In general, customer service is the responsibility of everyone at all times. Value added customer service means that we are providing the best customer services that even money cannot buy. Nowadays, this value added customer service is getting more and more important because the market place has become more competitive during economy bad time. For people who are currently managing small businesses, how can you ensure that your businesses are able to survive successfully?

Here are some useful tips I would like to share with you. You need to consider 5 customer service questions stated below seriously.

Question 1: Have you clearly defined what customer service is in your business?

If you are the owner of a small business, do you and your customer service staff have clear understanding about customer service?

Question 2: Do you genuinely believe that "Customer is King"?

Think carefully. What is your personal point of view about this statement? Do you apply it in your business? Many small businesses fail because they just treat these words as empty words. They are unwilling to accept customers' complaints. In order to be successful, you need to be open-minded. Without complaints, we are not able to make changes or identify needs for the change. Hence, it is important for us to take the complaints seriously and manage them well so that we can move forward.

Question 3: Do you analyze your business activities from the customers' point of view?

In common, most of the small business owners just pay full attention on their products or services provided.
Profit is their main concern. For me, this approach is not appropriate. In order to increase our sales, we need to put in our effort in analyzing our business activities from our customers' point of view. We need to listen and respond to our customers' feedback. Sometimes, our customers are too "cheerful" and they don't complain but they still can be unhappy and they may not return.

Question 4: Is customer service/satisfaction important to your business?

As all of us are aware, doing our work efficiently will help to increase our business profit. However, there is one more important element we need to take note, i.e. customer satisfaction. Providing great satisfaction to your customers will help you to retain them in the long run.

To sum up, market competition gives customers greater choice and they will therefore become more selective. In order to keep your business growing from time to time, you are advised to keep in mind the above mentioned customer service points.