This may be the Year of the Tiger but for smart entrepreneurs and small business owners, 2010 is the Year of Customer Service. After discounting, slashing prices, and offering everything short of the kitchen sink, the only real competitive advantage your business may have is customer service. To ensure you stay on top of your competition, check out the latest trends in customer service.
Full-Transparency
With social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, it is not easier than ever for a disgruntled or happy customer to share his/her thoughts with thousands of people. Use this as motivation to keep disgruntled customers few and far between while showcasing positive reviews on these forums.
Insourcing
Many companies who chose to outsource their customer service over the past decade will be moving in-house or at least to a domestic customer-service company. After the backlash of outsourced customer service such as Dell, companies are finally realizing that customer service is not something they can send overseas.
Think Big…Act Small
Over the past few years, virtually all businesses have tried to look bigger than they really were. Now, as many companies want to forge close and meaningful relationships with their customers, a trend of “acting small” has become effective in customer service. As Chris Brogan puts it “every company wants to be human”. For more customer service trends in 2010, check out Small Biz Trends.