Did you know?
According to BizStats, over 25 millions businesses are present in the United States. Most of them are sole proprietorship (72%) while 20% are incorporated as corporations, 5% as partnerships, and 3% as limited liability companies. Even though LLCs are less present than any other types of business, they are increasingly popular with a growth rate of more than 20% each year. Corporations collect 85% of all businesses revenues.

Great Customer Service
By Paul Terry

When we think of the most important issue in business, we always come back to customer service. In every workshop or class, we ask two questions and get amazingly similar results:

1. What small businesses do you like to do business with?
2. What small businesses do you NOT like to business with?

• a client or customer calling about a "late" delivery
• wrong information was provided by one of your staff
• you failed to follow-up on a request from a customer for additional information
• you got left on hold without appropriate information
• the clients finds that the service does not work as promised

1. Commitment to quality service.
   Everyone in the business is committed to creating a positive experience for the customer. The goal should always be "exceed customers expectations". This should happen on every encounter - from the first point of contact and throughout the period of service.
   
2. Know your products.
   You and everyone who works for you must know what you are doing - about your product line or your service offerings - in order to gain and keep a customer's trust and confidence. There should be complete clarity on what you offer, what guarantees you offer and what would be done if there was any error or mistake made in the process!
   
3. Know your customers.
   The objective of every small business is to "get and keep customers" To do this, you need to know everything you can about your customers. Talk to people and listen to what they say so you can prepare in advance for any key issues and if there ever is a problem, get to the core of customer dissatisfaction BEFORE it happens.
   
4. Treat people with courtesy and respect.
   Every contact with a customer - by email, phone, letter, casual contact or face-to-face meeting - leaves an impression. The impression is stronger than the service being offered. If you can "manage the impression", you can affect the customer's behavior! Always focus on how to fix any issue that "went wrong" Most customers will do business with you again if you resolve a complaint in their favor.
   
5. Don't leave customers hanging.
   Customers want immediate resolution, and if you can give it to them, you'll probably win their repeat business. Research shows that 95 percent of dissatisfied customers will do business with a company again if their complaint is resolved on the spot.
   
6. Always provide what you promise.
   Fail to do this and you'll lose credibility - and customers. If you guarantee a quote within 24 hours, get the quote out in a day or less. If you can't make good on your promise, apologize to the customer and offer some type of compensation or restitution.
   
7. Focus on making customers, not making sales.
   Remember that keeping a customer's business is more important than closing a sale. Research shows that it costs six times more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an existing one.
   
8. Make it easy to buy.
   The buying experience in your store, on your Web site or through your catalog should be as easy as possible. Eliminate unnecessary paperwork, help people find what they need, explain how products work, and do whatever you can to facilitate transactions.

Paul Terry has 30 years of practical, hands-on small business management and entrepreneurship experience. Currently, Paul Terry & Associates, (PTA) is a business consulting practice with local, national, and international clients.