From the first time your customer hears about you to when they finally buy your product or service, prioritizing customer service is crucial. Let's walk through a standard customer journey and evaluate how customer service can affect it.

When someone first hears about you, this can come in many forms. From word of mouth to social media posts to Google ads, they have to have heard of you from somewhere. Once they take the initiative to visit your website or make that first phone call, their experience becomes more important than literally any other part of your business. A dysfunctional website or a negative attitude on a phone call can be the single reason they never think about you again. When most people think of customer service, they think of the interaction that should take place during or after a sale, but the initial interaction is just as important!

After their first experience with you, they have decided that they want to do business with you...CONGRATS! At this point, any questions they may have or orders they place need to be handled immediately. Having an email/social media response time over 24hrs is an immediate turnoff for any first-time customer. Especially if this customer has active buying intent! If this person is just trying to buy from you and they can't even reach you, why would they ever wait around for you? Most of the time, they won't. They will simply find an alternative and give their business to your competitors which is not what we want.

Now, you have responded quickly and they have purchased your product or service. If they had no issues with it, you may never hear from then again, so now it is your turn to reach out to them. Sending out some sort of personalized "thank you for your business" or offer to get them to come back is you doing your due diligence in terms of customer service. When customers feel appreciated, they are more likely to come back or even tell their friends and family about you which is great for your brand! Brand awareness and long-term brand loyalty is built on the back of strong customer relations, so it is necessary that you prioritize making every experience a good one.

Lastly, we have the situation where the product or service did not satisfy the customer. Sometimes this happens because of a random error or something minimal, but you have to deal with it professionally either way. Whatever issue arises, if you can quickly be there to help them and resolve the issue, you are much more likely to gain their trust and earn a long-term customer. Unhappy customers who are not dealt with efficiently will most likely never come back...

Overall, we all know that customers are the most important part of any business and developing a brand promise they can trust. Throughout every stage of the customer experience as they move through your funnel, customer service plays a part in making sure this is a smooth experience that ends up being beneficial for both parties. They benefit because they feel appreciated and end up utilizing a product or service that satisfies a need for them, and you benefit because you were able to gain a customer and build your overall brand trust and loyalty.

I hope this post can help any of you in any way when it comes to Prioritizing Customer Service :)