Category: Customer Service

How to Reduce Expenses without Sacrificing Quality

How to Reduce Expenses without Sacrificing Quality Operational margins are narrowing; leaving business owners constantly looking for ways to reduce business running costs and increase profits.

Here are simple things you should do to reduce your business expenses and increase revenue without affecting productivity or quality.

Review Standard Operating Procedures

If a business has been in operation for several years, it is possible that some standard operating procedures have become obsolete or less efficient. It is important to re-evaluate operational processes from the bottom to the top, and make changes like trimming unnecessary steps that were needed before but are not anymore, or making new changes to labour functions.

Solutions for bad customer service experiences

Good customer service goes a long way in business; a happy customer is a customer who will recommend you to other shoppers, a returning customer,…. But so many companies just can’t get this right. They’re either putting their needs ahead of their customers’ or too wrapped up in finding new customers that existing ones become expendable.

I’ve had my fair share of experiences with bad customer service. Here are some horror stories… and what you can learn from them:

I’ve recently bought 30 books from a man who started the negotiation with “I do not negotiate.” True story. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t want to give a discount for buying multiple items, but what was most frustrating was his attitude in general. It didn’t matter how much I was spending, or how pleasant I was trying to be, he does “not negotiate” (or he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed) and nothing was going to change that.

Why and how you should keep your customers happy

Do you know if your customers are happy? If not, you should.

It’s imperative that you fulfil your customer pillars of delight. Otherwise, you might lose customers to your competitors. 48% of customers who had a negative experience told 10 or more people.

Unfortunately, more of your customers are likely to talk about your poor customer service or a bad experience compared to those individuals that love your company.

Your customers are your biggest assets. Don’t give them a reason to leave. Customer loyalty should be your ultimate goal, but it cannot be accomplished if they aren’t happy.

How to raise prices without losing customers

Raising prices is never an easy thing to do. Despite most people understanding that prices have to be increased on a lot of items, from fuel and food to insurance and utilities, it remains a delicate task.

Here are a few tips on how to do it in a way that puts your company in a better financial position and not a worse one caused by an exodus of irritated customers.

Identify where your prices need to go

Once you’ve established the exact percentage of your price rises, there are two trains of thought: phase them in with smaller increments over a period of time or institute one larger price increase in one fell swoop. There are pros and cons to both methods.

Avoid delivery nightmares

A recent study revealed that 26% of respondents would stop buying from a company if they were not happy with the delivery firm used. Losing business over a problem which is not caused by you is certainly the worst way for it to happen.

We found that most online shops use more than one delivery firm – but none of them offer customers a choice over which is used.

With a third of online shopping problems relating to delivery, this seems to be the weak link in the web retail boom. It means customers who have had a bad experience with a particular delivery firm are left pretty powerless if they want to avoid using them again.