As a business owner who serves customers, it’s imperative to find a way to focus on the customers’ experiences and how to make their experiences even better when dealing with your business. There is so much technology today to help smart business owners serve their customers in the way that the customer wants. If you want to be more customer centric (and if you’re smart you do want to be), these tips will help you achieve that goal.
1. Install a Ticketing System – A help desk is a great way for your customers to escalate their problems in an easy way. Most ticketing systems will automatically send the customer an email stating that the problem is being looked into, assign a number to it, and give them a time limit of when the problem might be resolved.
2. Offer a Searchable Self-Help FAQ – A great way to offer consumers of today extra help is to provide a searchable help desk that they can look through prior to opening a ticket. Many people prefer to help themselves first and this will make many of your customers happy.
3. Make It Easy for Them to Contact You – Some people still prefer dealing with a person so it’s important that you also, if you have a high volume of inquiries, allow them to contact you (or customer service) directly via email or telephone.
4. Call Them – Nothing will surprise your customers more than if you reach out and call someone who’s having extra problems, or even just your top customer to say thanks. That extra personal touch will make the customer feel valued.
5. Send Them a Thank You Card in the Mail – Today, everyone does everything electronically but you don’t have to only do it that way. You can also send your customers thank you notes or cards in the mail. You can use a service like SendOutCards.com if you do a lot, or something like Postable.com which allows you to personalize any card, add a stamp and mail it.
6. Ask Your Customers What They Want – If you’re not sure what to do for your customers to make their experiences even better, why not just ask them. You can ask them in various ways in various places. For example, you can send an email survey, or put a survey on your website, or at checkout.
7. Create Personalized Packaging – If you send any products via the mail, and it’s possible to do so, try to design and create personalized packaging that makes the person who is opening it feel like it’s extra special.
8. Offer Freebies – At many places in the buying cycle and the customer life cycle it’s important to keep them interested and moving forward. One way to do that is to offer a lot of free information. It might be training on how to use your app, ideas on how to wear the scarf, or how to care for a T-shirt properly to make it last longer. Use your imagination.
9. Answer Quickly – When you get a question, no matter what manner it comes in, it’s imperative that you answer quickly. The rule of thumb is within 24 hours. People expect instantaneous results today and if you take too long to at least tell them you’re researching the situation, they’ll think you don’t care and they’ll be unsatisfied with their experiences.
10. Focus on Solving Customer Problems – When you really focus only on being of value and solving customers’ problems, you will automatically make your customers a lot happier and improve their experiences. After all, it’s truly is all about them, not you.
11. Follow Up – Never miss an opportunity to follow up with customers. After any connection whatsoever, good or bad, follow up to ensure that the consumer is satisfied and considers the experience a good one and finished before you close out an inquiry.
Improving your customers’ experiences will go far in encouraging repeat buyers and word-of-mouth marketing, and it’ll also make you feel great. When you’re serving your customers in a way that makes them happy, it’ll make you happy too. It’ll also make you a little bit richer.