Great customer service is one of the pillars that supports a successful small business. Offering great service to your clients, prospects and vendors will help establish your reputation, build trust; create brand equity and fuel growth. What are the customer "pain points" when it comes to service? How can your small business become better at delivering a great service experience?

"Pain Points"

Global customer satisfaction research carried out by Accenture found that the following service issues were the most frustrating for consumers:

Having to repeat information to multiple customer service representatives

The inability of agents to solve problems immediately due to lack of information or authority

Being left on hold for extended periods of time

Slow service - the amount of time it takes to respond to inquiries

1.0 Phone Management

In my opinion, answering the phone (as opposed to using an auto-attendant) is a great starting point when it comes to providing better customer service. In the digital age, having a live voice at the other end of the line can become a major point of differentiation and a big competitive advantage for your small business.

2.0 Empowerment

Another great way to improve your customer service is to empower your staff by:

Providing your employees with as much information about your business as possible

Training your team to be able to handle a wide variety of inquiries

Entrusting staff with decision making powers that enable the solution of problems "on the spot"

This formula was used by Southwest to become a service leader in the airline industry. An excerpt from "Nuts - Southwest Airlines' Crazy recipe for Business and Personal Success" by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg illustrates the point:

"Access to critical information grants customer-contact people the knowledge and understanding they need to take ownership and responsibility for doing the right thing. For example, a Southwest customer service agent who understands how the company makes its money, where profits come from and what they mean to the company, is in a better position to serve a customer who is making a special request. Customers who deal with Southwest employees rarely get the runaround. Instead they are likely to deal with a person who is well informed, makes sound decisions and has a flexible, creative problem solving approach. their knowledge of the company gives the people of Southwest Airlines the confidence and power to truly make a difference in the lives of their customers."

2.5 Technology

Why the 0.5 you may ask? Well, technology is a double edged sword - it can hurt your small business' customer service efforts just as much as it can help. The Accenture research report had this to say about the effects of technology on the provision of customer service:

"For the most part, consumers are unimpressed with the role technology plays in service. In fact, 51 percent of respondents worldwide do not believe that increased use of technology in service has improved the level of customer service. Consequently, it is not surprising to find so few consumers report being satisfied with technology-centric service channels such as automated telephone and online chat."

Be sure to take a balanced approach when it comes to using technology to provide customer service and ask yourself the question: Is this technology going to help solve a customer service pain point?

One of my favorite uses of technology addresses the slow service issue. Customers or prospects looking for service/information through a website can get pretty frustrated by the amount of time it takes to get a response. Solution: map your website service touch point i.e. "info@yourcompany.com", "support@yourcompany.com", etc to the specific email addresses of your service team and have those email accounts linked to Blackberries. This will give you the ability to engage in a conversation with a customer instantly and address a major service pain point.

For an example of technology that might create a pain point as opposed to alleviating one, check out a recent post by David Meerman Scott - he provides a good personal service story of how technology can miss the mark.