 Welcome to the journey. Today we're going to talk about 10 customer service rules for web professionals. All right, we're talking about 10 customer service rules, but why rules? Why? Why all the rules? Nobody likes rules, right? Especially I'm over here. That rebel without a cause. But our rules are here to really help you with your business and help you grow because not every web professional follows these rules. And if you do, you really set yourself apart. All right, so rule number one, and that is to respond to your customer's emails within 24 hours. Now, Emma, why do you think that is just so important for these web professionals? Yeah, because it is an indication of your customer service. The longer you make that customer wait, the longer their problem is not resolved. And the longer that they're thinking about leaving you and going to someone else. Yeah. And you know what you can do too, because I know when you hear that 24 hours I need to respond, I'm doing a million things. Right. A great remedy is to have a reply email that automatically sends out to your customers when they email you just letting them know like, Hey, we're in the process of helping you out. Yeah. And I used to freelance and do all these things and my clients expected something almost immediately. And some of those tasks, it took a lot longer than the 24 hours to resolve. So giving them that little bit of follow-up of, Hey, I've heard you. I've got your request. It's on my mind. I haven't forgot about you. Yeah. It goes just a tremendously long way. All right, Nealey. So this is like the perfect segue into customer service rule number two, update. Update that customer on where you're at with the project, where the status is. So they just know and can expect how long until they get that resolved or their questions answered. Yeah. And it's super important. I know a lot of graph designers or web designers or just a lot of project management people use tools like Trello or Asana to kind of keep track of where they're at with that project. I know a lot of them actually have that visible to the client and their customers. So that way they can see where they're at on the journey and they can add their comments and questions or just post those general updates because they want to know that you're actually working on it and you're top of mind. That actually reminds me. I recently ordered a few bathing suits from this new company, California based brand. And I was really nervous about when they would arrive because I needed just in time for this pool party I was going to. And what made me feel at ease was the update at any time I could see where my order was, even down to where the truck was going to drop it off at which FedEx that I could pick them up. So it would put me at ease that, hey, I'm going to get this bathing suit in time for this beach goth party, which hints the nails. And yeah, you can reverse engineer that with your own business. Have your own shipping tracker, but for your projects or your updates or whatever that looks like for you. All right. Number three, and it's all about email again, right? So specify next steps that your customer or client has to take. Don't put it in the middle of your giant paragraph, break these up. What I like to do when communicating with clients is I'll have just the general info and everything we're talking about and then kind of at the very end. So they actually look at it, right? Things I need from you and it's very bulleted, bold, right? We don't want that to be missed. So just have those next steps, those actions that they have to take. So they're not forgotten because you don't want to be a week or two later and like, Hey, I sent you that email. Where you at? Like I need that stuff to move forward. And they go, what are you talking about? Yeah, it's, it's, you're not going to have a good time. So make sure you have those next steps, bold, super clear and not in the middle sandwich somewhere. All right. Number four, the shorter the email, the better. And it's more likely that the customer or the client is actually going to read it in its entirety. And also, keep in mind subject lines. What's going to get that customer to open your email in the first place? Right. And go ahead and look at your inbox right now and see kind of look at some of the emails that you've received. Which ones are ones that you would actually look at like clear or which one would you just skim and pass over? Me or the ones that are those good examples in your inbox, like, Okay, cool. They have headlines, their email, paragraphs are short and sweet. They have some images or links that have to click on, put that short and sweet and make it easy for your client to take those next steps. Customer service rule number five. And it's one that I'm guilty of literally every day. It's not to answer emails or calls when you're just not in a good place to take them. Right. Be with your family or at a baseball game or skateboarding. And you get a call from a client or from someone you work with. And your first instinct is to answer that phone call. It's sometimes just not a good idea. I don't have the most intelligent responses when I'm not in work mode. I have to be in work mode to actually get good stuff done, right? But also goes back to what we spend a lot of time talking about work life balance. When you're at that, your kids baseball game, be your kids baseball game. And when you're deciding, Hey, I'm done with work for the day, be done with work for the day will actually help you to have a longer career and also business without getting burnt out. Right. So definitely keep it separated. And like Neely said, you want to be in the right headspace when answering that call. And it might be very well tempting to just take it. Oh, I'm driving between point A and point B. I see a client is calling. I'll just take right now. But you might not be in the best headspace to handle that call in a professional manner. Now, one thing that's really been helped me out a lot lately is I have our smart line app where I have that second phone number. So I have my office hours, right? Office hours. So I'll get calls from X time to X time. When it's not that it goes straight to voicemail. It's really helped me to make sure I don't answer those phone calls. So smart line has it. I know Google has a smart line type phone offering. So if you have a second line, they have those office hours, that might be a good idea to customer service rule number six, do not respond to angry emails. When you think about responding, yeah, don't be Neely. Honestly, what helps me a lot and even in your personal life, if you're feeling a little disgruntled about something, write it out, make a draft, and then walk away. Go do something else for a little while. Don't press send. Don't press send. Yeah, give it some time to air out. Let it breathe. Keep the Zen, but don't respond right away to an angry email. And I know you're thinking back like, oh, you have that one client, that one customer that just sent you that email pretty recently. How did you respond? Did you give it that second or did you just fire off that quick email and that you probably shouldn't have? All right. So rule number seven, and that's to offer some type of ongoing support or maintenance for your clients or customers. Now, if you build websites, you can offer like a website maintenance plan to you update plugins, do random service requests, your graphic designer, maybe adjust logos, create brand content, social media, whatever that looks like. Because most of the time, if we don't do that, that's just one client, one and done. We offer that ongoing maintenance. That's a client forever. You're getting that recurring revenue, helping grow your business. And we all like business, right? We all like making money. All right. That brings us to customer service rule number eight, which is have the ability for your customers to schedule a call with you. Don't rely solely on email. And I know I get emails sometimes and it's hard to know the tone and how is that personally feeling. Is he yelling at me? Are we friends? Are we not friends? Are they upset? Did you just unfriend me? I can't tell. So avoid that confusion and have that ability. There's some online scheduling opportunities out there as well. So it makes it really easy for the customer to schedule in your calendar, give you a little 15 minute call here, 10 minutes, whatever you need. I like a good 30 minute call to really hash things out. But again, you don't want to just rely on email for this. So boost that customer service and give your customers the ability to schedule a call with you. And a pro tip. I know your time is so, so, so valuable. If you want to make that scheduled call of premium service, you have every right to do so. Is a 15 or 30 minute conversation cost money or is it free? It's up to you to decide, but it's a potential way to increase your dollar dollar bills. All right, customer service rule number nine. And that is to take the blow from the blame. I know you'll end up getting that angry email. They'll say you were wrong. You did this, you did that. And what we don't want to do is one, going back to that rule is fire off that angry email. And we don't want to place the blame on them or just fire back and escalate this, right? You want to try to diffuse the situation. You don't have to say I'm sorry. You can say I'm sorry for the situation. Let me do my best to figure this out for you and try to figure out that way forward. Because I know they're venting they're angry, but they want a solution and they also want to be heard. So let them know, hey, I know what you're feeling. I'm sorry. This has happened. I'm sorry for the situation. Let's figure out a game plan. Let's get this fixed. All right, Naly. Love that last rule. But now we are here for rule number 10, which is educate your customers. Educate them. And think about it. They'll love you for it. You're going to bring value to the table. I know I love it when I follow a lot of my favorite local businesses on social media. And actually, this came up recently with the hotter temps in Southern California. I live in San Diego and, well, it's getting warm everywhere. But the point is... Wait, wait, I'm in Phoenix. What is hotter temps? True. I don't know how you survive. I forget that. All right, I'll stick to my low 70s. But the point is it's heating up all across the U.S. and I noticed some local auto repair shops on their social media pages and in their email newsletters. They were giving tips about like, hey, with the warmer temps, be mindful of X, Y, and Z with your car maintenance. And that was super rad because it was like, you know, I just don't think about that stuff naturally. I'm like, oh, yeah, I should probably pay attention to that about my car. Did they give you tips on baking cookies in your car? No. Is that an Arizona thing? You can do it in Arizona. That is why I don't live there. So think about it. What do you know? You know a ton. You're an expert in your field. What do you know that your customers would want to know? Or maybe they need a friendly reminder of? Yeah, absolutely. And those can be just videos that you've already created. It can be quick calls. It can be email, but you want to make sure you educate them early on and set the expectation that you're here for them not only to provide your service, but that ongoing edumacation. All right. Well, that was my favorite rule. What was yours? Go ahead and leave us a comment below with your favorite rule. And while you're down there, click that like button and subscribe to this channel when you want to see more. Oh, and ring that bell so you'll be the first to know about our upcoming topics. This is The Journey. We'll see you next time.