more articles in the Entrepreneur’s Brew series, visit our website.
