Above and Beyond: Excellent Customer Service is an Essential Requirement
By Lynette Newman
Whether you are a new entrepreneur or an old pro, the bar for customer service standards is higher than ever before. Who doesn’t want to be more successful at delivering service that exceeds customer expectations?
Customers play an essential role in keeping a product or service relevant. Therefore, it is in the business's best interest to ensure customer satisfaction and build customer loyalty, and unlocking the door to excellent customer service means there must be a key.
Loyal Customers are Key Growth Drivers
We will begin with customer satisfaction and loyalty. Customer satisfaction is a critical facet of any business and should be a major priority in any company.
Every business must work to improve it.
It’s five to twenty-five times more critical to retain customers than to acquire new ones. According to Bain & Co (creators of NPS), a 5% increase in customer retention results in more profit than a 25% increase.
Loyal customers are not possible if they’re unhappy!
Stand Out from the Crowd
Next, we will look at distinguishing your business from the rest. You must anticipate and meet or exceed your customer’s needs, solve their problems, and provide support.
Delivering exceptional customer service to your clients is the best way to differentiate yourself.
Think outside the box and do what your competition won't! Be sure to engage with your customers actively. Ask for their opinion, take advantage of customer feedback, turn negative feedback into repeat customers. To eliminate doubt about your services, keep the happiness levels high, and when you receive negative feedback, respond quickly, and you can often prevent it from being a problem. You can make the situation positive by being able to react swiftly.
Yes, even the negative feedback you receive is positive!
Attract New Customers
Finally, we will see how important loyal customers are to your growth. Loyal customers are your biggest promoters and can bring in new customer recommendations.
92% of all consumers report that a word-of-mouth recommendation is the “leading reason they buy a product or service” (Nielsen 2012). Recommendations are regarded as a new key measure of determining whether products, services, and businesses are booming.
However, for your customers to recommend your business, they must first be happy with your services.
Yes, Keeping Solid and Productive Customer Relationships is the Best Way to Ensure a Very Bright Future
When was the last time you checked in with your customers, clients, or prospects? Do you have a system in place to keep in touch? If you do not stay in touch with your customers, you run an enormous risk of being forgotten.
It can be as simple as creating surveys or polls on your social media or simply sending follow-up emails to your customers and prospects. Make sure you create that personal touch and get to know your customers! The important thing is that you also show customer appreciation consistently and genuinely and that you enjoy doing so. Is your company struggling to find ways to unlock the door to excellent customer service?
Check out our Customer Care Program and our Resource Toolkit, and make use of these keys to start unlocking that door!
Book a call with us to have your customer service questions answered today!