Yes, they won’t stay if you failed to satisfy them or meet their expectations. Unlike your friends, your customers cannot ignore any flaws in the product or less efficient customer service. Customers are of two types. Those who have been loyal buyers or subscribers of your product or services and those who turn to you after getting disappointed from your competitors. Both types are not easy to handle and satisfy since they have many other options available and some of them, if not all would switch immediately upon a slight dissatisfaction. The challenge for you begins right here that how you create a psychological bond with them and make them believe they are getting the best substitute for their money. For such outstanding customer service you need to adopt some essential and outstanding practices to ensure client retention. Some of the practices you can use are as follows:
Set a high benchmark for your product or service:
Consumers, you would never settle down for less and you just cannot expect your clients to do so therefore you have to make sure that what you are offering meets the benchmark which you yourself settle for your product. Your product should look distinguished among the rest of the lot so customers would automatically get tempted towards it for who doesn’t like to have the best. The quality you should be providing to your customers should be covering all areas including price, customer care and efficient service.
Do more:
Your customers should not feel the need to ask you to do more. You should learn to surprise them by outdoing their expectations. For example if you are running a small business, you can introduce some complementary products or services that don’t cost much but make the client happy. The approach McDonalds adopted in this regard is commendable. Many laughed when they started giving toys to their young customers but eventually this move won them a lot of appreciation and they surpassed their competitors in a matter of days setting new records of customer service and satisfaction. The same can be done with the services. For example if you fail to meet the expectation once, offer something better as compensation along with the apology for inconvenience. This will definitely touch the customer’s heart and they’d stay likely remain loyal to you. Low prices, efficient service and discounts have all become customers’ expectation since each company in the market offers this. Going an extra mile to serve the customer is the key to client retention.
Make communication easy:
Encourage your customers to share their thoughts and experience about your product. Ask them to let you know about what more they wish to have from you and register their complaints if they have any so you can fix those at your earliest. In order to get feedback from your customers, providing a medium for the smooth flow of communication is pivotal. Make a move to connect with them first through email, phone or social media so they can know the route to communicate with you and share their thoughts. One thing you should make sure for your communication along with providing a smooth medium is personalization. Nobody likes to be addressed as masses nowadays, in fact it’s a big turn off for many since it depicts no regard for the customers’ identity and when a brand does not know the customer they give off the message that they don’t know their needs either and customers are likely to prefer a brand that does claim to know them and their needs better.
Marketing and customer relationship automation is becoming a trend these days. Entrepreneurs who like to try out new things and tools for their business have adopted it but we have seen a mixed response from the users of this technology. The reason for the fluctuating opinions, in my view, is that people have still no idea of which CRM system suits them the best and how to implement it effectively in their organization. Majority of the CRM users has an inclination to follow others without analyzing their distinct needs and identifying which CRM solution suits them. This approach ultimately leads to disappointment and people start blaming technology for the failure. However it should be kept in mind that there are many CRM solutions out there with each one of them having distinct features to suit different kind of businesses. Entrepreneurs and marketers should study the market and their business thoroughly before making a CRM purchase decision so they may not regret it later.