Even though the subject of customer satisfaction has been touched many times, there’s never enough to be said as most of the businesses keep doing the same mistakes all over again. And they wonder why their company or business is lacking profits. Pleeease!
Few years ago I created a homework helping website and I knew nothing about coding, how to deal with clients, or how to optimize your website. As time passed and I persevered, things have started to go well in all aspects. But it’s never enough, as I am a perfectionist.
One thing that I have always focused on was customer satisfaction. At the beginning when there were only few clients coming to me, it was very easy because I dedicated all my attention and I put quality in the work I provided and the customers were coming back for my services week by week.
There are several benefits of the returning customers:
1. They provide constant cash inflow to you and your business.
2. They can provide sincere feedback to your website which will help you when you get new customers.
3. They will most likely recommend you to other people (by word of mouth), so you won’t need any type of advertising, unless you really want to make it big.
My first customers were few in number, 3 to 5, but they were keep coming back each week for 1 or 2 years. I was easily making a living from this type of income.
Besides, they have recommended me to other people and when one long-term customer was finishing his/her degree, I had other 2-3 customers starting to work with me.
I personally think that the satisfaction of the customers should one of the top priorities of any business because come to think of it: your clients are the ones who mostly keep your business alive.
Long-term business relationships can turn into long-term friendships. This can be very advantageous for both you and your clients. However, you need to draw a clear line between business and personal life and if you are not able to do so, it’s better to keep things professional.
Advantages that you have over large corporations
Most of us have been the customers of big companies and we know how hard is to get to a solution when a product or a service is defective. You can avoid all these aspects which lower the customer satisfaction by allowing your clients to get in touch with you easily.
Currently, I’m using a live chat window on my first website and it works great. There are clients who get to my website and are confused or afraid of purchasing something, as being their first time.
If they are able to get in touch with a human on the other side of the internet connection, their trust in your services will definitely increase.
I can say that this live chat implementation has helped me increase the conversion rate (number of people who purchase something over the number of people coming to my website) and it also helped me get in better touch with some of my old clients. I’m thinking of implementing a live chat window into my new website as well.
So, let your customers easily contact you. Good solutions would be: phone and live chat. A less but still effective solution would be the email. It depends on your context.
If your business is on national level, then the phone should be your primary contact method, but if it’s international most of the clients would avoid it as it would raise costs on their behalf.
Besides, it’s really important to have a FAQ page on your website to eliminate most of the basic questions and misunderstandings your customers may have.
Now, when you communicate with your clients:
1. Listen carefully and show them that you care because as Dale Carnegie said: “A person’s toothache is far more important to that person than a famine in China, which kills millions of people”.
2. Always focus on the solution of their problem. If you are not able to solve it, try helping them as much as you can. You have nothing to lose; yet, you have much to gain.
3. Be quick, efficient, and professional because customers want to get their problems solved ASAP. This will increase the number of customers coming back.
4. Gently ask for their feedback. By “gently” I mean that you should only ask a maximum of 2-3 effective questions to your clients.
You may say that you can’t get a good idea of their opinion by only asking 2-3 questions. Well, think again! You need to develop your questions in a smart way.
For example, you can ask a satisfied customer:
“What one thing you’d add to this product or service to increase your level of satisfaction?” or
“What aspect of this product or service made you want it in the first place?”
On the other hand, you could ask a less satisfied client these questions:
“What change to the product or service will make you buy it?” or
“Why are you disappointed with this product or service?”
I think that feedback is very important. I have learned some valuable lessons from the feedback received from my customers. I would encourage you, as a business owner or as a service provider to be aware of what all your customers think.
Analyze that feedback and make decisions based on it. Nothing bad can happen.
I want to conclude by saying that I’m really interested in what you have to say with respect to this matter. Tell me what’s the biggest challenge you had with one or more of your customers? Were you able to turn a poorly satisfied customer into a loyal customer? Let me know in the comment section below.
Chris from Read and Get Rich helps people hack their own lives to become more productive and more successful. He knows that often life can become challenging, but he says that achievement comes if you push yourself forward, right when you are about to quit.
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