SMB Cornerstones: Part 1: Customer Service Metrics

So... I have had a lot of impressions coming in lately about the hosting industry and how some of our brethren treat their customers, so I have to get on my soap box a bit. Bear with me, because I think this is ultra important.

I think there are 2 main cornerstones I follow in business to the extreme degree.

1. Honesty: This is not to be treated lightly to me in any way. I demand it from everyone I deal with. And try to deliver back the same in everything I do. (I will talk more about this in later blogs)

2. Customer Service: Without making this a top priority, I feel there is no strategy for long term success in the hosting industry.

I feel very strongly that the SMB market is asking, crying and demanding this. They need all the help they can get and are willing to give up something for it. So how do the big players get all the customers with terrible customer support? I think the truth is because even most of the small players are still not seeing this support as a true requirement and have driven a large amount of customers to be just price sensitive. Look, if we, the smaller hosting players, are going to make it against the big players, then one of the differentiations needs to be customer support.

Actually, I like Lou Honick's comment "but I also thought "What if it breaks in 6 months?" Would they stand behind it? What about after a year?" in the recent entry about Customer Service. It is a simple thought, but rings true over and over again! I could not be bolder than to say, everyone of us has a favorite business that offers us best service and we would not switch even for a pretty good discount. I can think of 10 right now just off the top of my head.

Ok, so how many of you are now saying, "yeah, we give great customer service"? And I understand that everyone has 24X7X365 support.

So let me ask you this: How do you measure it?

How many times a day do you get customer testimonials about how good your support staff, billing group, customer service or sales teams did? Yes, I said "day". Let me be bold to say, if it's not 1 at least a day then you're not making the cut. Not a verbal good job, but an actual written note. You should have a tracking board on your wall or electronically to reflect on this metric.

How many of your customers are referred to you just simply because of Customer Service? Are you asking this question of your new customers? I feel it should be at least 50% of your total customer base comes organically from referral based on service quality.

If you have a forum up, how many times do your customers back you there from a quality and customer service perspective? Forums are an easy place to complain by a potentially disgruntled customer, but if in most cases it is quickly addressed, not by staff, but by other customers, then you should feel good about what you are doing. Truly, take a look at these three metrics. If you are saying to yourself that you just don't need it and who cares about these, then you will be gobbled up my the big players who feel the same way and eternally fighting for just price and offering resources to bring in your customers.

I will continue to fight to have great customer service. Can we make every customer happy? I'm gonna shoot for it. I want it, you want it and so do all of our customers.