Do customer service skills apply to a nomadic entrepreneur? You bet they do!
In fact, taking the time to make your entrepreneurial customer service skills shine can set you apart from your competitors in a big way.
Let’s face it, one of the biggest complaints made by individuals patronizing a business is usually that business’ customer service procedures.
Regardless whether your business is digital or “brick and mortar,” the following tips can grossly affect your bottom line.
My husband and I spent over twenty years building the customer service systems for our personal training and physical therapy facility. This resulted in us earning a 5-Star Google review. It took several years of trial and error to perfect the systems we maintained to make our clientele and patients feel like family.
We sold that business to RV fulltime and still use those same systems in our digital business, Reset Your Journey.
What steps can you take to turn your leads and clientele into raving fans?
Filtering Leads
Not every lead you capture with your “digital fishing net” is worth a great deal of your time. But that doesn’t mean they don’t all have value. The key is to filter these leads out by replying to them with a canned response disclosing answers to all the most common questions right out of the gate.
When you’re getting started, you can quarry all of the questions leads ask you and turn them into a canned response. Gmail has a great feature to build canned responses fitting for different leads.
It’s important to apply the following criteria when replying to any lead:
- Genuinely thank them for their interest in your business.
- Use their first name twice in your reply.
- End with a specific question that will help disclose their sincerity for doing business with you and thank them again (with their first name).
For example, we disclosed our rates, lack of contracts, and expectations of clients. Then, we finished by asking them for the best way/time to contact them. It worked like a charm!
These email replies filtered out the tire kickers and time wasters, by kindly giving them all the answers right up front.
Not only does creating kind and thoughtful canned responses save you time, it turns those tire kickers into fans and helps expedite your response time (covered next).
Response Time
People want responses fast these days! Let’s make that easy for you to accommodate.
- Start with an automated reply that thanks the lead for their interest and assures them a reply within 24 hours.
- Use alerts for your lead generation systems.
- Do your best to reply with one of your canned responses within 1 hour during waking hours and immediately in the morning if the lead came in during sleeping hours.
If you’re tied up, add a line to the bottom of your canned response stating, for example, today is an RV moving day, but you’ll be available after a specific time.
That personal touch demonstrates that you actually care about their needs.
Personal Interaction
Once you qualify your lead confirming they’re worth additional time, make it a point to speak in person. When you finally speak with them, keep the following in mind:
- Use their first name often.
- Put yourself in their position.
- Listen intently and respond with a summary of their questions or statements.
- Rather than acting like a business person, speak to them like a family member you like.
It’s amazing what a powerful impact you can have on your business by speaking to your leads and clientele in this manner!
You’re on the way to creating raving fans who brag about your customer service skills!
Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up…
Once you’ve promised a donkey and delivered a unicorn to your client/customer, make following up a priority.
We liked to follow up immediately after we met or spoke to a client the first time. Then again in a week. We’d follow up once again in a month, and then spontaneously throughout their time with our staff.
When you follow up, be personal and refer to criteria that’s specific to them. It can be as simple as a text, short email, or a quick call. Just avoid being annoying or needy.
Asking For Referrals
When you get started with a new client or customer, make referrals a condition of doing business with you.
In other words, use a statement like:
“When we do everything we can to solve your problem, can you help us by referring others like yourself who may have the same needs?”
In addition, always ask what you can do to improve. If you were successful developing a good rapport with your client/customer, they will likely be candid about their experience and what can be improved for others.
That information is gold for perfecting your customer service skills!
Asking Specific Clients To Leave A Review
You’ll know who your best clients are over time. Make it a point to send them a direct link and instructions to your ratings page or Google review. Ask them if they would write you an honest review to help others find your business.
Make the process so easy for them, they have no excuses.
We did this for years and those individuals didn’t just write a one line review, they wrote books! Those reviews will be one of the strongest influencers to additional business for you.
This, of course, only applies if you put all the previous steps into place and created a raving fan who feels like family.
Wrapping Up Customer Service Skills For The RV Entrepreneur
In any business, it’s so easy, there’s no excuse not to have extraordinary customer service systems in place.
In summary:
- Filter your leads to save you time.
- Respond as quickly as you can. Canned responses will help.
- Interact with your lead/client like a family member you like.
- Follow up frequently.
- Make referrals a condition of doing business with you.
- Ask your best clients for a review.
What measure have you taken to perfect your customer service systems in your RV entrepreneur business?
