A Checklist for Gaining Happy and Loyal Customers
Customers are the lifeblood of any business. That is why companies do as much as they can to attract new ones and at the same time retain old customers. Some encourage repeat business through strategies such as price breaks, promotions and the like. However, this doesn’t guarantee long-term success.
As author Simon Sinek puts it, “There is a big difference between repeat business and loyalty. Repeat business is when people do business with you multiple times. Loyalty is when people are willing to turn down a better product or a better price to continue doing business with you. Loyal customers often don’t even bother to research the competition or entertain other options. Loyalty is not easily won. Repeat business, however, is.”
Consider the following items on this customer service checklist to gain more happy and loyal customers.
Customer-Centric Culture
The desire to have happy and loyal customers must emanate from every single person in the company. So, you must develop a corporate culture that is customer-centered. Author Micah Solomon, in his article for Forbes.com, says that it must start with a central philosophy, which you must be able to articulate clearly in only a few words. From this philosophy, develop core values that everyone in the organization must adhere to.
Happy Employees
Sinek also says that “Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.”. So, make sure that your employees love working for you. Your employees are one of your greatest assets, which is exactly why extra care must be given to make sure they embody what the company stands for. After all, they are the face of the company and a lot of the customer interaction will happen with them.
Educate your employees well so that they will be empowered enough to know how to properly engage with your customers. Empowered employees are happy employees. Consequently, happy employees also make for happy customers.
Convenient Communication Channels
Customers nowadays prefer to have many options in terms of communicating with brands. Many are also shifting from shopping in brick and mortar stores to online shopping instead. Omnichannels have therefore become more critical. So aside from in-store communications, make sure customers can also reach you via your website, email and even on social media.
Being present in various channels also affords you the opportunity to collect qualitative and quantitative data about your customers that you can use to further improve your services. Customers also prefer to engage with brands in more convenient ways and nowadays that often means the use of mobile phones. Mobile technology will only continue grow so it would be smart for businesses to leverage this to enhance customer experience.
Loyalty Programs
Everybody loves a good reward and it’s something that your most loyal customers would appreciate. However, take time to create customer loyalty rewards programs that are creative and original so as to entice more customers. Also, take into account how fast rewards are delivered because customers these days just become frustrated over delayed delivery of rewards.
Excellent Customer Service
The Customers 2020 Report states that “By 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.” This makes it even more imperative for businesses to start committing to providing excellent service at all times starting now.
To provide excellent customer service, businesses must go beyond satisfying customer needs and aim to exceed customer expectations instead. Make sure to listen to them with empathy. Aim to resolve their problems quickly and provide recommendations as well. Always follow up afterwards and remember that consistency is key.
These five elements can help you create a winning customer service strategy. The truth is, businesses these days can no longer afford to have dissatisfied customers. Customers are becoming more and more demanding and it will do well for businesses to keep up with the change of times and develop strategies to ensure a great customer experience.
