Customer dissatisfaction appears to be an epidemic right now. Surveys show that customers are extremely dissatisfied with customer service at many companies — including at large companies that have devoted millions of dollars to CRM plans. Many customers think that large companies overlook customer service or have gotten so large that they don’t care about individual people. Others assume that there are so many customers around, that large companies do not care about customers. It’s not just large companies that are getting criticized for poor customer service, either. It seems as though every customer has a horror story to share, and most news stations today air special segments featuring businesses that have provided poor customer service for news viewers.

It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly the problem with customer service is at every company. Undoubtedly, companies vary widely in their approach to customer service. Whatever the reason, though, customer dissatisfaction can spread like a disease, affecting staff motivation, company profitability, and overall success rate. Even though a company can go for some time without a solid CRM plan, eventually lack of good quality customer service and customer care management will show up in lack of new leads and in decreased profitability.

While large companies can devote millions of dollars and entire departments to CRM, even small companies need to focus on customer management and customer satisfaction in order to survive in the business environment. Experts suggest that small businesses focus on customer satisfaction by:

1) Keeping things simple. CRM does not have to be about complex systems, charts, and graphs. Often, it is about simple interaction with people. Something as simple as two basic principles can help you rev up your CRM plan instantly:

  • Be pleasant. This is perhaps the most basic advice about customer service that has ever been given, but it is also the most effective. It actually costs you no money, and takes no effort to be pleasant rather than unpleasant to a customer. Teach your team the same lesson, and practice it diligently. The way you interact with customers will improve dramatically and instantly as a result.
  • Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Imagine that you are the customer when interacting with one of your customers. What are your needs as a customer? What are you looking for? What do you expect from a company based in terms of customer service? Place yourself in the customer’s shoes and then respond the way you would like to be responded to as a customer.

2) Staying focused on the customer. CRM is about building good relationships with customers. This means that you should let your customers know what they can expect from you — what you can and cannot do in the scope of your services, how long it takes you to respond to requests, and what the specifics of your company are. An easy way to do this is by having this information available on your web site. However, even if all this information is posted on your web site, you will likely get questions about the very things that you’ve already detailed in the FAQ section of your company site. If this happens, do not get frustrated. Use canned e-mail responses from a quality CRM program — such as Relenta CRM — to quickly respond to these queries politely and effectively.

3) Keep things organized. Even companies who wish to keep good communication open with their customers and who wish to be polite often lose out because they are not organized enough to respond to customer questions promptly or are not organized enough to remember a customer has placed an order or has sent multiple requests about a specific issue. The best way to safeguard against this potential problem is to ensure that you have a good system for holding on to requests, e-mails, contact information, and much more. This is where system such as Relenta CRM can be invaluable.