Customer Service - How Review Sites Can Make or Break a Business

Customer service is not given the attention it should be given. If there is one aspect of more importance to your business than any other, it is this. This might seem a little of an exaggeration, and you may well consider that your accounts, your products, your marketing or your retail structure are of more importance. But ask yourself one important point- where would any of your accounts, your adverts, your marketing strategies, your prices, products or service be if it wasn't for the very blood of your business - customers?

The answer is, of course, precisely nowhere. Customers are the whole purpose of any business or retailer, and there is little point in any of us doing a day's work if we do not have the customers in the forefront of our minds, and the motivation for whatever we do.

Too many businesses have targets and performance standards in place, yet all too frequently these can be centered on the business itself, rather than on the customers. Statistics which focus on the sheer volume of sales, profit margins, types of product or service selling well, advertising costs and promotions can all seem rather pointless to those more concerned about the customers themselves.

It would be true to say that the business which fails to take into account the customer's needs, wishes, thoughts or concerns is the business people will be talking about in the past tense before too long. Customers can make, or break, a business. And this is a fact becoming ever more apparent and clear in today's global market, and global economy, with communication now easier and quicker than ever. Good news can travel very quickly, and so can bad news.

This means that if your customer service is of an excellent quality, helps to resolve the issue, makes it clear that you're trying hard to resolve the problem, put's the customer at ease, and keeps promises, rather than using words without any action to follow, then this will almost certainly become known.

With forums, review sites and discussion boards increasingly popular as a way for customers to share their experiences, treating your customers well, giving them the attention they deserve, the time they need and the answers they want will almost certainly find you listed in these sites with positive comments and reviews. This will, undoubtedly, assist you in the future and good reviews will do you a great favour. More and more customers today are turning to review sites and discussion boards before actually making a purchase or committing to a company. This means that they can share experiences, and in some cases only one or two bad reviews can mean the difference between gaining that customer, and losing them to your competitor.

Bad reviews are even more prevalent. The sad thing is that a satisfied customer is actually less likely to post a review about a company than a dissatisfied one. This is generally the way we work - if we have a good experience, we're pleased, but consider that the treatment we received was only what we deserved. After all, the person at the other end of the phone was being paid to be pleasant.

However, if we experience a bad customer service representative, with poor communication skills, little understanding of the product or service, little effort made to resolve the situation, or failed promises to return calls or escalate issues, then we immediately feel the need to rant, to let off steam, and get back at the company in at least some way. It's only a natural human reaction.

For this reason, the vast number of bad reviews on the internet has been written in the heat of the moment, possibly exaggerated, but certainly causing harm to the name of the company about whom they have been written.

These reviews will very likely stay to hang around the neck of the business for many years. For this reason, if you are setting up a business today, you need to be thinking about your customer service, and putting together plans to make sure it works well for the customer as much as for the business. Then you will stand a better chance of avoiding becoming the target for vindictive reviews that you'll be unable to do anything about.

Getting customer service right from the start is a sound business move, and one that can easily work in your favour, just as it could work against you if you cut too many corners. This is equally true for online and offline businesses; for corporate and for home businesses.