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Last Updated on January 20, 2024 by Work In My Pajamas
Business owners should do everything in their power to keep customer satisfaction high. Why? Because it costs between five and ten times more to attract a new customer as to retain an existing one.
Value of Customer Satisfaction
You should also keep in mind that the damage doesn’t end with one disgruntled customer since that one customer will go on to tell, on average, approximately a dozen other people about her bad experience with your business. Maybe worst of all, more than 90 percent of customers who’ve had a bad experience with your brand will never shop with you again.
You can sidestep these bad outcomes and keep your customers happy by taking a few simple steps to better relations with your customers. Putting in place customer loyalty programs and responding to complaints and inquiries in a timely fashion, of course, will go a long way to driving more customer satisfaction. Below are more steps you can take to get on better with your customers.
Discover Your Customers’ Preferences
Loyalty cards are more than just a way for companies to reward customers for frequent purchases: A loyalty card can help companies track the purchases of their customers. Once you have a better idea about the kinds of goods and services a particular customer needs, you can send more targeted deals to that customer and increase his likelihood to pay your company a visit.
Simply Ask…Or Create a Questionnaire
If you don’t have the tech infrastructure to track your customers’ purchases through a card program, then you can simply ask customers in person or through an online questionnaire the kinds of services that they’d like to see next from your company.
Getting more info on your customers can lead to more informed marketing decisions. As a bonus, customers like knowing that you’re listening to their suggestions and working collaboratively with them to drive a better buying experience.
You can also take suggestions through phone or by implementing an auto attendant messaging service to field customer suggestions and inquiries.
Quickly Respond to Complaints
When deciding whether to process a refund or apologize to a customer try to take a long-range view of the consequences. It’s more important that you respond quickly to issues or make an apology than lose a loyal customer.
Use Email Marketing Campaigns
Keep customers in the loop with your business and send around weekly deals. This lets customers know that you’re thinking about them and also gets them in the door for special promotions. It’s estimated that more than 40 percent of recipients of a given email marketing campaign make a purchase based on the effort.
Summing Up Suggestions
In light of the fact that it costs much more money to attract a new customer than retain an existing one, pleasing customers through loyalty programs and finding out their preferences is an essential step for business owners to take.
Image courtesy of ddpavumba at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
