If you’re starting a new business, customer service might not be the first thing on your mind. However, if you want your company to grow and succeed, it’s important to provide good customer service. And just because you’re working with limited funds doesn’t mean that you can’t offer quality customer service.

Here are seven low-cost options that will help your business grow:

Live Chat

Live chat can be one of the most useful tools in your arsenal, but it’s also one that many businesses don’t use. As per Popupsmart, 73% of customers find live chat the most effective form of communication with the company. And 38% of the consumers will likely buy from the company if they offer Live Chat support.

If you’re a new business or a small business that doesn’t have much money to spend on customer service, live chat is a fantastic way to provide customers with the help they need without spending too much money.

Live chat gives you the chance to speak directly with customers as they visit your site and provides a personal touch that other methods like email don’t offer. This helps humanize your brand and show people that their questions aren’t going unanswered by robots. They’re being answered by real humans.

The best part about live chat is how easy it is to set up and maintain. You can get started for free using services like Intercom or Drift. Even if you want more advanced features like sales tracking and high-level analytics, these companies won’t charge you anything more than basic pricing plans do.

Call Forwarding to a Live Receptionist

Call forwarding services allow you to have incoming calls forwarded directly to your phone. If you want it more professional, you can even have the calls forwarded to a receptionist. This can be especially useful if you’re a new business, as it assures customers that they’re speaking with someone who can help them.

Another option is having an answering machine answer for you during off hours. Many people prefer this option because all their questions and concerns are recorded, so there’s no guessing about what needs doing later on when things aren’t so busy at work.

However, if you do want the extra reassurance of having someone there in person, consider using call forwarding instead. It lets customers speak with a live person immediately upon dialing in while giving them confidence that they’ll get their issues resolved promptly too.

Telephone Service

If your company deals with customers over the phone often and/or has employees who answer calls, it’s worth considering providing phone numbers for them. This can include:

• A toll-free number (1-800) that customers can call at no cost.
• Local numbers (617) are less expensive than toll-free and allow people within driving distance to get quicker service since they don’t have to pay long-distance fees when calling from their area code or state.
• Mobile numbers are even lower cost than local and allow clients who use their phones as their primary line of communication with businesses will be able to reach them anywhere at any time.

If this sounds like something that would benefit your business, but you don’t have the resources yet, then we recommend using Skype as soon as possible because Skype does most things better than traditional phone companies anyway.

Email Service

Although email is considered to be a low-touch customer service channel, it’s an important part of your communications strategy.  Statista reported there were 4 billion email users globally in 2020, and the number is set to grow to 4.6 billion by 2025.

Email can help you:

• Provide 24/7 support to your customers.
• Offer a simple way for customers to get in touch with you and resolve their issues quickly.
• Keep track of conversations with individual customers, which helps support agents respond appropriately when they’re asked the same question again in the future.

Automated Text Messaging

Automated text messaging is a great way to provide customer service, and it is very low cost. You can use automated text messaging to enhance the customer experience in several ways.

• Use automated text messages to send out appointment reminders, order confirmations, and more.
• Use automated text messages to send out surveys or polls that will help you improve your business by finding out what customers think of your products/services or how they like being served in person or by phone.

Customer Feedback Surveys

Customer feedback surveys are a great way for you to learn what your customers think about your business, see how they feel about their experience with you, and understand where your service could be improved.

If you’re just getting started as a small business owner, there are plenty of low-cost ways to get started with customer feedback surveys. You can use free templates from Google Forms or Survey Monkey and send them out via email or even post them on social media.

If your business is already established and has an online presence, consider setting up an account at SurveyMonkey or Zoomerang. You can also create Facebook polls that allow people who have liked or followed your page to vote on questions related to particular items/services offered by the company.

Frequently Asked Questions Page

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) are a great way to address customers’ most common concerns, which means you can spend more time focusing on providing stellar service.

If you don’t have an FAQ page already, it’s easy enough to create one. Just make sure it’s easy for customers to find on your website and that it provides comprehensive answers about your business and products or services.

You can also use tools like FAQ Manager that help automate the process of managing frequently asked questions by allowing users to submit new ones via email or social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Conclusion

Customer service can be a big part of the success of your business. People want to feel like they are appreciated and that their questions and concerns are being taken seriously.

According to Oberlo, the customer experience management market in 2022 is worth 11.34 billion USD globally. This is a 12.2% year-on-year increase from 10.11 billion USD in 2021.  And it is expected to reach 32.53 billion in 2029.

These seven options will help you provide an excellent experience for your customers without breaking the bank.