14 replies
Hi guys just doing a bit of an experiment here.

Please reply also use the poll.

How do you manage your customer service?

Do you do it yourself? Or do you hire someone? Are the person/s you hire in house or outsourced? Haw satisfied are you, more importantly how satisfied are your customers? Are you using customer service to sell and upsell? Does your customer service do the job and save you headaches and provide your customers with service?

What value do you place on customer service?

Personally I dont think there is a dollar value you can place on customer service. I'm talking from the perspective of someone who has worked in customer service for almost ten years and having managed international teams for small businesses and corporate giants.

In my own business ive noticed that simply not responding to a persons email withing 48hrs can lose a potential sale and on the flip side ive also been witness to having turned complaint calls into sales (ive done this myself several times and have witnessed it countless times).

-Andrei
#customer #service
  • Profile picture of the author Alex Blades
    I do my own support, since people do have questions before they buy something. If it's something that can be solved with simple F.A.Q after someone bought a product, like how to use for example, then I outsource it.
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    But I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried. "

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  • Profile picture of the author CyberAlien
    99% of the services I offer are for personal coaching, so let me make 2 things clear first:

    1. Anytime that a ticket is responded to with my name at the bottom - it was from me.

    2. Anyone that I have respond to a ticket for me, was personally trained by me.

    I put my real name behind everything that I do online so the support provided by people who work for me is extremely important because my reputation is at stake from it. I generally will go through a staffing agency to find people that I think are suitable and they can do a 1-2 week unpaid internship/training period.

    Personally training people who work for you is the only way to really guarantee that they know what they are talking about and will represent your company the way you want them to. Even outsourcing support to another company isn't bad - as long as they speak fluent English and have been trained directly by you.

    Also, anytime you offer a service that will require you to extensively train staff on every aspect of it, make them sign a non-compete agreement. Otherwise they will turn around and start offering a service exactly like yours.
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  • Profile picture of the author onegoodman
    I handle all the customer service by myself and it sucks specially when you get angry emails.

    However, unless I can hire someone I really trust enough to handle my customers, i wouldn't go for it.

    Simply because successful customer service is the main factor in surviving, and let us agree why many big companies sucks ? because they got lousy customer support who don't know what the hell they are doing.
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    • Profile picture of the author CyberAlien
      Originally Posted by onegoodman View Post

      I handle all the customer service by myself and it sucks specially when you get angry emails.

      However, unless I can hire someone I really trust enough to handle my customers, i wouldn't go for it.

      Simply because successful customer service is the main factor in surviving, and let us agree why many big companies sucks ? because they got lousy customer support who don't know what the hell they are doing.
      A lot of those big companies to have crappy customer service, but the only reason they would be doing it is because they are saving more money by hiring foreign employees. If you compare crappy employees vs good employees and compare it to your cancellation rate, they generally come out on top with crappy employees because they offer better pricing to customers who can't get that pricing anywhere else.
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  • Profile picture of the author flamewave
    Build a solid FAQ, and make sure you respond to emails. Volume would be the only thing that would make me get outsourced help
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  • Profile picture of the author Julie Parish
    I handle all customer service myself. Turning an angry person into a satisfied customer just makes the most sense. We both gain from it.
    In a small business it's easy, but even on a larger scale, I probably can't hire someone who will cater to my customers the way I would knowing my business is on the line.
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    • Profile picture of the author goindeep
      Totally agree with Chase.

      I've trained people the way I want them trained, ive had temps come in who do not get trained, ive had people from the Philippines and India work for me who some I have trained and Others I have not. And I canspeak form direct experience that It takes a lot more time and energy to break someones old patterns and re-train them.

      Outsources are cheap and they work fine for some business's but other companies and business's simply need a local or in-house approach. For example, DELL who use filo call centres, it works OK for them, sometimes it turns into bad PR with the whole Dell Hell thing a few years ago but other times it works well. Comparing that to a local plumbing or electrical company, imagine being re-routed to India when your toilet is overflowing, you would lose you S**T!
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  • Profile picture of the author Verisimilitude
    A big part of making your branding believable is maintaining consistency. Not much of a point in spending money on building up a positive/influential image if lousy customer support breaks the consistency of your message.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ben Gordon
    It differs. It depends on what type of market I'm in. For example, if it's the Warrior Forum I understand that most people are advanced and have complex questions so I either answer it myself or I have my personally trained by me, customer support specialists answer it.

    If it's a niche which doesn't require much attention and can be answered via a script (most questions) then I'd outsource the work. For most scenarios though I take support upon my shoulders.
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  • Profile picture of the author goindeep
    One of the benefits of being online and running an online business is speed and flexibility. Check out the Zappos story:

    The Zappos Effect: 5 Great Customer Service Ideas for Smaller Businesses | Practical eCommerce
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  • Profile picture of the author Dr.Aljonaid
    I do it myself when it is a consulting or a coaching service, but for my other businesses (retail), I outsource the service. I had to try several companies before I could find a reliable and professional one that I can trust on my clients. They handle the day to day emails and phone calls, bulk orders, special seasons orders (high demand) and forward to me the ones that are coming from unsatisfied or angry customers, which I deal with personally.
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  • Profile picture of the author BIG Mike
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author Verisimilitude
      Originally Posted by BIG Mike View Post

      We have several people in-house dedicated to support who are exceptional at what they do.

      Over the years it's been difficult to find that right combination of consistency, reliability and knowledge in any one person. When we do find one, we pay them ridiculously well and give frequent bonuses to keep them happy and focused on our needs

      I suspect a lot of inexperienced marketers don't understand the value of post sale customer service and how that impacts lifetime customer value.
      What if they don't care about long-term ROI? :p

      I digress. You're absolutely right. Too many people I talk to think the value of a customer ends at initial payment.
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      • Profile picture of the author goindeep
        It costs 10 X more to find a new customer then it does to keep a current customer.
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        • Profile picture of the author goindeep
          It always surprises me when internet marketers and warriors complain about refunds and so called "serial refunders" who are apparently scamming them. I have no doubt this happens, but you know what, I dont know the exact figure but im willing to bet 10 to 1 that the figure is less than 1%.

          I think that if more people gave more concise information about their product, made it the right price, offered the best after sales support and where actually polite, respectful and courteous to their buyers they would retain many more customers, instead of growing their refund numbers.

          Some Internet marketers confuse speed of answer with grade of service. When in fact the speed of answer or response time to a query is only a part of the entire formula. They assume that because this is the internet and time is critical that they dont have to worry about being polite. A simple one of these little suckers does the trick.

          -Andrei
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