Tag: customer service

Drive Referrals and Repeat Business

Most businesses focus resources on the stuff that gets the phone to ring, social sharing, location visits or website traffic. But what happens next can be the difference between a one-time sale or a lifetime customer.   It’s all about the total customer experience.

The term customer experience is the sum of all interactions a customer has with a company over the duration of their relationship.  In other words, it covers all the steps or building blocks on the loyalty ladder:  awareness, discovery, attraction, interaction, purchase, use, cultivation and advocacy.

You have a lot of chances to create a customer experience that gets people talking – good or bad – about your company.    Do it right, you get more repeat business and referrals.  Mess it up, you get none.  Sales and profit suffer, along with your reputation.  Don’t leave it to chance.

Customer Experience | Why It’s Important

Most of us recognize that customer loyalty drives referrals, reviews and repeat business. So this alone is a good reason to focus on improving the customer experience.  But here’s another reason worth considering.  

With products and services becoming commodities fast and price differentiation not sustainable, delivering a superior customer experience really does provide a competitive advantage because others can’t quickly replicate what you are doing.

3 Steps to Superior Customer Experience

Map Out What You Want

What do you want the total customer experience to look like from start to finish?  Here are a few things to consider:

• How knowledgeable are your people as it relates to your company’s core values, products and services, and your customer needs and expectations?  Interactions with potential customers are not limited to your marketing and sales staff.  Your entire team encounters opportunities inside and outside the business.  Make everyone a customer advocate and give them the knowledge to pull it off.

• What should your sales process look like from initial contact to ultimate sale? What are the touch points along the way? Building relationships take time and often more than one contact.

• How should your product or service delivery work in order to insure quality and efficiency?  Is the hand-off from sales seamless to the customer or do they feel abandoned after they purchase or sign a contract?

• What about billing?  Is it convenient, timely and accurate?  Are you taking advantage of technology to customize methods based on customer preferences?

• What are you doing after the sale to continue to build the relationship?  Phone follow-up calls and surveys are a great way to say thanks, get feedback and ask for referrals. Do you have a system to insure after sales activities get done consistently?

You probably already have an idea of how you would like the customer experience to work. So decide what you want, document it and implement consistently.

Build a Few Measure to Track and Share

What you select may vary based on your type of business and objectives.  You don’t need a lot of measures, but you do need a few that have an impact on customer retention, satisfaction, and loyalty.  Here are a few examples: 

• Customer satisfaction scores based on phone survey
• Quality rating — is it done right the first time?
• Service level scores — on-time delivery or service appointments.
• Renewal rate — do customer re-sign up after initial terms?
• Referrals or online reviews — how many are you receiving each month? 

Look For Ways to Keep Getting Better

Make business improvement and service an ongoing effort. Get your team, customers and suppliers involved.  Here are two questions to consider:

• What can we do to make it easier for prospects and customers to do business with us?
• What can we do to inspire them, to make them smile or surprise them? It doesn’t need to be something really big. Simple things like “please” and “thank you” go a long way today.

Make your total customer experience a real asset for your business.  You’ll be rewarded with raving fans who buy again and gladly tells others. Then smile as your competitor’s try to play catch-up.

Ready to Put Your Business on the Path to Success?

Would working with a business coach help you take your business to a whole new level? Then let’s explore the possibilities with a complimentary consultation. It’s a chance to get to know each other, discuss your goals and the obstacles that hold you back. Together we can determine if there is a good fit between your needs and my services.

To learn more or schedule an appointment, call me at (856) 533-2344 or drop me an email Joan@HybridBizAdvisors.com

It’s not surprising that when your customer service exceeds expectations, your sales really flow. Afterall, happy customers keep coming back, spend more and tell others.  But what really defines great service and how do you take advantage of this small business opportunity?

Creating a great buying experience takes more than simply doing your job.  It’s about making people feel important.  Being helpful and responsive.  Taking responsibility if something goes wrong.  Or simply listening attentively to them.

When it comes to service, small businesses have a major advantage over bigger companies because of your close and local relationship with your customers!  This personal connection makes you more accessible. Therefore, customers often perceive you as more trustworthy.  And as they say, people do business with people they know and trust!

Customer Service: Questions to Consider

Knowing what helps define great service, here are two questions to really consider.

• Does your business consistently provide customers with a great buying experience from start to finish?
• How does your customer experience compare with others they do business with — both inside and outside your industry?

When it comes to business improvements, the customer experience is often overlooked.  Here’s why.  Many business owners believe they offer really good customer service. But customers, when we actually ask them, don’t always agree. And sometimes the gap is really big!

This points out something important when it comes to service and satisfaction. By definition, a customer’s satisfaction is the gap between what the customer expects and what he/she gets.  It applies to all areas of the business, including customer service.  And, it transcends over all industries.  Customers do not compare your service levels with others in your industry; they compare it to other companies they do business with!

3 Steps to Better Customer Service

• Develop and define the standards of service you want your customers to receive.  Consider what is important to you. when you make a purchase or encounter a problem.
• Train your people to deliver those standards consistently.  Yes, it helps to hire people who care! But it also helps when your people understand what is expected and why this is important to customers.
• Set the expectations for your customers and manage those expectations well. As the saying goes, better to under promise and over deliver!

If you are not sure how your service measures up, do a little research.  Pick up the phone and ask your customers to participate in a brief phone survey — and really listen!  Check out online reviews that are relevant to your business – what are your customers really saying. Implement a mystery shopping program (they are not just for retail establishments). Get feedback and ideas from your team, especially those on the front line!

RELATED: 7 Secrets to Create Raving Fans 

More Ways to Grow Your Business

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When it comes to delivering what we promise, mistakes sometimes happen. We are, after all, human. As business owners, we strive to keep customers happy, so when mistakes occur, we do what we must to make it right. Often this means we do it over or go back and fix it.

Getting it right for the customer is certainly a key to retention and future referrals. But if we don’t address the root cause, the problem will occur again and will continue to erode profit and your reputation.

How To Reduce The Quality Problems In Your Business

First, understand the true cost of poor quality. When work needs to be redone, it costs you three times – first, you pay for the original work, second, you pay for the work to be done again, and third, the opportunity cost of lost revenue that you could have earned on new work if you weren’t fixing the old work. Do the math – it’s often enough to motivate owners to focus more on quality.

Next, look at the systems and procedures you have in place. When mistakes occur, the tendency is to blame the people involved. Sure people implement your procedures, but well-documented systems can help reduce the human error that causes mistakes to occur in the first place.

Here are a few things to consider when documenting your systems:

• Customer information or data that is critical to fulfilling the order or delivery of service and the procedure when something is missing.
• Common problems or mistakes that occur in your daily business and what can be done to reduce them (double-check, red flags, etc.)
• Quality control checks that are in place to catch mistakes before they happen
• Decision-points with clear direction to address exceptions that may occur
• The technology you can employ to help improve the procedure

Then, consider the people element. Are your people trained to implement your systems? Do they possess the skills needed to do the work? The right people, properly trained, with the right systems, can make a big difference.

Finally, measure quality in your business. Depending on the type of business, this may include rejects or rework, on-time delivery, customer complaints, etc. Select what is relevant and begin tracking it. Share it with your team and set goals together for improvement.

The right systems and people can go a long way to help you get it right the first time. Make it a focus in your business – and you’ll create raving fans and a healthier bottom line.  For help with developing systems in your business, check out my Ultimate Systems & Procedures Guide for Small Businesses.