Never Underestimate The Importance Of Customer Service

Just because you have the most incredible product that’s been brought to market, don’t expect that this alone will enable you to sell hundreds of units and make a stratospheric profit. While you need to conduct some meaningful market research, identify a gap, play to your niche and launch a product that will solve a problem or make consumers lives easier or more efficient, you also need to consider your integrity as a business entity. It’s more important than ever to dedicate some of your time to providing an exceptional level of customer service. Your reputation could make or break the success of your business startup.

Building A Following

If you are solely selling items online and do not have a physical presence, you are somewhat of a faceless business entity. Any potential customer needs to latch onto something to have faith that you will deliver the product you have promised on time and to an acceptable standard. The only way they can do this is through online reviews and social media. If you are providing a substandard product and delivering late but still charging extortionate delivery charges to recoup some cash, it won’t take long before the ugly negative reviews begin to pop up online.

Consumers are now ultra web savvy and will head to review sites like reevoo.com, Facebook pages, Twitter and eBay profile feedback to see how customers rate your business performance. It only takes one or two poor reviews for your overall feedback rating to decrease and for you to develop a poor reputation. With competition fierce online, you need a positive set of glowing reviews to hold your own against your rivals. As the negative reviews develop, the online sales will fall, and your business could collapse.

Instead, focus on developing a rapport with your customer base and go out of your way to over deliver to ensure the positive reviews stack up. If you know that you can deliver a product in two days, state that your delivery time is three days. When your customer gets a pleasant surprise a day early, they will mention this in their review. Add a discount voucher or code with every order and reward customer loyalty. Showing that you value your customer base will spur many more to purchase from you as word of mouth and free online marketing spreads.

Sourcing Your Suppliers

If you are selling products online, the chances are that you require a reliable supplier of your goods which you then sell on. Struggling to find a reputable supplier can result in you receiving goods late, or worse still, substandard items. This can have a knock on effect to your customers leading to an inability for you to complete orders. Unfulfilled orders can lead to negative reviews and a poor relationship with your consumers.

Try to mitigate this risk by heading to a website like leelinesourcing.com. These expert firms will work with you in aligning your product requirements with your budgetary constraints and will source reputable suppliers for you in the emerging Chinese markets. This means that you can feel safe in the knowledge that your Chinese suppliers will provide top quality products on time for you to sell on to the end user.

Dedicate Time To Customer Service

Although other areas of your business will require attention such as your website, marketing and online platforms, you need to ensure that you don’t just pay lip service to customer service. It’s vital that you forge a positive relationship with a delivery company so that you can be certain in the speed of their service. You need to develop your company based on a solid reputation and integrity. Just because you may be the cheapest will never make you the best. Customers would rather pay a little extra and be certain of the product they are ordering and the service they are receiving. Just because you may be providing a product at rock bottom price, this is no excuse for poor customer service.

When you are launching a startup, you don’t want to be on the back foot straight away simply because you aren’t valuing your customer base. If you don’t respect your customers, your reputation will be tarnished, and it can be hard to recover. Instead, go out of your way to develop your customer service capabilities, remember that the customer is always right and maintain a high level of integrity within your business to enable it to succeed.