You knew having great customer support was essential to a good business, but did you know it could be a hidden source of profit? It can! It's all in how you handle it. Before you can turn your customer support into a profit source, you have to take a hard look at your current system. Is it really working the way it should, or is it killing your business?

Do you do your own support? Are you good at it? Do you finish each incident of customer support with happy, satisfied customers, or do you end up frustrated on both ends of the stick? If you aren't good at customer support, don't do it, outsource it. If you are good at it, but don't like it? Outsource it! Customer support means too much to your business to risk having any hidden resentments seep into the mix.

What does outsourcing customer support mean to you? It means going on the Internet and seeking out "virtual assistants", then hiring one at somewhere between $7 and $15 an hour (depending on support needs) for about three hours each day. Then you give them a dedicated email address, or access to your support ticketing system, which ever you use, and leave them alone to do their work. They will be handling your refunds, dealing with charge backs, doing data entry into your customer data base, and dealing with any returns. They should generate a report each week for you to look at, and should refer any big ticket items or unresolvable issues to you.

Are you beginning to see how this can help your business? By having a dedicated support person, that person is better able to create a personal relationship with someone seeking a refund or canceling your product. This means they have a better chance of finding out what can be done to not only keep the customer, but get them to come back and buy again in the future - profit! If your customer service rep is very good, not only will they be able to save the sale and generate a customer who comes back for new products later, they will be able to up sell the customer right then and there.

You can even double the positive effect it has on your profits by teaching your customer service reps how to overcome objections. There are several courses online that teach this, including one of my favorites, "Magical Objection Mastery", which you can find on eBay. If everyone in your organization is familiar with overcoming objections, it will only help your bottom line. By having everyone familiar with the same system, anyone who has contact with a customer is more like to make a sale, or keep a sale. Even a salesman who has been doing it for years can benefit from it. So do your business (and your profit margin) a favor and hire a customer service rep. It will help you troubleshoot any recurring problems, keep customers and increase sales. It also frees you to do what you do best - create your next product or service!