14 top Tips to Satisfy your Customers & increase Loyalty

“A satisfied Customer is worth their weight in gold, because they’re happy and will seldom shop around, continue to buy from you, refer other customers and in general – be a superstar advocate for your business.” – Peter/CXO Wiz4.biz

Customer Focus Topics: Available & Knowledgeable, Friendly, Convenient, Value, Fast Finish, Feedback, Delivery, News, Offers, Loyalty, Buying Habits, Resource, Users Group.

Your job as Startup Founder is to deliver superior service with Customer Focus, that attracts and keeps customers a lifetime. Satisfied customers are willing to go a little further for great service, but you’d better make it worth their effort. How many mistakes does it take to send a customer packing? According to the BiG research survey, 17 % will leave after a single service slip-up. Another 40 % will jump ship after 2 instances of poor service, & 28 % more are out the door after 3. So for 85 % of your customers, it’s 3 strikes and you’re out. So how do you prevent that? Here are 14 ways.

A. Initial contact with Customers

#1. Available & Knowledgeable Staff: While a customer is making the buying decision, they want knowledgeable assistance, available – when they want it !!! Customers place a high value on accurate info & want to be served by customer servants who know the product inside & out.

#2. Friendly people: Customers not only want product-savvy Service people, they want them to be friendly & courteous. Your staff should value each customer more than any individual sale.

#3. Convenience: The service rule here is simple; “Make it easy to do business with you”. Today in Customers Focus, they define convenience, and the easier you can make the buying & servicing, the more $$$ you will be hauling to the bank.

#4. Getting Good Value: This is where price factors in. But customers surveyed see price as only one component of the bigger picture of “value” that includes the service, info & follow-up service they also receive.

#5. A Fast Finish: This final item is where too many businesses fall flat – at the finish line. While customers are in the process of deciding to buy or not, they are proceeding on your time. They want thoughtful help making the right decisions. But once the buying decision is made, get out of their way, becausenow you are working on their time, and they want to complete the transaction and be on their way as quickly as possible. Make it easy to do business with you.

#6. Getting Customer Feedback. When you complete a significant sale, contact your customer and ask if they’re satisfied. They’ll appreciate you asking and if they come up with some suggestions, consider them.

B. Delivering the Product & more

#7. Delivery. Offer “free” delivery for your products (if you can justify) and try to make it on time. In case of delays, inform the customer immediately and explain what has happened and how you are going to resolve the issue. Once the delivery is complete – on time or not – give significant customers a call to check that everything is in order and they’re happy. Always try to “Under-promise and Over deliver”.

#8. News of new Developments & Special Offers. Keep your customers in the loop by sending them regular updates on new & improved services, products and special offers. You can use either a Newsletter, Blog, Social Media or even Email.

#9. Loyalty works 2 ways = B2B. Use your customers’ services; buy their products. There is no better way to build “loyalty” between you – than to Customer Focus like this.

#10. Gifts. Occasionally, surprise your key, regular Customers with a token of appreciation. You don’t have to wait for the holidays to give a gift. Make a list of your key Customers according to their most frequent, significant or large purchases and, once in a while, give them have a freebie. Better still, if it has your logo on it !!!

#11. Greeting Cards. While most of us send yearly seasonal greeting cards to our best Customers, how about taking some time to find out more about your customers: when was their company founded, when’s the CEO’s birthday etc. Then send them a card on this special occasion – that they won’t be expecting. I’ll be a pleasant surprise to them and how you care. This also works for B2C too.

C. Building the best Relationship

#12. Mental Telepathy or Buying Habits. Create a database of your customers and their Buying habits. Anticipate their needs, by contacting them in advance – to check if they need to restock, or to offer something new that you think could be useful to them.

#13. Be a good Resource. Whenever your customer express a need, try to find it for him, even if it’s not your product or service. This will build “loyalty” in your Customer Focus relationship.

#14. Establish a Customer Users Group. [Meet periodically] Customers are more likely to open up in a group. If you find a few with the same problem, you have a trend and can fix it. Only by knowing your customers’ wants and needs can you successfully grow your business and be totally customer-oriented.

Conclusion: Outstanding Customer Service involves more than just training people to be nice. It’s about treating people the way they want to be treated—giving Customers what they want, when they want it and how they want it. It really comes down to the fact that good communication and human relations skills equals good customer relations. These tips can help keep your Customer coming back and certainly speak volumes about your relationship. A satisfied customer will recommend your services to others and bring you more business in the long-term. It’s an unending pattern, where you both are winners

Comments: Do you know of any other ways to satisfy your Customers and build loyalty?

from StartUs, AMA, Startup Nation 5/19 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4.biz

For more Info, click on Customer Focus.