Good customer service - AQAGood customer service benefits and drawbacks

Benefits of providing good customer service

There are many benefits of providing good customer service, including:

• Customer satisfaction – happy customers will recommend the business to others through word of mouth or social media reviews. This could increase the market share of the business. Satisfied customers are also less likely to leave a negative review.
• Customers are loyal and makerepeat purchases – happy customers are more likely to choose the same business the next time they need the same product or service. This means the business will have customers with brand loyalty. Some businesses promote repeat purchasing through the use of a loyalty scheme, where customers are rewarded for regularly purchasing from the business.
• Customers are willing to pay more money for a product – often, if a business has a good reputation, it is able to charge higher prices than businesses with poor reputations. This is likely to make the business more profitable.

Drawbacks of providing good customer service

Although providing good customer service has benefits, it often increases a business’ costs. These additional costs could include:

• higher staff wages from hiring employees who are experts in customer service
• paying for staff training
• the extra services offered, such as refreshments
• higher wage costs from the extra time staff take to provide post-sales service

It can be particularly difficult for small businesses to cope with these costs.

Overall, the benefits of providing good customer service usually outweigh the costs and increase the profitability of a business.