Nine Steps For Improving Your Customer Satisfaction.

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Every single business that starts from a seedling makes plans for happy customers. When you are first starting out in the industry in which you are interested, you think about the success that your business idea will have one day.

You believe that you are the one business leader that can offer something that no one else can – and this is a good thing! You want to be the one to change the business world. You might start piling money into your marketing strategies or working hard on diversifying your products.

Both of these things are great for business. Still, the most crucial aspect of your company isn’t going to be the problem you are necessarily trying to solve or the marketing strategy you want to put money into. It’s going to be your customers – and whether they are happy.

You can buy into your marketing as much as you want to, but if it’s not effective, or your customers don’t feel engaged or interested in what you are trying to offer, you’re not going to get very far. There is no one secret to creating a happy, satisfied customer.

It’s a series of things that you need to do as a business to ensure that the people who buy from you keep wanting to get involved and buy more. If they don’t want to buy again, fine, but you want them to tell everyone else to make a purchase from you! If you are working to improve your customer experience and increase their satisfaction, you’re going to get much further in your industry.

It takes more time to acquire new customers than it does to keep the old ones loyal and continuing to rate you as a business. You don’t need to burn money to keep bringing in the new ones; if your existing customers are happy, they’re going to do it for you.

Their opinions on social media and their online reviews are going to build your reputation, and the happier the customer, the more they’ll rave about you online. If you aren’t making your customers happy, then one review could be extremely damaging to your business reputation, and this is the last thing that you want to happen! 

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With all of this in mind, you have to do what you can to keep the new customers coming while you are keeping the existing customers happy. Improving your customer satisfaction starts with enticing your most satisfied customers to return over and over. So, how can you do that? How do you improve your customer satisfaction and keep hold of your happy customers? We’ve got nine suggestions to make it work for your business.

  • Don’t Leave Customers Hanging

You have probably experienced this yourself as a customer elsewhere. You’ve left a message for business or dropped an email. You know that this company offers a two-day turnaround on a response, but you’ve been waiting a week for a reply or a callback.

As you know, you’ve switched off from this brand, and you’re looking elsewhere, and this is not how you want people to feel about your business. Always answer customers straight away and reply to emails promptly. Your lack of response and connection is going to send your customers running for the hills. Something as simple as acknowledging that they have spoken to you can make a huge difference. 

  • Do Some Research

Are you currently utilising NPS software to learn what your business is doing well? If you aren’t, you’re behind. You need to be able to ask your customers whether you are offering the best possible service and you don’t want to bug them too much. With NPS software, you can get what you need with one question asked.

The data can show you whether you are doing everything right for your customers or whether you need to tweak your practices. Get investing and do your research – the best way to know whether your customers are happy is to simply ask.

  • Get Personal

A big reason that email marketing is so popular is that the emails themselves can be personalised. If you want to reach your customers on a new level, then you need to find out their information (with their permission) and use it to your advantage.

Address them by name when you contact them, send them a birthday message at the right time of the year, prompting them with discount codes before a sale. This is all personal to your customers, and you can really improve your customer satisfaction when you get to know them better.

  • Start Rewarding Existing Customers

There is nothing more annoying as a customer than seeing all the new customer sign-ups getting all the good deals and discounts. As a loyal customer, you want to be able to benefit just as much; it’s why a business has a customer retention team.

With that in mind, you need to start rewarding loyalty. We mentioned that you could send out discount codes to existing customers via email. You could step this up with a VIP list for customers who have spent over a certain amount with your business. This list would be eligible for better service and better deals. What a way to foster loyalty!

  • Show That Your Customers Are Important

Customers only become loyal customers when they can see that you will give them something back. They’re spending money with you; they want to know that you appreciate it. So, offer them something more to show them that you are appreciative of their length of time as your customer. 

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  • Pay Attention To Follow-Ups

When was the last time that your team actually contacted those existing customers of yours to see if they were happy? Every six months or so, have your team reach the loyalty list and check in with them with new offers. It’s the perfect way to gain some feedback, too, and it shows your customers that you are proactive with your customers, unwilling to let them feel neglected. It’s a good thing!

  • Pour On The Offers

Money off, buy one and get one free, extra voucher codes and coupons, holiday freebies – the list goes on. You could offer any of these to your existing customers, and you would see the clear difference between a happy customer and a disgruntled one. It makes people feel valued, and this is what you are aiming for as a business.

  • Newsletter Updates

If you have your customer’s email addresses, add them – with permission – to your newsletter every quarter. They can receive updates and news from you, and even if they swipe and delete the email, your business name will still be on their mind!

  • Be Different

Be a customer for your competition. Work out what it is that they do for their paying customers and be different from them. You don’t want to do the exact same thing that your competition does for its customers; you want to be better. People have different expectations for different companies, and you want them to expect that your business is going to be better. All you have to do is deliver what your customers want the most.

You want to maintain the reputation and image that your company is putting out into the world. If you’re going to be the best, it starts with improving the satisfaction of your existing customers. Happy customers will sing your praises to the rest of the world, both in-person and online – which is precisely what you want.

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Like Minds is a global thought leadership platform delivering world class events on business development, knowledge and insight aimed at entrepreneurs and business leaders to engage, stimulate and empower them to become global businesses of the future. We also offer a bespoke service for corporate clients and training programmes under the Like Minds U brand. For more information please email bespoke@wearelikeminds.com