You probably already know that customer service is essential to a successful business model. However, most businesses don’t make it a priority. The problem is that customer service ties into all the other parts of your business including sales and marketing. It is on the front end of the sale and the back end too. A customer will make judgements about your entire company and whether or not it is a good one based on a few minutes working with customer service. So why aren’t businesses making it more important? Here are some ways you can do just that.

Hire the right people

Part of making customer service a more important part of business is making sure you hire the right people to do the job. While some candidates may be able to put on a show for their interview, most will be themselves giving you a good idea of their personality. If they aren’t respectful and polite to you, then how can you ever expect them to be that way with customers? Look for good signs like dressing appropriately, saying please and thank you, never speaking over you. Better yet, if they take an interest in you or the company with questions of their own, then you know they will be able to make a customer feel comfortable during an interaction. And if they can persuade you to hire them, they probably will do okay in the job.

Get the right technology

Customer interactions are not restricted to one type of conversation over the phone or in person with your representatives. In fact, most people prefer to have multiple ways of communication to best suite their current needs. For example, having customer service texting available makes it easy for your customers to interact with your business on their time and without having to set aside extra time during the day for a lengthy phone call. Social media interaction gives them a chance to either promote or put down your company based on their experience and also gives you the opportunity to respond to it. Email communication makes it easy to voice a long opinion about something and even attach documents to explain better.

In every situation, there is a different way your customer wants to speak with you. Making sure you have the technology available to meet those communication needs will make customer service much more important to your company and more valuable to your customers.