Making customers happy is great marketing. If they are happy, they will refer their friends and associates.
If they are very happy, they may even return with more business. And if you really develop your customer service, it becomes part of your brand identity. And that will stick with you.
It’s definitely worth your investing energy. Helping your customers is fairly straightforward in most cases. Be nice, treat them the way you want to be treated. If you know there is something particular you like as a customer, offer it to your own customers.
A few things to do be sure to do..
People love it when you answer them quickly. I often get thanked when I do.
If they come to you with questions, give them quality information and make sure their questions are all answered. If you can offer more them more than they expect and save them time, you can really set yourself apart. I get a few of the same questions over and over, so I typed out a couple nice paragraphs with great explanations and I just paste them when needed. It simplifies things and makes it easy to offer useful help.
A great marketing tool is to offer your loyal customers a loyalty program or some kind of VIP status.
When something goes wrong, apologize. Even when you aren’t at fault. Just do it. You would be amazed how quickly someone looses their anger when it’s just acknowledged and you then offer to correct the situation. And be sure to never offer an explanation that directs blame at them. Like they didn’t read the product description. Just take it on and fix it for them. You might lose the sale anyway, but hopefully they will away in a neutral or positive state.
Little by little customer service becomes your marketing. Your brand isn’t built overnight, so focus on the long term here.