Implementing technology to improve face-to-face customer service isn’t always easy for small businesses, especially if they don’t have a set base and their business involves working from home, attending fairs, craft shows, etc.
However, just because it’s a little bit more tricky, especially when you need significant investments, doesn’t mean it’s impossible. In fact, embracing technology can make your small business more competitive, even if you’re operating from home or at events.
As a small home-based business owner, you have the power to shape your customer service efforts. These tips can help you harness that power and make a significant impact.
Listen
You might know your business best, but customers know what they want and need, and it’s important that you listen even if you feel nothing’s being said. If people aren’t completing sales, are you investigating why or asking? Send emails for abandoned carts, asking why they didn’t check out, and ask them to give you feedback to listen to. Asking for customer feedback post-sale, listening to points raised in reviews, and even reading between the lines at what isn’t being said can enlighten you to areas you need to change or improve to boost standards. Without feedback, you can’t make changes.
Make Payments Easier
Moving from a cash-only business or allowing more flexible payment options when you’re at events means you can make it easier to seal the deal. If having no cash on their person is a barrier, you need a mobile POS that can accept payments wherever you are. Using a payanywhere payment terminal available here can allow you to close the sale by offering a more flexible way to pay. If you have a website, this can also mean opening up the floor for multiple payment options and not just limiting people to one way to pay.
Improve Communication
This means delivering prompt replies, queries, and questions posed to you via email or social media. For example, it’s about communicating clearly what you are doing as a company to get what people can expect from you. It’s about adapting how you personally engage with customers to build rapport and deliver exceptional customers. And for your website, if you have one, it’s about having a clearly structured site that contains all the information people need, i.e., shipping costs and items, dispatch times, wait periods, information on products including allergens or special notes, and care instructions, etc.
Communication as a business isn’t just how you personally communicate; it’s how your business communicates as a whole that you need to improve. This is done via multiple methods.
Make It Easy
One trap many people fall into when it comes to the sale, checkout process, and ordering process is thinking that everyone will understand it because they understand it. This is completely wrong and can lead to mistakes you can easily avoid. You need to design all aspects of your business with the customer in mind. Everything needs to be simple and easy. It needs to make sense and be as little effort as possible. Customers don’t want to spend copious amounts of time navigating complex aspects of your business. They want things easy, they want them quick, and they don’t want to be jumping through hoops.
