Business, at its most basic core, is all about customers.  Simply put, customers have a need and you, as the business, are filling that need.  Whether you see the need and move to fill it, or you bring a product out of left field and suddenly everyone realizes that they have a need they didn’t know about before, you are still filling a need. 

What Makes You Standout

A product or a service is easy to copy.  Most likely you saw a need, saw another business filling that need, and you thought to yourself, “I can do better than that.”  What makes you so special?  Is your product superior?  Is your product cheaper?  If you are successful, then you can guarantee that your competition will notice and copy what you’re doing.

A perfect example is the cola wars of Coca Cola vs Pepsi.  Go into any grocery store and you’ll see 12 pack cases on sale.  If you watch over several weeks, one week Pepsi will be the cheapest, another Coke is the cheapest.  While they go back and forth, notice that the prices don’t waver too far from a certain point, roughly $3-$4 per case.  There are still costs involved in the product and a profit still has to be made.

Customer Service is the Key to Repeat and Happy Customers

There is another way to creating and keeping a loyal customer base:  customer service.  I’m not talking about just having a phone line with people to answer questions or a service desk; those are parts of customer service.

Creating and expanding relationships with customers is what customer service is all about.  Car insurance companies go back and forth with who has the lowest prices; who takes care of their customers the best after an accident?  You may not need customer service before an accident, but you’d better believe you’ll be relying on it after an accident.  I’ve switched insurance companies just due to poor customer service.

Examples of Reactions to Customer Service

I’ve worked in two major corporations with contracts to household named named companies (Wal-Mart, Toyota, etc).  Here are some examples of where excellent customer service pays off.

• A division wide meeting was called.  During the last annual contract negotiations, Wal-Mart had brought up the fact that one of our competitors had offered a double digit discount in price per item from our price just to have Wal-Mart switch from us to them.  Wal-Mart turned them down.  Wal-Mart wanted us to know that the only reason that we still had their business, in light of this offered discount, was not only the excellent quality of our product, but mainly because top to bottom, from the customer service rep who answers the phone down to the driver who delivers the product to their distribution centers, we had excellent customer service and knew how to take care of their needs.
• Toyota had placed up for bid a trucking route between a warehouse and a local manufacturing plant.  Our company placed a bid on the route.  We won the bid.  The ordering logistics specialist called us in for a pre-launch meeting to discuss what was required and mentioned that we didn’t have the lowest bid.  What got us the business was that Toyota got a greater value for our price.  They knew that no matter what happened, their freight would always deliver when they needed it, and that we would take care of whatever Toyota needed.  Our job was to enable Toyota to do their job and that is our top priority.

How Does This Translate to Blogging?

I know you’re thinking, “Great article on customer service, but I’m running a blog, not a trucking company.”  Get this through your head:

customers = readers

Your job is to take care of your readers’ needs.  There are two broad ways to do this

1. Proactive Customer Service
2. Reactive Customer Service

Proactive Customer Service requires creativity and an eye for detail.  Look at your blog.  Look at it from a reader’s standpoint.  What do you like about it?  What do you NOT like about it?  What can do you to increase a reader’s enjoyment of their time at your blog, and give them a better value.  There are other bloggers who talk about the same thing you are.  What can you do to keep readers at your blog rather than them going to those other blogs?

I personally made a switch over this weekend to a different WordPress theme to create a different experience for my readers.  I believe that this new theme looks better, and is easier to read.  The tabbed pages at the top of the header show off special sections for my readers.  Also, there are less advertisements so hopefully the reader will be less distracted by ads and be able to focus on my articles.

Reactive customer service is in someways easier and some ways the worst customer service.  A reader has said that they didn’t like something about your blog.  Before you go and make changes, ask these two questions:

1. Is this person in the minority?  What if this person is the only person who thinks this?  If you make this change, what if everyone else thinks it was a bad idea?
2. If this person is right, how many readers have you already lost?  I’ve seen several sources on the Net where it is suggested that a very low percentage of readers actually make comments.  How many people saw something they didn’t like, and instead of saying something about it, just left to never return?

Always be looking at your blog with a critical eye and try to stay ahead of the curve for your readers.  Anticipate their needs.  It never hurts to directly ask for their opinions.

It is said that content is King.  I think, going hand in hand with that is customer service is Queen.

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