By Swatil Binte Mahmud, Lava Protocols
My parents brought a refrigerator in the 1990s, which was way before I was born. I grew up with the refrigerator and saw it die in front of my eyes in 2006. For over a decade, my parents loved and cherished that thing as if it was living and breathing, and needless to say, it was a difficult goodbye. But we do not treat things like this anymore. Everything is so easily replaceable and temporary. If you have the best thing, your competitor will have the next best thing, and it is just a never-ending cycle.
Now, more than ever we need to pay attention to every single interaction with our customers. They know the competition is tough and they have many options available. If you are unsuccessful in giving them the best, they will break up with you in a heartbeat and move on. Nobody uses the same refrigerator for decades anymore.
Also, making a sale is not the end of your relationship with your customer, it is just the beginning. In order to sustain, make profits, and flourish you need your customers to come back for more. So, keep reading as I am going to give you 5 tips on how to make your customers fall in love with you and to make every interaction meaningful.
Be Kind
Customers nowadays are different; they are not just buying your product but they are also looking for honest businesses with well-behaved staff and salespeople. You need to thank your customers for choosing you and it is about showing gratitude to the people who are spending or investing their hard-earned money in your company or products. Also, being thankful and grateful has never harmed anybody. Your customers will appreciate your warmth and gratefulness and will remember this the next time they need to buy something. I remember when I was a child my father used to take me grocery shopping at a store near our house. After every purchase, the store manager always gave me a balloon to take back home and a warm smile. And that was it, that was the place where we went for groceries for many years.
But it seems like I did not grow up at all, I still choose companies and services that remember to wish me or send me a cake on my birthday. Yes, I am that petty. But I like being appreciated and it is always about the little efforts that big companies can make to make you feel like you matter.
Be Solution Oriented
I was giving an interview for something and the interviewer asked me how I face challenges in my professional or personal life. It really made me think of who I am as a person. Because whenever life throws a rock at me, I always sit down and think about solutions and not too much about the problem. I believe this is very important for businesses too! As there will always be some problem in your company or business or with a customer. But the show cannot stop there, you need to think and come up with solutions and move on. The size of your business is not an issue here, it does not matter whether you are a big or small company. What matters is, the problems were dealt with the best possible solutions and in the end, you had happy customers who will come back to you again.
It is okay if you cannot solve a problem right away, you can give your customers a timeframe and information about when they can expect a resolution to their problem. The next important thing to do is to follow up, once you give a solution to the problem, check up on your customer in a week or two and make sure they are doing okay. Also, when you are solving problems take it as a learning opportunity. You can end up learning a lot more about your product when you are troubleshooting for a customer. This way you can create better products and provide better services in the future.
Be Responsive
The worst thing about customer service is the never-ending chain of calls a customer has to make to talk to the person who can actually solve the problems. These calls are expensive and time-consuming, and extremely frustrating. Also, most customer service hotlines do not even pick up the calls. The last thing you want your customers to feel is ignored and uncared for. So, do make it a good habit in your company where employees and salespeople always respond and communicate with the customers. Your staff needs to understand the importance of clear, regular, and fast communication with customers. So, the next time that phone rings in your customer service (speaking on behalf of all customers) please make sure to pick it up.
Be Proactive
In this fast-paced world, we cannot just sit at our desks and expect customers to come to us and buy our products. We need to show them that we care and that our products are the best. For our products to be the best, we need real data and insights from people who are using our products. One good thing successful businesses do is that they ask for feedback from customers. They will send emails, or knock on customers’ doors, or ask quick questions in the malls to know exactly what they are thinking. This is the best way to know what your customers are thinking and they will also be happy to share honest feedback with you.
Once you incorporate the feedback into your products, you will have something that your customers will love and will come back for repurchase.
Be a Human
I know this sounds funny but your customers will really appreciate it if you talk and behave like a human. They do not want to talk to corporate answering machines who give them scripted answers. They need to know real people like them are selling things to them. The little personal touches that make you special might also be appreciated by your customers.
Lava Protocols is an authorized Salesforce Partner. Want to improve your customer experience? Drop us an email to: hello@lavaprotocols.com.