Image thanks to - Death To Stock Photo

As a photographer, I'm of course asked about photography, but also about business. I want to make some changes in the way I blog and the topics I blog about, growing my posts from simply about photography to include business, marketing, technology and productivity. In this first of the new blog topics I want to tell a story involving my experience with a company generally not know for having good customer service, Eurostar.

I've just been dealing with them regarding a delayed journey (by eight hours) last year and their excellent customer service made me think about how we as small business owners could improve our customer service.

Here's how - throughout the delay, we were keep informed of the situation, what was happening, given a rough timescale and told what the onward journey plan was. The following day, we had an email apologising for the delay and refunding the ticket cost for our outgoing journey. We were also offered complimentary return tickets to be booked within the next 12 months. As a passenger on the train I was happy that they were doing all they could in the situation. 

As small business owners, we deal with our customers on a daily basis, here are my four quick takeaways that I feel we should be constantly reviewing and working to improve. 

1 - Our customer communication

(Ensuring that customer always feels they know what's going on)

2- Are we being insightful? - thinking ahead of our customers

(Answering their questions before they have thought to ask them)

3 - What is our offering? - Are we delivering the best product/service

(not just refunding the ticket, but offering a complimentary ticket allowing a good amount to time re-book and travel)

4-  Making sure we are taking the time to care

(a follow up email/phone call to see if the customer had any questions and were happy with the service)