It’s easier (and more profitable) than you think…
Today is April Fools’ Day, but this is no joke.
Actually it started that way. I read a Tweet of (intentionally) bad advice for business. One thing stood out to me…
“Ignore Customer Service.”
It stood out for two reasons.
- Because so many small online businesses actually DO seem to ignore customer service (to their peril.)
- Because if they did a few simple things right, they actually COULD “get away” with almost completely ignoring customer service, with NO consequences.
People love to take shortcuts…
And that’s not always bad. They often make things easier, at least on the person taking the shortcut.
But they also have a tendency to come around and bite you in the ass. And in this case, that “ass” is your customer service department. They get stuck with the consequences.
Copy doesn’t match the product? Send it out anyways!
Customer service gets to deal with the stream of angry customers, promised one thing and given another.
This is always a bad business move, but in big company it sort of “works.”
Customer service is the dumpster at the bottom of the business, inhabited by a bunch of Oscar-the-Grouches who are only there due to poor life decisions. Let them handle it.
There are a LOT of things wrong with this approach, and I’ve talked about them before, but one thing should be PAINFULLY for anyone starting a one-man online business or side hustle…
You don’t have a customer service team!
Or if you do, they report to YOU. That, or you’re handling any issues yourself.
The consequences of doing things wrong are coming back around to YOU personally.
It’s at this point that “ignoring customer service” becomes a TERRIBLE business decision.
But let’s back up a bit. Let’s throw away the “conventional” boring customer service playbook. Let’s do things right from day one.
This is your business. All problems are eventually going to fall back on you.
So let’s PREVENT the problems from ever happening.
If your customer service is busy on a regular basis, you’ve done something wrong. Especially if they’re handling repeat issues.
Look at the things customers contact you about the most. Or try to anticipate what these will be if you’re just starting.
Then look for smart ways to prevent these things from ever being a problem. Not shortcuts. Not band-aids. Not anything that just pushes the problem off to another day. But REAL fixes.
The specifics of course depend on you business.
But if you take this approach, and look at things differently, you’ll probably see several things you can do better.
So is that it? The grand secret?
Just… running your business correctly and not being lazy?
Well, not exactly.
Sort of…
The thing is, by taking the time, and expending the effort UP FRONT, you prevent most of your customers from ever having to contact you at all.
No customers contacting you, no customers to handle (or ignore.)
Which means you can comfortably ignore customer service on a day to day basis, and watch the money come in.
And if someone asks a question, or has a problem, you help them with it. Maybe it takes 5 minutes. Done.
Customer service becomes easy to ignore when nobody’s asking you for anything.
Make this the DEFAULT customer path in your business, and you’ll be amazed by how simple customer service can be
Story time…
A couple years ago, I had an agreement to run customer service for a successful, but small 2 man online information product business.
We were starting from scratch, building it from the ground up. I had grand visions of hiring Filipinos, collecting monthly consulting fees, and building an empire.
None of it happened.
If you’ve read this far, you know why. We designed the whole marketing and sales process to be watertight. No unanswered questions. Nothing hidden in fine print.
Everything where it should be, plus a few bonus surprises.
The thing launched, sold well, and…
Almost NOBODY asked any questions or had any problems.
What did come in was easily handled by the founder in his spare time. And he also had a demanding full-time day job!
This stuff works.
— Mark
P.S. The day is almost here! My long awaited project, The 80/20 Service Guide, is up for pre-order.
I show you every aspect of my approach and philosophy to customer service. How to keep things simple, how to anticipate and prevent problems, how to run/manage your team, and best of all, how to identify REAL profit opportunities hiding in customer service.
More information here: https://gumroad.com/l/rkbth/preorder
P.P.S Be one of the first to pre-order and you get a full 50% off the regular price. It’s my way of saying thank you for being one of my earliest and most dedicated supporters.
Claim your discount here: https://gumroad.com/l/rkbth/preorder