How Do You Start a Customer Service Consulting Business?
To be taken seriously as a customer service consultant you should have significant experience in the customer service field yourself. You may find that consulting is a customer service function in itself. The best way to start a customer service consulting business is to first examine how you hire people to perform professional services for your own benefit and apply their appealing qualities to the formation of your own business. Set up and market your consulting business to meet these quality standards.
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Instructions
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Write a detailed introductory white paper describing your customer service experience, your ideas for how customer service should be conducted and examples of how you improved common customer service mistakes in the past.
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Evaluate your experience in terms of industry focus. You will have more success marketing to industries where your past experience applies than trying to convince employers you understand the apparel business even though you have worked for years in the computer tech support industry.
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Design and package a customer service training program that includes an overview of your customer service philosophy, procedures for dealing with angry customers, nuisances who just want to talk with someone, happy customers and, in case of emergency, procedures for handling people who experience health crises while on the phone with the customer service rep.
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Design a customer service evaluation form that you can use to quickly grade the efforts of customer relations procedures of your prospective clients. Taking the time to call a prospect's customer service department posing as a difficult customer asking a lot of questions, then evaluating the experience and presenting the written evaluation to your prospect is an excellent way to demonstrate your quality of service.
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Design your logo to emphasize your business image and print business cards and brochures, making sure they look professional. Use a design and printing service if you are not talented in graphic arts and do not have a good printer. Custom printed business cards are usually an excellent investment because it always makes a better impression if your cards are on thick card stock and printed professionally.
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Study your industry and make a hit list of prospective clients. Start out calling on the prospects who are unlikely to buy your services so you can practice your pitch and make mistakes that do not destroy real opportunities.
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Contact local business networking groups, night schools and SBA offices and offer to speak or give a class in customer service. Giving speeches and classes establishes you as a professional, and attendees often hire speakers or refer them to friends.
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Tips & Warnings
You should always write a business plan because it makes an excellent base for brochure and website copy. Your financial projections are very important because you will need to know how much to charge for your services in order to meet monthly expenses.
Check out other customer service consultant websites to see how they present themselves. Notice the most impressive ones and strive to copy and improve on their presentation and service offerings.
Set up your legal status before marketing yourself, such as filing paperwork for an LLC (Limited Liability Company) to protect your personal assets. Also, check with local business and zoning regulators to ensure that your business is permitted in your location,
References
Resources
- Photo Credit negocios 110 image by Jaume Felipe from Fotolia.com
