How many times have you received an email from a business which states: ‘Do not reply to this email: This address is not monitored’?

At a time when it's more important than ever for marketers to start a conversation with customers, doesn’t this strike you as a little bit strange?

By sending such a message, the company is telling the customer that it doesn't want to hear from them. That it doesn't want to enter any sort of dialogue with them.

And that they really don't care what the customer thinks.

It leads me to think back to this fantastic video, created over five years ago now and yet still highly relevant.

Of course, it's not just through email where some businesses can frustrate the customer.

We've all had the call centre experience of pressing countless numbers on your phone to be put through to the right department and waiting on hold for (at least) 15 minutes. Then, you still have to pass over huge amounts of personal details before finally speaking to someone…only to have to repeat all the information you’ve already given.

It never ceases to amaze me how so many high-profile, successful businesses can get the most important – and arguably basic – elements so wrong.

Improving Customer Service

Of course, no business wants to deliver bad customer care. We all start our businesses with the intention of delivering the best possible standard of customer service.

And, for many of us, we maintain the standards of customer care that is expected of us. But sometimes that is when the problems can arise, as many businesses are unable to cope with their own growth and as a result standards slip.

This may be because they don’t have either the manpower or the necessary training in place to maintain the customer service levels that the business had initially prided itself on.

For growing small-to-medium businesses, it doesn't have to be this way.

Whilst it could be seen as unavoidable for the major global corporates to get every aspect of their customer service right, managers in medium sized businesses have more control over the people they employ, and the values and ideology that are instilled in them.

Most importantly, as a manager in a SME, you have control over the tools at your disposal.

Consider CRM?

Think about the customer service problems we've discussed in this blog. An unmanned email? Easy-to-use tools can automate email responses with personalised responses.

Repeating details over the phone? By ensuring all staff instantly have all the information they need on every lead, contact, customer and case, you are saving the customer the frustration of having to regularly repeat themselves, as well as making life easier for your staff.

Difficulty training new staff? By equipping all members of staff with such easy-to-use software, you are minimising training time and helping to ensure that the standards of customer service don't fall short of expectations.

You may be reading this wondering whether your business is ready for "Customer Relationship Management". Many businesses install a CRM system as a tool to solve a problem, but isn't it better to be proactive and commit to installation before that problem occurs?

By equipping your business with an easy-to-use system now, you are not only ensuring that your business is best equipped to manage its own growth, but of improving standards of customer service.

Perhaps most importantly, you are also taking a big step towards fulfilling the most crucial criteria of any business: keeping your existing customers happy.

At Contact Edge CRM, we specialise in Microsoft CRM, which helps businesses find creative ways to engage with customers.  And by accurately tracking how the first engagement was initiated, it's easy to determine which elements of your marketing strategy are working.