It’s a challenge many small businesses face. How do you take on big, well entrenched competitors and win? A great idea can only take you so far in today’s crowded landscape where companies of all sizes are vying for attention and many risk averse customers want to stay with a proven solution it’s a challenge many small businesses face. How do you take on big, well entrenched competitors and win? We call it the blowfish effect: looking like the big fish in the pond even though you’re still a guppy. Here are ways you can use customer service to create the blowfish effect for your own startup:

Be responsive:

Small businesses need to make responding to customers a priority. The first rule of blowfishing is: always respond to complaints and comments, whether its by email, phone, chat, Twitter, or Facebook;

Be fast:

Unfortunately it’s no longer just enough to give customers a thoughtful, well considered response. You also need to do it fast! This is an area where you can easily use the blowfish effect to outmaneuver large competitors that are hamstrung by clunky service solutions

Get personal:

When you automate repetitive tasks you can free your agents to craft personalized messages that build loyalty and reinforce your brand personality;

Extend online:

More than 90% of consumers will check a website for answers before emailing for help, so your website can make a huge difference in how you are perceived;

Engage on social:

More than 3⁄4 of online users interact on social networking sites. Their friends are there and they expect their favorite brands to be too. Social is a great place for blowfishing — no one can tell in the social world whether you have a support team of 200 or just two.