One of the best ways to grow a business is to enhance the products and services that are provided to customers. The happier your customers are, the more long-standing and profitable customers you will have, and not only this, but they will bring new potential customers with them, which in turn will grow your business even further.
However, you have to ensure your customers are happy in the first place, and this is where you will have to put in the effort and maintain your customer experience and satisfaction levels.
Listen to your customers
Asking your customers for feedback should be standard practice, and although most businesses do now ask for feedback, few seem to act on the information given to improve service, employee training, or product quality. In fact, more often than not, customer feedback is not followed up unless it is a point that actually requires rework, and even then, the initial issue is not thoroughly investigated so that other customers do not wind up making the same or similar complaints.
This simply is not good enough from a customer point of view, and as for a business’s point of view, you should be striving to provide the best quality services and products that you possibly can and not waiting for the odd customer to look closely at their product or have issues with their service before you rectify the situation for them alone.
However, this is all about negative feedback (which, unfortunately, is the feedback that you are likely to hear most about, as happy or contented customers tend not to bother so much with the feedback action). Positive feedback also requires some action on your part. This is by way of letting those operatives or employees know that they have done well, have adhered to their standards in their customer’s eyes, and should have a reward for their actions, even if it is just a pat on the back.
This is so that your employees will continue to give the same level of service or attention to detail that has brought them positive attention and not let their standards slide to average performance. Indeed, every positive piece of feedback your business gets from a customer elevates your business’s reputation further.
Move your marketing strategies to be customer-driven
With this in mind, you should be looking to make your marketing strategies more customer-driven than product- or profit-driven. This does not mean that you should give your products or services away for free, but that you should make it clear to your potential customers what standards they can expect from your business regardless of the product or service, quantity, or price that they are paying.
Making sales based on what a business, product, or service can do for the customer is not a new concept. Indeed, many successful businesses have been focusing on this sales angle for many years, and that is because it works well. However, it seems like there are a lot of businesses that have decided that they now have to provide a problem or an issue for the customer that their product or service can be the miraculous solution to, and although this may have worked well initially, it is tiresome, especially when facts have not been researched properly so the problem or issue can be easily pulled apart.
Invest in your employee’s future
To provide your customers with the best possible standard of customer service, you are going to need to have your employees well trained so that they can deal with every issue that they are confronted with. Although many businesses will provide their customer-facing employees with basic training, you should realize that your customer service and the commitment that you have to your customers run deeper within your business than this.
Training to achieve the best possible quality of service and products should be provided on every level of your business, as every level of your business will affect the overall experience that each and every one of your customers will have with your business and the services and products that you offer.
Of course, having a well-trained and qualified team is not just for the benefit of your customers. It is also highly beneficial for your business to have these individuals on board as well. For instance, if you are using software to collate and gather your customer’s feedback as well as your marketing statistics and trends, you are going to require the help of a trained and qualified member of your workforce that has a good, if not excellent, understanding of data analysis so that you will get the most out of your software and the information it provides you with.
If you do not have a data analyst on board or someone with the equivalent skillset, then you can look into finding the appropriate employee who is willing to study and obtain that particular avenue of education. Indeed, some polytechnics offer an online master of data science for those who wish to work around their current job roles and dependents in order to better themselves and the businesses that they work for.
Provide your employees with quality CRM software
Providing your employees with good-quality CRM software will not only make their job roles a lot easier, as all customer information will be easy to navigate and sort, but it will also mean that your customers will obtain a much higher level of service from your business.
Your customers will be able to receive a more focused marketing strategy tailored to their past buying preferences, and you will be able to keep track of those customers that are less keen on paying for their purchases, which will mean that you will not lose track of outstanding payments and that you will be able to concentrate on those customers that are good quick payers.
As CRM software keeps track of your customer’s actions, from inquiries to closing sales and payment methods, it is important that you invest in CRM software that will grow and expand with your business rather than one that will only stretch so far before it slows down or becomes totally clogged with information.
Keep information flowing to your customers
In order to have the best possible relationship with your customers, you are going to have to converse with them regularly. There are some true benefits to taking the time to keep in contact with your customers. It means that they are well versed in what is going on with any order that is currently in place, and should there be any issues, they are aware ahead of time if deadlines are in jeopardy or indeed if things are going well or ahead of schedule.
It also means that these customers will be easier to sell to in the future, too, as they will already have a strong and positive relationship with your business rather than having to start all over again with a new business offering the same or similar products or services as yours.
You should not underestimate the ease that can be felt by a customer when phoning or emailing a business or person that you are in almost constant contact with, especially if you have a contact name of a person to speak to, against speaking to a total stranger or a new business and not knowing what sort of attitude or person that you will be faced with.
Final thoughts
So, it is important to listen to your customers when they are raising both good and bad points. Act on all information that is given to you and make sure that any issues are researched and concluded thoroughly before closing a case to ensure that you are not inundated with similar feedback. It will also save embarrassment and harsh feedback from a customer complaining about an issue more than once, which is likely to have that customer lose trust in your business altogether, as well as have them then tell all those that they know about what negative aspects to expect from dealings with your business.
You should also consider tweaking your marketing strategies so that they are more customer-friendly and sell your products and services with a mind to the good that your business, products, and services can do for your potential customers.
Strengthen your business from within by getting your best employees trained and qualified to do the most important job roles, which will not only benefit your customer’s purchasing and service experiences but also your business’s data collection and marketing strategies. Understanding the amount of information that is collated and what it means should not be underestimated in any business, regardless of sector.
Providing good quality software for your employees to use, such as CRM, will not only make their job roles easier but will mean that your customer also will benefit from the quality of the correspondence that your business sends them, the frequency as well as the accuracy, which could mean the difference between having a professional reputation to a reputation of a business that simply doesn’t care.
With this, you should make sure that correspondence avenues remain open even when an order is complete so that your business stays in the minds of your past or present customers as a caring business that is willing to go that one step further for their customer’s needs.
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