Why you need systems for great customer service

The most important part of the inside of a business is its systems.

But it’s the area that many of us try to avoid. If there are systems, we often choose to ignore them or change them.

Let me give just one example of why systems are key.

We all know that the most expensive part of business is lead generation.  

It’s 5 or 6 times easier and cheaper to get existing customers to buy from us again than it is to go out and get new customers.

What has this to do with systems?

We need to get really good at customer service, delivering a great experience of doing business with us AND keeping us at the forefront of our customers’ minds so that they keep coming back and tell all their friends about us too.

This needs to be systematic but is what some businesses overlook as they grow their customer base.

We can get so busy that we can no longer provide the quality service our customers expect. Things get missed or forgotten, work gets sloppy. We start losing customers, complaints increase and customers start telling negative stories instead of positive ones.

The reason?

Systems!

Systems and documented processes are often – usually – overlooked in a business. We need to be putting them in right from the start, even when there’s just one of us in the business.

Think of a system as standing for Saving Yourself Stress Time Energy and Money.

As the business grows and gets busier, it’s much harder to find the time to do the work to get your standard operating manuals documented.

Remember that systems run the business. People run the systems – and that means everyone, including (especially) the boss who leads by example.

With great systems in place and everyone sticking to them, nothing gets missed, your customers continue to get great service regardless of your continued growth and everyone can take a holiday because other people know how to run the systems.

Ros Jones