{"id":32214,"date":"2020-09-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/how-much-does-it-cost-to-give-great-customer-service\/"},"modified":"2024-01-17T12:00:15","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T12:00:15","slug":"how-much-does-it-cost-to-give-great-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-experience\/how-much-does-it-cost-to-give-great-customer-service\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Does It Cost to Give Great Customer Service?"},"content":{"rendered":"![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/9-16-20-Dressing-Up-for-a-First-Class-Customer-Exp-Low-Res.jpg\" "\\"How")
<\/a>I recently wrote an article in Forbes about how to get customers to pay more<\/a>. The focus, of course, was on customer service and experience.\r\n\r\n\r\nResearch has irrefutably proven that customers will pay more for a better experience. Research also has irrefutably proven that customers will leave you<\/a> for your competition if you don\u2019t give them the service they expect.\r\n\r\nOne of my Forbes readers, Daniel Rodriguez, sent in an interesting comment. He said, \u201cWhat\u2019s interesting is that better service is correlated to a higher willingness for the customer to pay, but that doesn\u2019t mean that a business has to spend more on CS to get these results.\u201d\r\n\r\nThis reminds me of something my good friend, Kim Tucci, used to say: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t cost much more to go first class.\u201d He wasn\u2019t talking about upgrading a coach seat on a plane to a first-class seat. He was talking about how, in general, doing right, in a classier manner, doesn\u2019t usually cost much more, if anything at all. It\u2019s the same for certain aspects of customer service.\r\n\r\nFirst, the department that is often referred to as \u201ccustomer service\u201d should not be viewed as a cost center. Done right, it is what makes your company profitable. Customer service representatives save customers that are unhappy and, in many cases, ensure customers come back. Yes, there are overhead costs associated with their salaries and the equipment and technology they use. But when they do it right, it doesn\u2019t cost. It pays. Doing it right doesn\u2019t have to cost extra beyond the obvious costs just mentioned. To get you started with this line of thinking, here are a few ways to do it right that won\u2019t cost much at all\u2014at least compared to the results you gain.\r\n\r\n \t- Do it right the first time<\/a>, as in taking care of the customer so they don\u2019t have to call back and start over. One call with a customer, even if it takes a little more time, costs less than two\u2014or three or four or even more!<\/li>\r\n \t
- Be nice. This was the topic of a recent Shepard Letter<\/a>. It doesn\u2019t cost extra to be nice, but it can pay huge dividends. I know\u2026 this is common sense. Unfortunately, it\u2019s not always so common.<\/li>\r\n \t
- Grant authority to employees to make customer-focused decisions. This is about giving your team the authority to take care of your customers. It takes some training to show an employee how far they can go, but once you train them, let them go forth and be successful. Customers love dealing with people who can make decisions. This can be summed up in one word: empowerment<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nNone of these ideas cost much at all. As a matter of fact, doing it right the first time saves you money. Being nice doesn\u2019t cost anything. Empowering employees does cost a little, as you have to train people on what they can do and how far they can go, but the payoff is big. In the end, how much does it cost to give great customer service? Not that much!\r\n