I have a bone to pick with many of the banks in the U.S. (Who doesn’t, right?!) Although I’m sure there are a few really good banks out there with great customer service, my rant is targeted at those big banks that say customer service is their thing, but come to find out it’s all just lip service.

I’m tired of hearing about banks taking away homes from people who work so hard to pay their mortgage on time. I recently heard about a man who had been paying his mortgage for 20+ years, but because he got laid off and was unable to pay for a couple months, the bank foreclosed on the home. 20+ years of paying on time and the bank has no compassion for this man. Now he has to start all over and his good credit score is ruined.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has shed some light on the unscrupulous actions of the banks, but it’s up to each and every one of us to take some action to demand better service from the financial industry - like refusing to do business with them because of bad service. The only reason why these banks stay in business because people continue to do business with them.

I could sit here and rant all day about how the big banks have done us wrong, but that really will not get us anywhere. It's time for people to take action and send a message by choosing to do business with financial institutions that truly value customer service.

Photo Credit: David Shankbone

Clients form the core of many businesses, making them very important to the success of a company. There are two main components of your business relationship with clients: winning them and retaining them. CRM systems can help you to do both of these things; just remember that gaining the trust and business of new customers can be time-consuming, even with the best systems in the world. However, if you are dealing with a potentially lucrative client, the effort should more than pay off in the end…

Market effectively
If you want to win new clients, they need to know about your services. Are you utilising all the marketing channels that you can? Do you have a coordinated marketing strategy? You might like to consider using CRM software to help manage your marketing activities, so everyone involved can keep up to date with what’s been done and follow up on any leads you generate.

Offer impeccable service
It almost goes without saying, but if you want to win clients, you need to offer them great service. After all, even if you operate in a niche area, they probably have the pick of businesses to choose from. Why should they pick your business over your competitors? Make sure your service can’t be beaten and share great CRM solutions with your colleagues so everyone is briefed on best practice.

Competitive pricing
Price also matters; with price comparison sites becoming increasingly common and clients becoming savvier, you need to keep things competitive. This means knowing your market. This doesn’t just make sense when it comes to winning business, it also shows that you are aware of current pricing trends.

Open up communication
So, once you’ve won your new clients, you need to retain them. One way to help this is to open up communication channels. Make it as easy for your clients to contact you as possible, always answer their queries in good time and communicate with them regularly. A good CRM system will help with this, such as by reminding you to send out newsletters and providing you with communications templates you can make use of.

Work with their needs
Finally, never forget that your clients are people, not just business. Get to understand them and make a note of all your communications with them so you’re always up to date with what’s going on. CRM software can help you record things like this. Encouraging feedback is also a good move: even if some of it is negative, it shows you’re willing to listen, which clients appreciate.

Donna Cutting has been an inspiration to me ever since I read her book, The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to Delivering Red Carpet Customer Service.

Today Donna shared a customer service tip on her Facebook page that I wanted to pass along...

Want more Red-Carpet service tips? Connect with Donna on Facebook!

As anyone who owns, runs, or works for a business will know, customer satisfaction is really important. No matter what your company does, if your customers aren’t happy, you’ll find it very difficult to increase your profit. You’ll also find it hard to make your business sustainable, as poor customer satisfaction can often lead to a dearth of repeat business as your customers take their business – and their money – elsewhere.

So customer satisfaction is important. But how can you improve satisfaction in order to increase your profit?

There are quite a few things you can do, both on the front line of your business and behind the scenes. Also, everything you do needs to integrate properly so you can feel the true benefits of it. Otherwise, an improvement in one area of your business will struggle to really take hold if it doesn’t find support from elsewhere. This suggests that unity of the company is important: the customer needs to feel that you know what you are doing, rather than operating as a series of fragmented departments.

Organising your company operations through CRM software can help here, as it allows you to keep information relating to all your customers and other contacts in one central location. It also helps to draw together different aspects of your business that have an impact on customer satisfaction, helping to make sure everyone stays up to date with what is going on in the business as a whole as well as with individual customers.

Communication is also a really important part of improving customer satisfaction; customers are much more likely to buy things from you if they trust you and feel that their questions are adequately answered when they contact you with a query. A good CRM system can help you set up templates that will be useful when you are dealing with customers. Even simple things such as a standard company letterhead and keeping a note on your CRM systems of all your correspondence with them can make a big difference to satisfaction.

Also, if you want to increase your profits, you need to be monitoring your sales processes. Again, good CRM solutions will be able to help you here, enabling you to track the development of sales from start to finish so you can identify customer trends and ensure that your service is of a high standard at all times. Keeping all of these things in mind and never forgetting that your customers are people, not just a money-making opportunity, should help you to drive up satisfaction – and, with any luck, your profits.

Photo Credit: _tar0_ on Flickr

Larry Kahaner of The McGowan Blog shares his thoughts about why Netflix lost their customers.

I can see the big picture in that Netflix wants to keep up with technology and how people are gravitating towards streaming movies, but the company broke one of my cardinal rules of customer service: Make it easy for customers to do business with you. Separating into two different departments (one providing DVD's and one providing movie streaming) creates confusion for customers. Now customers have two separate accounts and will have to deal with two different service departments.

I personally don't mind paying more for a service if the service is better, but having to deal with two different service departments does not make life easy for me.