Page 7 - wedohelpforbusinessstartups1

Play the role of a customer.

You want to get to know your competitors' customer experience. How do you do that? Become a customer.

If they have a physical location, visit it. See how it feels, what you like and dislike about it, and whether the staff are helpful or

not. Take note of which companies are particularly easy to work with, and which companies are a bit of a headache. When

you're building your customer service systems and practices, you'll easily be able to replicate the things you liked best and avoid

the things that were painful.

For starters, I would bet half or less of your local service businesses actually answer the phone when called. Of those, leave a

message and take note of who actually calls back. Do they sound courteous and professional, or do they answer with a

grunt? Who is busy and who isn't? Could you get service today if you needed it? How far out are they booked? How easy is it to

schedule an appointment? Book the free estimate or cheap service and see if they show up on time and interact well.

It's easy for long-standing businesses to get complacent with customer service, especially if they feel like they dominate a

market. This is one of the absolute best ways that a new business will stand out in a market with lots of competitors. If you read

the Google reviews on my company, you'll notice that many of them focus on customer service. To get that level of service, we

did exactly what I've described here: putting our competitors' best practices in place and making sure to avoid practices we

found annoying.