How social media, combined with some good old-fashioned principles of customer service, can give your business the edge

As a small business, there are some simple steps you can take to ensure you’ll thrive in this economic climate.

First and foremost, respond to customers’ needs as quickly as possible. Make sure that whoever is dealing with them knows the answers and can make decisions quickly to make their experience as painless as possible.

Rise of the ‘social’ service
A growing number of customers are using social media to contact businesses when they have an issue.

This gives you a real opportunity to talk ‘here and now’ to customers and ensure they know how their issue is being resolved. And smaller businesses should be able to offer the swift, personalised service that customers value.

Make customer service work for you
Follow some golden rules and you’ll be well placed to look after your customers and attract new ones.
• Don’t neglect the basics. Make sure you have fully functional phone, email and customer contact services in place.
• Be a ‘listening’ business. Use social media to keep an eye on what’s being said about yours and similar businesses online.

Stay one step ahead of your competitors
Being readily contactable is one simple route to better customer service. For example, Vodafone’s Red Business allows you to talk and text as much as you want in the UK for one predictable monthly cost. And having a landline number on your mobile means you won’t miss calls when you’re out. Plus, with EuroTraveller, you can even take your UK calls, texts and mobile internet with you throughout our Europe zone for just an extra £2.50 a day (exc VAT) so you can keep on top of things even when you’re abroad.

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Read the article in full and more customer service tips at yourbetterbusiness.co.uk