Despite all the many things you need to today; despite the tiredness you may feel, ensure you give your customers the best service you possibly can. You need them as much as they need you, and if you don’t fulfil their needs, they won’t be your customer any more. Jumping ship to your nearest rival, they will leave you in the dust, spreading bad word of mouth about you, not only to their friends, but on review sites as well.
So, consider the way you deal with your customers. Are you quick to pick up the phone? Do you respond to emails in good time? Are you present on social media, answering any questions on your business pages? Okay, so you’re sometimes busy, and you don’t have time to handle everything in a speedy manner, but you could hire virtual services for your phone calls, and you may be able to hire extra staff to manage emails and social networking channels.
Okay, so you may make mistakes from time to time. You may have been abrupt with a customer, or you may have failed to fulfill one of the many promises you made when marketing your business. That’s okay (kind of), as we all screw up from time to time. While you may have frustrated your customers, they do know you’re only human. Well, most of them do anyway. There’s no stigma in being vulnerable, holding your hands up to apologise to them. Provided you make amends in some way, and so long as you make every effort to move on to improve your customer relationships, you may not see the dust trail of them leaving your company just yet. Honesty and integrity are everything if you want your customers to appreciate you.
We are, of course, assuming that you aren’t rude to your customers. And when we say ‘you,’ we also mean those other people who represent your business. While you need to tame your tongue, speaking with respect and holding back on words that might harm your reputation, you need to train your staff so they give good customer service too. One wrong word could be all it takes to hinder that customer relationship forever, so ensure everybody within your business responds to the customer in the right way, being helpful, listening to concerns, accepting feedback (both good and bad), and going the extra mile to serve and impress.
Listen, we know your customers are there to help you make a profit, but they are human beings too. They have feelings, needs, and desires, as much as you do, so don’t forget to treat them well. When returning customers do business with you, remember their names, and ensure some of their details are stored securely so they don’t have to go through the same information with you again and again. The personal touch matters, provided you don’t get ‘too personal,’ as you still need to be professional. Finding ways to reward your customers is helpful too, as this will give them incentive to do more business with you. After all, we all like to be treated from time to time, don’t we, and you will be rewarded with those extra profits.
In short, we guess what we are saying is this. Treat your customers how you would want to be treated. They are the lifeblood of your business, and it’s in your very best interest to consider what we have said today.
