subject: Retain Customers: Improve On Your Customer Service [print this page] Retain Customers: Improve On Your Customer Service
So your business is doing well. You have a very happy customer base. And you're tempted to just sit back and relax. You even ease up on your marketing campaigns.
Hold on a minute. Let's get it straight. You may be getting the results you want and you seem to have happy customers that keep on coming back for your products and services. But this doesn't mean that your good service will keep and retain your customers. Good service is not enough anymore to maintain a stream of loyal customers returning to your business again and again. With an ever-changing economic climate, as well as your customers' needs and wants constantly evolving, you also need to evolve yourself so you can keep up with the changes. Your business need to be dynamic and receptive to ideas to make your customer service even better. By improving your customer service, you are more likely to keep your existing clients, as well as get new ones to further grow your business.
Here's how:
Improve on your employees. Train them with new and better ways to reinforce satisfaction on your customer service. Some of your employees may need to learn how to react to specific difficult situations albeit their expertise in treating customers very well. Still others may need more guidance in covering certain scenarios that need immediate response. No matter what the situation entails, training your employees is one of the best means to further improve on your customer satisfaction of the services provided.
Make sure that your employees know where you are when it comes to providing customer service. Let them in on company goals and vision. And although they are competent, you still need to spell it out and make it clear to them how you need them to respond on certain situations. Encourage people to react appropriately and teach them why they need to make certain decisions when faced with a particular difficult situation.
Provide a strong rewards system. Offer rewards and incentives to employees who have been exemplary in providing great customer service. By providing incentives, you can get your employees to work hard to achieve your goals. Your customers will surely notice the difference with the way your staff handles your customers.
And you don't even have to re-arrange your budget to accommodate a pay raise as an incentive. Get to know your staff and provide them more personal incentives that are inclined towards their interests rather than the salary. And don't forget that the best incentive to increase employees' efforts is to praise them constantly. A word of approval can boost self-esteem and company morale.
Be responsive. Be sure to respond right away to your customers' feedback, questions and complaints. Be sure to have all the necessary contact information in your marketing collaterals to make it easier for your customers to get in touch with you. And if you still don't have a printing company to produce quality materials to exemplify the kind of quality service you provide, look for offline printing company reviews, as well as online printing reviews, to get you the best printer to provide you with the collaterals that are appropriate to convey your message.
By responding to your customers, you are telling them that they are special. They may even be pleasantly surprised that you took the time to listen to them and would be more encouraged to go to you every time they need to satisfy a need.
And as always, be sure to turn a negative into a positive. Don't be discouraged when a customer expresses his or her dissatisfaction. Instead, take it as an opportunity to provide exceptional service by turning the situation into something that will benefit both you and your customer. Respond to the situation as promptly as you can. Be diplomatic in answering their discontent and frustration. The effort you put to appeasing an irate customer will go a long way in building a relationship with your client that would ensure that you have his or her loyalty for a very long time.
