My clients have grown to love the fact that I’m available quickly. If they e-mail me, chances are great that I’ll be sitting at my PC ready for their e-mail and in most cases; I have an e-mail back to them within five-ten minutes. My clients have always commented on this ability of mine and how much they appreciate my responsiveness and timeliness. So, how can you achieve this for your own business? It’s easy!

Be Available.

Okay, I know you are probably thinking “Duh, you just said that” but I wanted to be sure you really got it. If you want your clients to appreciate your responsiveness, be available at your computer at various intervals during the day and have your e-mail open – ready to accept new inbound mail. Set yourself up a schedule if you have other priorities and try to check in with your e-mail once an hour. If time does not allow that, set your own goal – maybe you want to respond within 24 hours or 48 hours. State this turn around time on your website and stick to it!

Use the Technology Your PC Gave You!

We all have some e-mail client installed on our computers. If you don’t, get yourself out to the nearest office supplies store and pick yourself up an e-mail software program… Immediately! Once you have it installed, if you didn’t already have a software program like this installed, open it up and set up your mail accounts to feed into one inbox. This way, you can keep close tabs on your mail and be able to answer all inbound e-mail rather quickly. I use Outlook and Outlook Express to handle my e-mails and I just love it!

Set Up a Voice Mail System for Your Phone

If you know you aren’t going to be available by phone during regular business hours, be sure to have a voice mail system in place and make sure to use it. Return phone calls within the same time limit you gave yourself for e-mail. This way, your clients know that if they leave you a message about something they need you to do or to look into, it will be taken care of in a timely manner. Also, don’t be afraid of the phone! Too many of us, now that we are moving into this internet focused era, have quit using our phones and turned to an e-mail only place of business. Pick up that phone and chat with your clients because it makes for a great business-consumer relationship.

Keeping in touch with your clients in a timely manner will mean more repeat business and more word-of-mouth advertising for you and a happy business for your client. It is your responsibility to provide to your client what your service standards state. If you don’t have service standards in place, abide by the age old rule: “do unto others as you would do unto yourself.”

Want to Use This Article on Your Website, Ezine or Blog? You Can! Just Include the Bio Below…

Erin Blaskie is a virtual assistant and the owner of Business Services, ETC. Erin supports business owners with their daily operations - helping them fr*ee up their time so they can get back to doing the ‘life’ stuff or focus on the revenue generating items. Feel fr*ee to contact her via her website at http://www.bsetc.ca.

More good advice. Thanks! I realized this morning that I needed to place my phone number on my website so folks know that I am a "real live person." Your timely article just reinforced this concept

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Thank you! Yes, phone numbers and e-mail addresses are key. Make it easy for people to contact you and they will!

Another great piece of valuable information. Thanks so much Erin.
My biggest pet peeve is lousy customer service. (it comes from spending 20 years in the hospitality industry) I'm so glad to see someone else who has the same mindset when it comes to business. Kudos to you.

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Shari Sultana
Online Business Manager (marketing for retail ecommerce)

This is an interesting point for me too - I just got a note from a client (he's new on our schedule but recently fired his previous 'team' to work with us instead for any number of reasons, not the least of which is the other contractors would take ages to get back to him when he needed something). This is a major client; previously an exec at Yahoo! who's gone solo so we're thrilled.
But he said that he has been so 'impressed with our work ethic', and mentioned how hard it is to find people who take that concept seriously...being truly available to clients is a big part of that - letting them know you hear them, understand what they need and then following through with timely, accurate product delivery should always be the bottom line in any service oriented position - but sadly it's not.
We take it for granted, but so many others don't.

One thing though, with the very sorry state of customer service in every single industry it's incredibly easy to impress the heck out of clients who are used to getting the run-around with every other company they have to deal with. Knowing that your clients look forward to communicating with you is a great feeling

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Tess, I couldn't agree more with everything you have said. Common courtesy is such a simple gesture but it speaks volumes to the person on the receiving end. We all lead busy lives but it doesn't take more than a simple email letting the sender know they have been heard. Even if we don't immediately have the answer they want, we can at the very least acknowledge them. So simple yet the vast majority of people these days just don't seem to understand or care about that. My own customer service philosophy that I state right on my website is this: we treat our clients the way we would like to be treated.

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Shari Sultana
Online Business Manager (marketing for retail ecommerce)

I change my voice mail message each day to let my clients know when I am not available. For example, "I will be in a client meeting from ten to twelve today." Several of my clients expressed their appreciation in my doing so.

I have also signed up for an 800-number through an online service called www.RingCentral.com. My company has several assistants and it allows for each one to have their own company extension and voice mail. The system also allows for a call to "follow" you. For example, a client calls an assistant and selects her extension. The assistant's extension preferences are set up to ring her cell phone first. If there is no answer, then her home number. She can also put the call on hold and transfer it to another extension. One of the extensions is used for company information (address, fax number, etc.). There are several plans to choose from.

The cool feature that I especially like is if a client leaves a voice mail message, it is emailed to the assistant (with a copy to the project manager) as an attached wav file. This allows the project manager to monitor the assistant to make sure that the client is being responded to in a timely fashion.

Thanks,
Michele Guarino
A Second Office

I believe in the value of excellent customer/client service, the last thing a client wants is to be left out of the loop. People are willing to pay anything, if the quality of a product or service is exceptional.

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Creative & Strategic Web Design Services
www.aivirtualsolutions.com

Wow, more great tips. I think customer service is the key because if you have an excellent business but terrible customer service, it really won't matter how great of a company it is.