small business customer service evaluation concept

Discover how a small business owner overcame challenges with customer retention by implementing inclusive customer service strategies.

You have just launched your business and it is doing just fine but you are facing issues with customer retention or customer loyalty.

Well, I am a small business owner and I started from scratch. To make matters worse, I had negligible capital that I borrowed from my friends and family. 

Within the first six months, I realized that although my business was doing good, I was only making sales via aggressive awareness campaigns. However, regardless of everything, I was unable to retain customers. 

My business analyst checked the ROI and suggested that I focus on the customer service. 

Customer service was a good idea but I was running a small business. I was already struggling with money. To make matters worse, my audience was huge and I was clueless about inclusivity. That is when I started reading about the customer service offered by big brands. Big brands like Xfinity were not just targeting the majority population within a region but they were also offering the same service for the minority.

For instance, Xfinity offers one of the best customer services that include dedicated numbers not just for English-speaking customers but also offers número de teléfono de Xfinity for Spanish customers. I then recreated inclusive customer service for my business and was able to see the results within a few months.

How to Make an All-Inclusive Customer Service for Small Businesses

Now that I see AI making rounds online and most businesses using AI openly, I think creating good customer service would be quite easy.

If you own a business and you don’t have enough money but want to have inclusive customer service for your brand, here is everything that you can do. 

1. Offer Time Flexibility

Inclusivity is not just limited to catering to an audience that does not fall into the majority but also includes an audience that is not available at a specific time. Most people work 9-5 and that’s the same time when customer service is also available. This means if someone has an issue or complains, they need to take time out of their work hours.

However, most big brands offer 24/7 customer service but for a small business, this can be quite difficult to manage, mainly because of the costs and limited manpower. To deal with this, one of the best ways to offer 24/7 customer service within a limited budget is to use a Chabot. Chatbots work just like a third-party plugin and they instantly reduce the response time. 

2. Offer Multiple Channel Customer Service 

Accessibility is one of the most important things when it comes to customer service. This is the reason most businesses mainly focus on omnichannel customer service. Utilizing omnichannel service is crucial for any business but this means that you will need a dedicated team to answer on each platform and you will eventually be spending a lot.

However, if you are a small business struggling with the omnichannel experience, you can buy a dashboard. Most of the social media management dashboards will help you plug in all your social media accounts within one account. Eventually, you will be able to check all the notifications, reply to all messages, and follow up with just a few clicks. 

3. Work On Diversity

Diversity is one of the most important parts of business marketing today. If you market your brand as sustainable and especially focus on diversity, it will help you not just earn more customers but also it will help you retain more customers. 

One of the best ways to ensure that your brand is recognized as diverse is to hire people who come from diverse backgrounds, be they models, customer representatives, or just employees. While marketing your product do not just use people who represent the majority instead, look at the demographics and add people from all backgrounds. 

4. Understand Cultural and Social Perspectives 

Cultural and social perspectives are very important for the success of a business. Social norms that look appealing in some cultures might be considered offensive in other cultures. One of the common examples is the doorman policy or bowing. In some cultures, bowing is not considered politeness instead, it is considered rude.

While marketing your product, understand the countries that you are operating in and then get to know their culture. This will help you improve the overall presentation of your business. Eventually, you will get better results. A good way to get an overview is to use AI for this. 

5. Use AI Bots for Multiple Language

Language inclusivity is one of the very basic ways to make a population feel included and valued. Most companies focus on the main or dominant language within a region. While this is a good way to stay focused on just one communication language, it might make people feel excluded. 

A good way to cater to this issue is to translate everything into multiple languages and then use AI to automate the response. This will not just help in saving money but in the long run, it will help in building a brand persona that will resonate with a diverse population. 

Bottom Line 

To sum it all up, inclusivity is one of the most tried and tested ways of retaining customers right now but portraying your brand as inclusive comes at a cost. In case you are struggling with brand identity and customer service, the above-mentioned tips will be very useful.