How to Lose a Customer AFTER he Spends More Money with You

Today's topic is going to be on customer service. Adapting your customer service to best meet the needs of your clients. Particularly ones who use you for multiple products, etc.

The reason why I'm going to talk about this is, I have my vehicles with a certain insurance company that's seen on TV, and has ads all over the place. What I like to do is, I like to make my customer service changes online.

One of the things I hate, literally hate, is having to call customer service. I know a lot of people don't like calling customer service. One of the things that appealed to me about this insurance company was that I could go online, make changes to my policy, and voila, I was done.

The ironic thing is I just put two more vehicles on my policy. I put a travel trailer and a truck to tow it on my policy. Because I did that, now I have to call every time I want to make a change to my policy. I have to call. I have to answer those questions. They always ask you those questions:

Your name, your social security number, etc. Then inevitably you get put in touch with somebody who is a live person. That live person asks you the same questions that you just answered. Then you have to walk through this process that takes 15 minutes, versus one that takes 2 or 3 minutes, or even 5 minutes.

I hate it. I literally do not like it. Why is this important? Because this insurance company is going to lose my business. I am going to find somebody else to take care of my insurance business needs. Not because they're doing a bad job, but because they've now made it painful for me to do customer service with them.

As you, as a small business, grow, try to focus your attention on delivering the customer service that meets the expectations of your customers. I'm not saying you should have 15 different ways to deal with customers. What I'm saying is if somebody does a good amount business with you, you might want to adapt your strategy to what benefits them, the customer.

If somebody likes to text, text them back. If somebody wants to email, then email. If somebody wants phone calls use phone calls. If somebody wants to correspond via Facebook Chat, instant messenger, go ahead and do that. If somebody wants to do Twitter direct messaging, you can do that.

I'm not saying, again, that you should do this to every customer out there. What I am saying is look at your profitable customers or clients. Really make sure you're meeting the needs of them.

Ask them, "How well am I doing at reaching out to you?" From that, you'll get information. Then you can adjust your efforts to communicate with those people who already like what you're doing, but they may not be getting the messaging in the way that best meets their needs.

As always, if you need a marketing plan, you can call me at 321-613-8476. You can email me at brad@justsmallbiz.com. You can send me an instant message. I'm on Facebook. You can like our page, Justsmallbiz Marketing. You can send me a direct message on Twitter @JustSmallBiz, B-I-Z. You can find me on LinkedIn at Brad Swezey.

That's probably the best ways you can do it. If you can think of another way, you can even send me a letter, if you so desire. You can find my address on my website, at justsmallbiz.com.

Thanks and have a good day.