Customers are your lifeblood. Without them, you’d have no business at all. But how do you bring the care back to business and improve customer service standards to a point they stay happy and loyal and tell their friends about you?
Here are seven essential tips that will help you nurture better customer relationships and ensure that your business thrives. From developing better communication strategies to providing top-notch customer service, everything on this list is guaranteed to make a positive impact on your business. So put these tips into practice, and watch your business grow!
7 Best Practices for Nurturing Better Customer Relations
Respond Promptly to Feedback
It is important to make it easy for customers to provide feedback. This way, you can understand and address their concerns in a timely manner. Additionally, responding promptly to all customer emails and voicemails goes a long way in building trust and improving the relationship between business and customer. By doing this, you show that you care about your customer’s experiences with your product or service – something that will surely lead them back again.
Starbucks’ Ideation Upvotes is a great example of this. They leveraged technology to receive customers’ feedback and add value to their overall customer experience accordingly.
Another example of this could be most of the SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) companies who have ‘Feature Request’ sections on their websites where customers add features they need or feedback to improve additional features. Other users upvote the requests they like and the company adds the features with the highest upvotes.
Treat Them Fairly and with Respect
Treating your customers fairly and with respect is the best way to ensure that they keep coming back. When you are consistent in your approach, they will sense that you care about them and appreciate their business. This builds a trust-based relationship, which in turn leads to loyalty and repeat sales.
In order to maintain this positive customer experience, it is important not to bombard them with too many bells and whistles or messages that are hard to understand or don’t have any real relevance. Always maintain professionalism. Keep things concise and straightforward so as not to lose your audience’s attention. And finally, always take the time to listen. This is a big part of how to bring care back to business.
Exceed Customers’ Expectations
When there are problems or misunderstandings, be transparent and work towards resolving them as quickly as possible.
Always aim to exceed customer expectations, even if this means making small changes in your practices. By doing this, you will help build trust and foster a positive customer relationship from the outset.
A great example of this is how gifting company Spoonful of Comfort treats its customers. They consider customer service to be an essential part of every purchase and ensure each experience is absolutely perfect.
When a customer accidentally provided the wrong shipping address, Spoonful of Comfort contacted the sender, corrected the address, and sent a second package—at no charge. To them, disappointing someone’s loved one hurts more than denting their own bottom line.
Respond Quickly to Their Queries
Creating a content marketing strategy that responds quickly to customer queries is essential for retaining and growing your audience. This will help you avoid creating frustration and build trust with your customers. Taking the time to read and respond to customer queries can be quite tiring, but it’s worth it in the long run.
It goes without saying that providing valuable information (and not just canned responses) is another key factor in keeping them happy. Last but not least, always remember that patience isn’t a quality many people have in spades, so be understanding when things don’t go as planned.
Make It Easy for Them to Return Products or Cancel Orders
It is important to make it as easy and simple as possible for customers to return products or cancel orders. This way, you can keep them happy and loyal – two things that will definitely help your business grow in the long run. Make sure that all online and offline channels are used to communicate with customers – email newsletters, social media posts, etc.
Keep in mind their interests too by always keeping them up-to-date on new product releases or deals. And finally, follow up with them after they have made a purchase to ensure they are satisfied with the experience. That way, they’ll be more likely to come back again! Certainly, a huge part of how to bring care back to business.
Build trust – Be Transparent and Authentic
Trust is key when it comes to building a relationship with customers. Being transparent and authentic will go a long way in earning their trust, as well as their business. Start by being transparent in everything- the good, the bad, and the ugly! Let them know what’s going on behind the scenes so they can understand where you’re coming from.
This means being honest about what’s going on with your business, the products you offer, and how they can benefit from using them. It also means being willing to listen – whether that be during phone calls or through online chats. And last but not least, always be willing to apologize if something goes wrong.
Build a Loyalty Program
Creating a loyal customer base is one of the most important tasks you can carry out as a business. This is because loyalty programs not only ensure that your customers are satisfied but also stay with you for a long time. Nurture them by offering them exclusive deals, giveaways, and more – anything that will make their experience with your business better.
In addition to this, constantly work on increasing the value of your products and services so that your customers feel like they’re getting their money’s worth every time they make a purchase from you.
One of the most successful loyalty programs is run by Sephora called the Beauty Insider rewards program. The Sephora community in North America alone includes a whopping 18+ million members, many of which are in the program.
They let the customers earn rewards with each purchase. Customers can then use them to get discounts and gift cards to offset the prices of their products. They can also use the points for exclusive items like in-store beauty tutorials or limited edition products.
