Customer service is about much more than simply turning up to a customer’s house armed with a smile. Customer service encompasses the entire duration of your relationship with your customers.

While the strongest impressions you leave will be the way you treat your customers’ houses and fix their problems, you can’t underestimate the importance online customer service plays.

Yes, the online interactions you have with your customers count!

In addition to responding to emails and queries, there are a couple things you can do with your website, social media and other online channels to provide even better online customer service than you already do.

Curious? Read on to find out more.

Be contactable

They say that we live in an age of shrinking attention spans.

Be contactable

While the jury’s still out on whether or not this actually true, it can’t be denied that you only have a very brief window of time to get viewers to do what you want them to.

If you want to land more jobs, you need to work around this. That means:

And if you want more people to call, you should place your contact form front and centre in a highly visible, easy-to-click spot. Add a little bit of gentle prompting and you might be surprised at the turnaround!

Of course, delivering great customer service is about much more than just having your contact details listed on the site – it’s even more important that when someone does reach out to you, you get back to them ASAP! Make sure your online contact forms are either linked up to your email client or better yet, synced with your phone so you can reply quickly.

Include a Feedback Form

How do you know whether your customers are satisfied with your tradie business? Why, they’ll tell you of course!

There’s nothing more satisfying than hearing that your customers are completely satisfied and happy with your service – not to mention, great feedback and customer experiences means good buzz and positive word of mouth. And that translates into more jobs!

Of course, being the best plumber, sparkie or carpenter in the city means nothing if you can’t come forward with the proof.

If you’re building a site, ask your digital agency whether you can include an in-site review form. Not only does this give you a much better idea of how you’re doing, but it can also generate a lot of positive buzz for your tradie business.

After all, what is customer feedback other than more word of mouth?

Be timely in responding

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. A lot of things go into providing excellent customer service:

  • Product knowledge
  • Good listening skills
  • Communication
  • Pleasantness
  • Patience

And of course, timeliness.

Responding to queries quickly is essential for good customer service. After all, who wants to be left without a response for days on end?

If you want to deliver excellent customer service as a tradie, responding to phone calls quickly or returning missed calls is essential. It demonstrates professionalism, tells existing and potential customers that you’re on the ball and switched on.

Many of your customers will come to you with questions. Many will be in full-on panic mode. Responding to these queries and organising inspections quickly is essential to providing excellent customer service – not to mention, can leave a great impression on your customers!

The same goes for your social media. Procrastinating on your responses can leave a bad impression on your customers. Just like with your contact forms, we suggest turning on social media alerts, just in case!

Speaking of social media…

Use social media!

There’s not really much to say about this one – it’s pretty self-explanatory.

You mightn’t have a website for people to reach you at. You mightn’t have dedicated office staff to answer phones. But if you have a Facebook or Twitter account, people will get in touch with you there.

If you want to increase the amount of business you get, being active on social media is an important step for local tradies.

Small tradies might not be able to afford a website. And there’s nothing wrong with that! But to not have any online presence is a huge mistake… especially when Facebook and Twitter can be set up for the low low price of free!

If you need advice getting started on social media as a local tradie, here’s our advice for getting started:

  • Create a business account
  • Start by connecting with local business pages
  • Be active in local community groups
  • Advertise locally – target social media users in your area specifically
  • Be active – respond quickly to questions, reviews and feedback

Be excellent in customer service

Customer service doesn’t end once the job’s complete. Effective customer service encompasses all of your relationships with your customers… and that includes online.

These tips are great for helping you get your start with online customer service. But if you want to really make the most of the online sphere, you’ll want to team up with a qualified digital agency!

Eager to get started? Give iformat a call today!

We help tradies get more bookings and calls while giving you the tools to provide great customer support and service through your website. We guarantee you’ll see a positive return on your investment, with more leads and sales through your website – and if we don’t, we’ll work for free until we do!

Get started today – give us a call on 1300 88 64 50 to start on the road to top-notch customer service.