“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” – Warren Buffet

When I’m conducting business, what I focus on, equal, if not greater to the quality of the product or service, is the overall customer experience. There is nothing like feeling valued when a company goes out of their way to take care of me. This is not about perfection, because we know mistakes will periodically be made, but when that is the case, these are the types of companies that can fix it to my satisfaction.

We have all had exceptional experiences like this. Those exceptional experiences had us coming back for more and telling folks about the product or service every chance we got. We’ve also had those not so good experiences which are also very memorable, can wreak havoc on your business, and unfortunately, are more of the norm than having a great customer experience. Did you know that only 4 in 100 businesses past the 10 year plus mark? How we treat our customers is one of the most critical things we can do to ensure we’re not part of the 96% of businesses that fail within the first 10 years.

I have written in the past about the benefits of providing excellent customer service to my Change Agent Consulting clients over the years. Outside of gaining visibility through consulting networks, all my clients have come from word of mouth or retention. Just yesterday, I had a client reach out to me that I did a strategic plan for three years ago that would like to engage me in their next strategic planning process. Someone will refer me for work at times that I don’t even know; they simply heard about me through a colleague. The point I’m trying to make is, well, customer service is Queen. It is unparalleled when it comes to running a financially successful business. Other major benefits including:

• About 77% of customers share positive brand experiences with others

• It costs approximately five times more to attract a new customer to your business than it costs to retain an existing customer

• 7 in 10 customers are likely to spend more with your company, in fact, 86% of customers would pay up to 25% more to get a better customer service experience

• The probability of selling to a new customer ranges between 5-20 percent, whereas selling to an existing customer resides in the range of 60-70 percent

• If you correct a mistake during the first interaction with a customer, you have about a 67% chance of retaining them

And customer service doesn’t start and end with your customers. Your team members also need to feel valued. I know I have fallen culprit to not doing this as well with my team in the past and my sense is I’m not alone. “People work” is the hardest, yet most rewarding aspect of the work you do – whether you’re an entrepreneur or not. I’ll be sure to write a future blog about this, but in the meantime to learn the most effective ways you can engage and value your team see this Forbes article.

To help support the Be Well Beautiful Woman community in providing optimal customer service, we will be offering a special series in the coming months. In the meantime, we’d like to help you make and retain more money during our Show Me the Money series. We’re wrapping up our speaker line-up this week and registration opens up on August 27. In the meantime, to hold your free spot click here. And please do share with others!

Demarra West
Founder