What are you doing to make sure that every new customer to your business has a good reason to return? As a consumer, have you ever experienced that warm fuzzy moment of mmmmmmmm??? We all have. Feel good, wow, expectation exceeded, without even knowing that you had any expectation in the first place.
It’s so rare to experience it these days. And yet as business owners we’re consumers too. So why is it often so hard to deliver to every customer that engages with your business? Have we forgotten how to treat the very people who can make our businesses successful?
Of course it’s all about your staff. The people who greet your customers first, either face to face or on the phone. Owners who employ the wrong staff for the wrong job are surely destroying their opportunity, in about 30 seconds flat.
So here’s my 5 tried and tested strategies to ensure you make a good first impression with every customer, every time.
- Take great care to employ the right staff – good people skills and a positive attitude are not “optional extras”
- Continually train your staff to know exactly the level of customer service you expect
- Lead by example – good staff will follow your style
- Attend to all customer complaints with urgency. Don’t let customers have the time to dwell on a bad experience. But beware, many customers wont complain, they simply just won’t come back
- Listen to all customers’ suggestions – you may not implement everything they suggest but you will make them feel valued
Get those 5 little things right and you’re well on your way to a 100% repeat customer rate.
By Lindsay King