There’s an old saying that the customer is always right. Sure, this is an interesting and potentially beneficial approach to take when it comes to running your business.
But don’t take it at face value. Of course, customers aren’t always going to be correct. Some will be utterly wrong in their expectations or views of your company and its products.
Sometimes, they may even be correct without knowing it, such as expecting proper data security and networking capabilities from the modern services they use, but knowing nothing of the project management for IT deployment structure you’ve employed. They deserve the benefits of this all the same, even if they might not understand how it works.
What is essential, however, is that you keep your customer happy.
This is an art form in itself. All too many businesses fail because they spend time developing great products for a great price but forget that they need to keep their customer’s content. This is where you should start focusing on doing whatever it takes to keep a smile on your customers’ faces. Here’s some information that could help you to achieve this!
Focus On Customer Service
Customer service is essential when it comes to customer happiness. Put simply, customer service is the support that your business offers to customers. Whether that’s potential customers or individuals who have already shopped with you. You can focus on numerous areas within this area of specialization, but here are a few starter steps.
Make Contact Easy
The main gripe customers tend to have with businesses – particularly online businesses – is that they can be challenging to get in touch with. At the end of the day, if someone has shopped with you, you should make it as easy as possible for them to get in touch for information, file complaints, and issue returns.
You should also ensure that ongoing customer service is available for those who haven’t yet made a purchase or may have some concerns or queries they want to be answered before they hand over their money. You must offer as many different ways for your customers to get in touch with your business as possible.
Different people like different means of communication, so having a choice will make all the difference to their experience with you. You should make sure that you have a contact page on your website. You should also ensure that your business has a phone number that is easy to find and call.
Another option is a business email address. Nowadays, more people are also turning to options such as instant chat or messaging through social media platforms: the more options, the better.
Staff Training
Making sure your customers can contact you is the first step of this journey. You also need to make sure that the staff receiving and responding to their messages are thoroughly trained and know every answer that is reasonable to expect from them.
Your customer service staff will essentially be a fountain of knowledge for your business. They should be able to talk to customers about everything from individual products to shipping, order fulfillment time, your business’ history and values, and so much more.
This is going to require a fair amount of training. You should also ensure that your team operates in a way that reflects your business. You need to not only ensure that they are well-versed and polite but that they also communicate in your brand tone of voice. This will ensure consistency and can help to contribute to branding and your brand’s reputation.
Offer Multiple Payment Methods
Not everyone wants to pay in the same way. Of course, when you’re shopping online, you’ll need to use a payment method besides cash that works in a digital format.
But at the end of the day, there are plenty of digital options that people might hope for. Offering as many as possible can ensure that you maximize sales and that customers feel content with the ease of checking out. Don’t send them running around looking for specific cards in their wallets or pockets. Of course, general card payment is essential. But you may also consider alternative payment methods such as Apple Pay or Paypal.
You can also consider payment plans and financing agreements if you want to. Of course, this is a big responsibility to take on for yourself. Still, some tremendous third parties, such as Klarna, allow customers to pay in installments without your business taking any risk. This comes in exchange for a small fee, but many companies feel it is worth it.
Consider Free Gifts
Have you ever received some sort of freebie with a product you’ve bought? Chances are, you remember it because it put a smile on your face. Gifts don’t have to cost much, but they can satisfy your customers and encourage repeat purchases, and they can also be used as a great marketing opportunity. Consider branded gifts from dynamicgift.co.nz.
This could be anything from a brand tote bag to a hat, pen, lanyard, USB drive, or anything else. If possible, try to choose something likely to appeal to your target demographic. The happier it makes them, or the more functional and practical an item is, the more use they are likely to get out of it, which means further brand exposure to more people.
Try Out a Loyalty Rewards Program
Loyalty schemes and rewards programs are a great tool, encouraging customers to return time and time but also for helping your customer feel appreciated and rewarded for shopping with you. There are, of course, plenty of different ways to go about this. Many companies will have some sort of app or software developed to track customers’ purchases and offer a kind of reward once a specific target has been hit.
This may be spending a certain amount, shopping with you a particular number of times, or anything else. Just make sure that your rewards are reasonable. They need to be significant enough to make your customer feel rewarded, but they also need to be low-cost to ensure that you are still generating a profit and not losing any money through the program.
Ask for Feedback
Of course, your customers will be the best people to tell you where you can improve when it comes to customer support and customer experience. Why not ask them for some feedback? This will give you genuine insight into what they like, where you can improve, and how. Many companies opt to start this interaction through their email mailing list or social media posts.
Here they can get open up conversations and start to learn. Whether that’s in email responses or comments on posts. You could even set up some market research sessions where you talk to customers one-on-one or in groups. Of course, for more lengthy activities, you will generally have to offer some sort of incentive or payment that will ensure customers join in as agreed.
As you can see, you must provide your customers with the best service possible. This can put a smile on their face, sure, but it also has a profoundly beneficial impact for you business too.
Maximize profit. Increase repeat customers. In short, happy customers mean a better company reputation and a lot more profit down the line as a result. Get things right, and you should experience a whole lot of success! Hopefully, some of the advice outlined above will help you on this journey.