Many small business owners think that customer service is a department that only large corporations have. They tend to think of their own customer service as merely replying politely to emails that might come in or being reasonably civil on the telephone.

However, providing a good or excellent level of service to customers, both existing and potential, is essential to the long-term growth of any business. You may also be surprised to learn that having a clear policy or method of dealing effectively with customer queries can add great value to your offering and help to boost its popularity and appeal to potential new customers as well.

Most small businesses will have only a limited amount of clients, and enough time to spend on each, creating personal relationships, and writing each email as though they were writing a letter to a friend or family member. They will know each of their customers or clients individually, and be able to remember past queries or questions, specific issues, and any difficulties with which they have had to help them in the past.
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With security online becoming an increasing issue, here are some tips to remember when making online financial transactions.

• Protect your PINs and passwords; create PINs and passwords that do not use readily identifiable information like names, birthdates and phone numbers.
• When at a financial institution website, check the site’s URL to be sure it matches the company’s URL, and look for misspelled words or other signs that it may be “spoofed.” Notify the financial institution if the site looks suspicious.
• Learn about your financial institution’s capabilities for secure online financial services. All online contact with the institution should be conducted through its secured Web pages.
• Notify your financial institution of any suspicious email or telephone inquiries, such as those seeking account information or online passwords.
• Never make online financial transactions via sites and/or institutions with which you’re not familiar. Many thieves set up fake sites to steal money from unsuspecting victims.
• Notify your financial institution immediately of any changes in your account information.

Be sure to watch carefully what you are doing online. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between a legitimate website and a “spoof”. When receiving emails from financial institutions, double check the “from” address, they should match the url address of your banking place.