Smiling customers equals business success

Editor’s note: Michelle Stockman is an independent consultant with her company, Fort Smith-based Msaada Group. Stockman earned a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University-Chicago in communications and fine arts, and earned a master’s in entrepreneurship from Western Carolina University. Her thoughts on business success appear each week on The City Wire.

The business world has evolved rapidly through changes in technology and the entrepreneurial businesses who continue to force new ways of thinking. The one area of business that will remain the same regardless of the age we live in is customer service.

It may seem that the golden age of customer service has gone out with 50’s poodle skirts. However, some may argue that the time we live in now has brought new and higher demands of customer experience.

Granted, there are reminiscent times of watching classic films or television shows where gas station attendants fill and service cars, or the butcher who greets each customer by name. Today, consumers not only expect a smiling face, they continue to seek experiences with their purchases. This experience economy finds customers seeking solutions to their problems, while others seek to be entertained through their purchases.

As a business owner, it is easy to get into the daily routine of the business and reduce one’s focus on the financial statements that let you know how your business is performing. Yet when the numbers start to decline, the business owner often looks for external reasons to explain the change in business. While the economy or a change in the market or industry could occur, the business decline could also be an internal problem.

As the business owner, you must ask how well your business performs with customer service. Regardless of the types of customers, all businesses have customers to please in one form or another. If you are a manufacturing business, when was the last time you talked to your customers who may often be distributors? If the business is in distribution, do you keep up with the needs of the stores? If you are in business with direct contact with consumers, how well do you treat them from start to finish giving them that positive experience?

While not every day is going to feel like Disneyland, as a business owner, you and your staff must make every effort to deliver what you promise, give your customers respect, work with your customers to help them with their needs and promote your business through their experience with you.

If you give a customer a great experience, that customer will be likely to recommend you to others. On the other hand, if you give a customer a bad experience, they will be sure everyone they know hears about the bad experience.

Being concerned about your customers and providing a sales experience that meets or exceeds their expectations is not hard. It only requires basic respect for you and your business, respect for the customer and the desire to serve them. In return, the business will develop its own good reputation.

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Stockman can be reached at [email protected]