HOW TO INSTILL CUSTOMER LOYALTY
Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels
Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels
Business experts cite several tangible steps that business owners can take to ensure that they provide top-notch service to their customers. These include:
Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels
Business experts cite several tangible steps that business owners can take to ensure that they provide top-notch service to their customers. These include:
Erection of Quality Supply Systems
Companies armed with tangible, easily understood guidelines for establishing and maintaining quality customer service will go far toward satisfying clients.
Communication with Customers
Communication with customers can often be accomplished more easily by smaller businesses than larger companies that are often slowed by layers of bureaucracy. Methods of communication can include phone calls, social media, newsletter, and surveys as well as a face-to-face conversation.
Such interactions can guide businesses both in meeting current concerns of customers and in anticipating future issues. And while such steps are perhaps most helpful when dealing with regular customers, consultants counsel business owners who specialize in making big-ticket sales to try and maintain communications with their customers as well.
Such customers may not make a purchase every month, but those purchases that they do make carry a lot of weight. Big-ticket purchases typically have a fair amount of service and financing associated with them, both of which provide businesses with opportunities to nourish their relationship with the customer. Also, communication with ex-customers can be helpful as well. A defecting customer may offer a reason that points to a potentially serious problem within your company.
Communication with front-line employees
Employees who are kept appraised of changes in the company’s products and services are far more likely to be able to satisfy customers than those who are armed with outdated or incomplete information.
Retention of Employees
Many customers establish a certain comfort level over time with individual employees – a salesman, a project coordinator, etc – and these relationships should be valued and nurtured by the business owner. Each customer has special needs and the longer that employee and customer work together, the more easily those needs can be met. Companies that want long-term relationships with their customers need equally healthy relationships with their employees. In particular, they must encourage employee involvement.
Investment in technology that Aid customer Service
Businesses should choose voice mail systems, the Internet, the social media, e-mails or other communication platforms that make it easy for customers to contact the person or department that they wish to reach. Technology systems such as a website can also help businesses gather information about their customers.
Cultivate an Atmosphere of Courtesy
A small gesture such as friendly smiles, use of customer’s first name, and minor favours can have a disproportionate impact on the way that a business is viewed. A small kindness can carry a lot of weight.
Address Mistakes Promptly
No business id is infallible. Errors inevitably occur within any business framework, and sooner or later a customer is apt to be impacted. Business experts contend that in many instances, these incidents can help strengthen the bond between a company and its customers. In the normal course of a business relationship, the depth of a vendor’s commitment will not be put to test, but a serious mistake will reveal quickly just how trustworthy that vendor is.
Avoid equating Price with Customer Service
Many small businesses find it difficult to compete with larger, high-volume competitors in the realm of price, but most analysts insist that this reality should not be construed as a failure in the realm of customer service. Moreover, most experts indicate that small businesses can triumph over price differences, provided that they are relatively minor, by putting extra emphasis on service. For some customers, price is all that matters. Those are customers you probably can live without.
Create a User-friendly Physical Environment
Business owners are advised to design the company’s physical layout for efficiency, clarity of signage, lighting, accessibility for the disabled and simplicity. Everything should be easy to find.
Any of these traits might not be enough to sway a customer into beginning a long-term relationship with a company. But combined, they can be a potent attraction to other businesses and consumers alike. Customer satisfaction – deep satisfaction, the kind that creates a loyalty – is not likely to result from one big thing. A customer’s decision to be loyal or to defect is instead the sum of small encounters with your company.
