Tag Archives: customer service excellence

Making it on your own and the importance of feedback

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There are more tools available than ever before to help individuals start-up businesses. Only this week, the Australian Government launched a free computer-based information tool, providing an extensive range of assistance and resources for small businesses. Useful stuff and important too given that small businesses are the bedrock of Australian commerce.

Before starting a business, it’s crucial to spend time talking to people you can trust to get feedback on your plans and ideas. The more critical the feedback is the better. After all, no successful business person has ever had any luck in surrounding themselves with ‘yes men’.

Important too is to constantly seek this feedback once the business is up and running. Feedback from customers should be your first priority and is something that’s always been important to our business. If you’re not talking regularly to the people that buy from you then how can you best serve their needs, innovate in the right way and stay one step ahead of the competition.

Of course, there are numerous ways to get this feedback. At Upstream, we use a whole host of measures ranging from sophisticated marketing tools that analyse visits to our website right through to informal chats with customers. Regardless of how we collect the feedback however, the important aspect for us is to actually use feedback to inform what we’re doing and where necessary make changes. After all, if we don’t put into action recommendations and input from our customers then how can we really do a good job by them?

Why SMEs need suppliers that think big too!

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Successful SMEs have always been those that think big, so it’s not surprising many have been frustrated in the past by suppliers unable to support their goals.  Often, this is because the products and services offered by suppliers are stripped-down, ‘diet’ versions of solutions aimed at larger businesses.

Thanks to developments in technology – particularly cloud computing – this is changing.  By embracing on-demand, pay-as-you-go IT service models SMEs can now access enterprise-class solutions at a fraction of the cost paid by big business.  These models not only allow SMEs to avoid high capital outlay on IT but provide the flexibility needed to dip in and out of services as and when they’re needed.

But it’s not just about product.

Today’s SMEs also want the same level of customer service from suppliers that larger organisations receive.  What they don’t want is to be treated as a second-class customer because a supplier’s focus is on serving the needs of a larger businesses first.

As a business that deals day-in-day-out with SMEs and a medium sized business ourselves, we know how frustrating it is to receive second-rate service.

At the end of the day, first-class service is about long-term partnership.  SMEs want to work with suppliers that really understand their business, the challenges they face and the opportunities open to them.  They want a company that can partner with them on their growth journey and support them as they expand and diversify.

Suppliers themselves have a lot to gain from forming long-term partnerships with SMEs.  By establishing a solid working-relationship from the start, delivering on promises and offering excellent service, businesses will lean more heavily on suppliers for advice and support as they grow.  Given today’s start-up could be tomorrow’s global enterprise, there’s really no excuse for not thinking big.

Focusing on what matters

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What makes a business successful?  It’s a good question and one that can be difficult to answer. For us, however, it’s always been about focus.

Focus on looking after customers, focus on really understanding their challenges and focus on going the extra mile.  At Upstream, it’s also about focusing on looking after our SME customer base – not trying to juggle both huge players and sole traders.  Like texting and walking, it’s difficult to do both well at the same time.

When you look at other successful businesses, even those much larger than ours, it’s clear focus is an important factor as to why they’ve got where they are.  Take Richard Branson’s Virgin empire for instance.  At first glance, it might not seem an obvious example when talking about the importance of focus given the vast array of businesses that carry the Virgin name.  But when you consider why everything from airlines to health clubs has been so successful it’s because the Virgin brand is totally committed and focused on one thing – delivering excellent customer service.

Now, managed print services might not be as glamorous as health clubs and airlines but it’s what we do and what we know.  So we’ll leave that other stuff to those that know better and instead focus on what matters to us – making life easier and reducing costs for Australian businesses.