By Lauren Fenthum<---- To view/save infographic
CLICK HEREAccording to a recent study done by Small Business Trends over 50% of small businesses fail within the first year and 95% fail within the first year. No matter what size the business is, they are constantly being challenged over a variety of factors such as ways of capturing new customers and how to increase sales. Small businesses, however, experience more challenges that can further inhibit their growth. One of the biggest reasons why small businesses fail could possibly be due to the lack of customer service within the companies. Customer service is something that all businesses can focus on, no matter what size it is.
Competing in a busy market place today, where everything is being displayed over social media, be it discontent or satisfaction, this affects your brand image and thus the cost of not providing adequate customer service is high. To put it into perspective, it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for just one negative experience. For every one customer that complains there are on average, 26 more, that remain silent. This means businesses only hears from 4% of their dissatisfied customers. Customers like to be able to feel special when interacting with companies. This goes back to just including small details about the client so that they do not have to repeat themselves over and over again, and that of personalization when communicating with them.
Using CRM software is one of the secrets to making a customer feel special. 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customers feel they are being treated at the time of purchase. For that reason, it is imperative for small businesses to have a CRM system in order to centralize information. For example, CRM systems are affordable and the benefits they can have on for small businesses are priceless. CRM gives you control of all your information in a single centralized place. It gives you the ability to store all necessary customer information in one place that everyone within the business can make use of it at any time and instantly receive customer information. CRM further helps your business to become more in sync with the customer, this is because all sales, marketing and customer service data are in one place. If there is something to be resolved it is easily managed because all departments are in communications with one another.
There are so many reasons why small businesses either make it or become one of the statistics. Many reasons are out of our control, but for that of providing ample customer care, shouldn't be one. Although the main reason businesses fail is due to poor customer service, this doesn't mean that it should be the fate of all small businesses. Make the customer the centre of everything that you do and everything will fall into place. Try integrating the notion that “customer service is not a department. It should be an entire company.” CRM is a key tool to help your company do that.
